Got the car finished it and took it to get an alignment. Noticed my salt light was on. My dad had left the dome light on the night before so I blew it off thinking it just needed a charge. Still on. Started the car and pulled the battery cable off and it died instantly. Thought the salt was bad - took it to Autozone and it all passed. Is it my voltage regulator or is there something else I should check?
Yes, the regulator could be bad, but before condemning it I'd check the fuse links that go to the B+ side of the solenoid. One of them is for the alternator. I've had other Fords burn them out trying to charge a discharged battery.
There is no issue with remo ing the battery cable fromthe battery on a ford. It makes the field read the battery as dead and puts the alt into full discharge. Running for a prolonged duration can damage the alt, but it is a viable test for a stock ford setup. I drove my bronco bronco quite a few times on just the alt when I bounced the cables off wheeling and didnt notice the light come on right away.
Removing the cables from a charging alternator causes a load dump that will stress the diodes in the alternator.
It wont stress them any more than trying to charge a battery thats been far too discharged. Besides its pretty much the same way the test machines do it, I know I used to work at nw regulator a premier manufacturer of alternator testing units as a test and prototyping engineer. 1 of the tests essentially zeros the field to do a full power test on the alt, basically the same as removing the battery. You cant run that test on all alternators, but you can on fords.
Well, that's not good for the trio diodes, either. I'd be willing to bet your test machines apply a nice, smooth load that in no way duplicates the sags, surges, and transients that the alternator would see in a running vehicle if the battery wasn't there to act as a buffer.
and that's exactly the case. also consider what those little sparks do to diodes(or even ecm's on the newer stuff) when you try and get things back together quickly and tightened back up. now.. don't get me wrong here and I'm not saying that I heed all those warnings either.. because I still test them that way in the field too. And I have seen others cause damage from doing it too though.. so I do know it's possible to make matters worse. However.. I do loosen the teminals and remove them to reapply them back on the battery while the vehicle is not running in a fashion that permits quick removal/replacment just to avoid any more uneccesary fumbling around while doing that type of test while it is actually running. Never burnt an alternator/volt reg out in well more than 50 cars over the years.
Upon further inspection it was a simple fix! My wires broke off at the connection from the voltage regulator. just a quick butt connector fix and she runs like a charm! Glad it wasn't more money! (well...had to buy some butt connectors - no one around here had any that were big enough they could find. we all had the same sizes!)
