[Stang65]

Hey,
need advice on what to check next. Car is 302, new battery, new alternator and battery discharged on 10 mile trip. After recharging battery, disconnected battery while running and car dies. When cable is hooked back up, a clicking comes from the solenoid, is it the solenoid or something else?
Thanks,
Randall

 

[MustangBilly]

You may still have a charging system that is not working. Voltage regulator may be bad. Did you at least check the charging voltage?

 

[Guest]

It could be that your voltage regulator is out. On my 73 I had to make a new wiring harness for the alt-regulator-battery circuit. There were some bad connections in the old wires and one of them was a fuse link that had to be replaced. Not sure why a wire that burns up was used in the old harness instead of a fuse.

You can get your charging system check at one of your local parts stores to help you find the problem.

 

[topless66]

It might be the solinoid. Cheap enough to find out.

 

[johnpro]

A much safer way than pulling the battery cable off of a running engine, is to measure the voltage across the battery terminals with the engine running, using a volt-meter. Reason being is that car batteries produce an explosive hydro-cloric gas that can be ignited from the spark jumping from the post to cable as it's removed or replaced.

That being said, if the car died when a cable was pulled, you are not putting out any voltage from your charging system. Most likely culprit is the voltage regulator, since you just replaced the alternator. Replace the voltage regulator, then see what your voltage across the battery is at idle. If it's not 14v, your new alternator needs to be tested (any auto parts store can do it).

This is assumming that your current alternator/voltage regulator are hooked up correctly and all the wiring is in working condition.

 

[Stang65]

Thanks for all of the advice. The voltage regulator was the culprit.
On the road again,
Randall