battery light pissing me off

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BAD97LSC

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someone please help, the 95 has been sitting awhile. last weekend i took it for its first long ride, we went to largo central railroad with the kids. when i left the house the battery light was on, it stayed on for about 15 minutes of driving and went off. got the the park, shut it off, left 2 hours later battery light was back on. about another 15 minutes it went off. today i put the car on the road, i was going to take it home tonight and the light was on again, so i stopped at autozone and had them check the alt and battery, alt is putting out 14.4 volts and the battery was showing it was bad, so i bought a battery. started it up and the god dam light is still on. so i noticed the 3 wire plug on the alternator was damaged and loose, so i went back to the shop and put a pigtail on it and the light is still on, when i unplug that plug on the alt, the light shuts off, plug it in, light comes on, there are 3 wires in that plug, green w/ red stripe, black, and a yellow wire. with the car running the yellow wire has power, the green doesnt, wtf is going on with this thing? could the gauge cluster have gone bad? why is this f-ing battery light on. the car never needs to be jumped and everything works, so why is the light on, is the voltage regulator internal in the alt? could that be bad and overcharging the battery. anyone know? i'm gonna light a match inside the thing soon.
 
My battery light flickers on my vic all the time... but puts out 14.3 volts at idle..

I'd pull the bulb...
 
does it have the small single wire that goes to the alternator sometimes the connection corrodes and fires the light on....i know on my mustang when i swapped a 3G alt over i had this problem with the small single white wire
 
Mine was doing that and I replaced those gay factory battery terminals and the problem went away and has not happened again. Not saying thats your problem but it'd be something cheap to try.
 
jamie, did they actually do an alternator test? usually, one of the diodes goes bad. That will put the light on.
 
Psychostang said:
jamie, did they actually do an alternator test? usually, one of the diodes goes bad. That will put the light on.
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I had the samething happen on my wife's explorer, It was the alternator, It would be a good idea to have them check that for you.
 
I'd check the voltage at the battery, when it's running with the light on, and then with the light off, and compare the difference.

You may have an intermittent problem with the alternator or (internal) regulator.
 
Could be a bad regulator on the alternator. Had the issue on my T-Bird. Had the parts monkey test my setup, and swore the battery was dead. I knew it wasn't since I swapped it for the one in my Mustang the day before after suspecting the battery.

Got an alternator and still had the same issue. Took it in to test, and it tested fine. Wanted them to test the regulator on it, and they wouldn't listen. So after much fighting, I got it exchanged for another alternator, didn't have a single issue afterwards.
 
Being that I now work at AutoZone, I can tell you for sure that I put little faith in the ABST that we use ( the one on the roll cart). It's good for testing batteries and starters, but not alternators. I'd remove the altenator and then have it tested to be sure as the tester on the inside is much more accurate. It won't tell you exactly what's wrong, but more like a pass or fail.
 
Well, I used to work for Autozone and used the roll tester many a time. I have had bad alternators show up. Especially if they had a bad diode.
 
Isn't there a fuse that controls the voltage regulator? You might want to check and see if its blown.
 
My 93 did the same thing, that dam light would go on, then flicker once and a while then go off.
Days would go by with no light then it would come on.
I bought one of those testers that you put in the cig lighter that you can check your voltage while driving.
The voltage would drop a little but never below 14 volts.
I replaced the batt. no help.

Took the alt. off had it checked, they said it was fine, this is a local rebuilder I went to.
I know to never buy alt's from box stores.

About 3 months went by with this stupid light and one day the dam car just died and left me stranded.
Thats when I got a alt from max, never had a problem since.

Do you have any alts you can swap in?
That would quick and easy test.
 
my car had the light on all the time, 3 new alternators, new batter and still the light was on....so i just dealt with it, maybe take the bulb out?
 
Taking the bulb out will casue it to not charge for sure, as it's part of the circuit.
Most likey a bad diode as one of the guys mentioned. It will still charge somewhat but won't keep up. I went through a few alts before finding a good one, and I tried both Ford ones and rebuilds...
 
Bad diode or VR Jamie. I'm sure you have another alt there to put in and it can be done in 8 min. Swap it out for another and the light should go away IF the alt you're trading with is good. I would keep one in the trunk and the few little tools needed just in case it quits on you.
 
i might have one, last i knew all i had were 97-98's so cant use one of them, i'll have to see what i have, been working on the ivory 98 in my shop so the 95 is on the back burner until saturday night or sunday. thanks guys for the input, i'll try an alt.
 
When my alternator when out on me the 1st time. The light was on for days, I checked it and it was at 14.4 then one day the message center started to flicker I rechecked the voltage it was over 15. Voltage regulator was shot. Changed alternator light is off.
 
I think the only thing with the 2nd gen alts on a 1st gen is the top hole mounts are slightly off iirc. I ran a new Ford one on my car (a '98 alt on my '94) for ~three years (it was the first one to crap out on me after the one year old rebuild that was on the car quit.) If you have the parts you can try changing the upper mount to a 2nd gen one with an alt if you have one, I just made the holes slightly longer...
 
jamie97lsc said:
i might have one, last i knew all i had were 97-98's so cant use one of them, i'll have to see what i have, been working on the ivory 98 in my shop so the 95 is on the back burner until saturday night or sunday. thanks guys for the input, i'll try an alt.
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lkq states that the alt will swap for all years. but if you need a 1st gen alt. and one that you know works. i wouldnt mind driving on out there and letting ya swap the alt from my car into yours to test it to make sure thats the issue so ya dont waste cash on a new one just find out its a different issue.
 
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