so I installed a brand new alternator and it was doing the same thing, it would work for a while and it would stop charging randomly. Then we redid the wiring and used new crimps, cleaned the grounds, still wasn't charging. Then we realized the little light bulb harness I had installed as a resistor was cutting in and out. Replaced it and problem solved. Now I get a good 14.2 volts driving around. Usually at a stop light it'll come down to 13 but otherwise the car starts great and runs awesome.
Great News Mashori! I thought something might be up with that light resistor. Glad it's working now! Your car just keeps getting better and better.
Thanks guys for the help! And thanks Bryant for figuring it out. Still running perfect even at light with read lights on, no fluctuations.
I wanted to post this, very interesting. We got out bryant's amp meter and when we placed it on the ground of the battery I had only 2-4 amps drawn. On the alternator wire it was producing 46 amps and 30 amps were going just for the radiator fan.
If its a 90 amp alternator it ownt put out 90 amps all the time. Just puts out power as needed. If you have the fan on, lights, and stereo and check the alt output again you will see it puts out more amps as the power is being used from the battery. This is whyI dont like the new little handheld alternator testers that they use at th eparts stores. It dosnt put a real load on the system like the old BAER tester did, the one they had to roll out to the car. It would put a real load on the car and you could watch the amps and volts react.
Just as a note i know what your alternator comes off of. Its a 93 windstar with a 3.0 V6, I got one off of ebay and I needed the short one to fit my serpentine setup.
On my fox mustang I have one from a '96 3.8 mustang. It has the correct ear spacing for the stock fox set up. You do have to clearance the bracket on the car and I re-clocked the back of the alternator.
thankfully this last alternator did the job. sad to say that all it was a faulty wiring but hey, lesson learned.
