1996 Ford F350, Battery Voltage Low

This 1996 Ford F350 had multiple problems. One of which was low battery voltage while the engine was running. The owner complained that the battery would go down If he ran at night with the lights and a/c on. Go figure.

At some point the ring terminal at the alternator was damaged and instead of just putting a new terminal on, someone cut the end off of another vehicle and twisted the wires together. To secure it they wrapped electrical tape around it. Not that it wouldn’t do some good under the right emergency conditions, but come on, really. The alternator is rated at 130 amps. There is no way that kind of stop gap connection could carry that kind of load for very long.

I pulled the wiring apart and summed up what i needed to do to fix this cable end. Luckily the cable was long enough and in good enough shape that all it needed was some clean up and a new ring terminal.

The new ring terminal crimped and  soldered into place.  I also installed heat shrink tubing and a terminal boot cover.

The alternator battery lead back in place on the alternator output stud.

A had to finish tidying up the wires around the alternator and this one was done. Luckily the poor connection had not seemed to of hurt the alternator. At least in the short term.

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