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Charging problems and other issues

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Frosty

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Nov 26, 2003
Messages
2,060
Location
Sheboygan, WI
Ok, I'm completely frustrated with this car and don't know what else to do. The problems I've been having are on my 98 E0 3L SVT. Just after taking the car out of storage in 2012 my alternator started failing. I didn't drive the car much and the battery sat on the trickle charger (while in the car). I drove it a few times, but only got one or two starts out of it before the battery was dead. I finally got around to changing the alternator. Picked up a slightly used Motorcraft reman alternator and installed it. I didn't have the alternator checked prior to install, but the car it came out of did not have any charging issues. I am now getting a 12.8V charge with both cables attached to the battery. If I start the car and take the positive off, measuring from cable to cable voltage is 13.2V. I should be getting 14V. The small gray square connector seemed a little bit loose when I reinstalled it, but no battery light. I noticed the negative cable is a little loose on the battery terminal, but would this cause the charge to be less than normal? The battery is also 5 years old and could probably be replaced. I haven't had it checked either. Thoughts? It was suggested to me to replace the cables, but is there anything else that could cause this?

In addition to the bad alternator, i noticed the car has been running hot (far end of "normal" to almost in the red). The fans work and kick in and the temp will drop a little but then the fans turn off and the temp climbs again. The Taurus 3L has about 12k total miles on it now and I kept the original water pump because the motor only had 5k on it when I got it. Is it possible my water pump or thermostat are bad?

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated. I have searched and searched to no avail. I just want to drive Frosty :(
 
I need to check and see if both fans kick in or not. Otherwise it sounds exactly like the problem you were having. I wonder if I'm having a bad ground from something I painted on the motor? It didn't really start overheating until about 2 years ago right after Spring Zing. My drivers window also goes up and down pretty slow, but the rest seemed normal? I forgot what your problem wound up being, thanks for the help. I will report back on what i find when I have time
 
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