Truck Lost Power and Stalled

[hdman90]

Last night my wife and I took the truckntona wedding. I noticed earlier in the day that the truck seemed to start somewhat hard (but wasn’t positive).
On the ride home, all was fine, until about 10 minutes from home, I noticed the lights starting to get dim, then the truck started missing... about 200 yards from home, I lost all power and th me truck slowly stalled out and gave out.
The ALT gague was reading normal, and the only changes I’d recently made were with the bottom two most fuses the day before (nothing that I think would effect the charging system).
Any ideas?

[jzjames]

The alt guage would be suspicious to me. Or could the coil be shot?
How new is the alternator? I know there is a high failure rate for the alternators you get at Oreilleys, etc.

[Nitekruizer]

Could be the voltage regulator too. Sometimes they die and the system overcharges. Sometimes they die and there's a no charge condition, eventually the battery goes dead and everything quits.

[DuckRyder]

Agree this sounds like a charging/battery issue.

First step - charge battery

Then: http://www.fordification.com/tech/charging.htm

[Thipdar]

Last night my wife and I took the truckntona wedding. I noticed earlier in the day that the truck seemed to start somewhat hard (but wasn’t positive).
On the ride home, all was fine, until about 10 minutes from home, I noticed the lights starting to get dim, then the truck started missing... about 200 yards from home, I lost all power and th me truck slowly stalled out and gave out.
The ALT gague was reading normal, and the only changes I’d recently made were with the bottom two most fuses the day before (nothing that I think would effect the charging system).
Any ideas?

Are you still running points, and have you changed/set them recently? Your description sunds like what's happened to me in my truck when the points gave out.

[hdman90]

Did a test this past weekend, charged the truck, started it, and let it run for awhile... The battery voltage just kept dropping, but the truck ran fine. So, yesterday, I removed the alternator and took it in to get tested this morning to try to isolate my issue. Alternator tested bad, they weren't even able to get a spark between the two contact points.
So, it is in getting repaired and should be done by the end of the day!

[jzjames]

The ALT gague was reading normal,

So do you need to check out your alt. guage?

[bluef250]

The Alt gauge probably will not help as it compares voltage of Alternator to the Battery. The alt gauge for the most part is pretty poor.

You can add a voltage gauge, which would help.

[hdman90]

The Alt gauge probably will not help as it compares voltage of Alternator to the Battery. The alt gauge for the most part is pretty poor.

You can add a voltage gauge, which would help.

Good to know, I guess I never really understood how it worked. Thanks!

[Ranchero50]

Yeah, ignore or replace the alt gauge with a top pivot Sunpro voltmeter like I did. Wasn't too difficult and gives an honest reading.

[hdman90]

Yeah, ignore or replace the alt gauge with a top pivot Sunpro voltmeter like I did. Wasn't too difficult and gives an honest reading.

Ranchero, do you happen to have a write up on how you did that??

[Ranchero50]

It's in my build thread in the projects subforum.

[hdman90]

It's in my build thread in the projects subforum.

Thank you, I'll have to look it up!