Well none of that is good.
Thoughts with your family, sir.

 

Prayers for you and your family, Chickenbone. Covid is some serious stuff. My wife had it last year and her thinking, reasoning and logic has gone completely haywire. Nobody knows the long term effects of that crap because it hasn't been around long enough for any studies to have been done. Just trust in God to pull them through and everything will be okay.

 

So my Mom was having a bad day on Saturday and I had a lot of errands to run. In the process of doing that; I locked myself out of the Explorer; with groceries in it. So I had to take the walk-of-shame back home to get my car with the spare keys (yeah, I know, get the Uber app) for the Explorer. As I was cutting through one of the neighborhoods, there was a house with 3 SC1 Saturns in the back of the driveway. In a way, that made my walk-of-shame worth it.

 

It's often the small things in life that matter

 

So the alternator in the Explorer died yesterday. I was warming it up yesterday and came back out because it was idling rough. Figured it was a vacuum leak until I went inside to pop the hood and was greeted by the battery light and a message on the dash to "Check the Charging System". I opened the hood and saw that the battery was corroded over on the ground lug. I was going to clean it out, but I decided to pull the Explorer out from in front of my car and put my car in front of the Explorer, just in case. Well, as Uncle Murphy would have it, by the time I got the Explorer back in the driveway, it had 0 voltage and died. I went inside to find my notebook where I log all the repairs and maintenance for the various vehicles. Discovered that the battery is over 3 years old; and I don't think it was brand new when my parents got it. So I ran to Autozone and got a "Gold" battery. Plopped it in and fired the Explorer up; and was still greeted by the same message and the battery light. So I scratched my head because even though this indicates a bad alternator, this light truck/SUV only has 113,000 miles. And it is mostly local driving; even the original owners didn't take it that far. I searched on the forums and Google for an explanation and saw a consistent response of low mileage vehicles that do a lot of short trips will tax the alternator. So I went back to Autozone today to get a "Gold" alternator. Not the cheapest unit; but not the most expensive either. Popped the old one off and discovered that the "Gold" alternator wouldn't bolt in. I could only get 2 of the 3 bolts to thread in; but the 3rd bolt wouldn't line up no matter how much manipulation. After 45 minutes of that nonsense, I took it off out of frustration. But instead of chucking it in the backyard (I really wanted to do that!); I gathered myself and carried it back into the house. I laid it on my favorite work bench (you guys/gals know which one I'm talking about) next to the original FoMoCo unit. Surprise, surprise, the bolt holes were a bit off center on the "Gold" alternator. My parents have an important doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I had to think hard about my next move. It occurred to me that I still have the 3G alternator from my '91 Ranger in the basement somewhere. And I remembered when I did a tune-up on the Explorer, I had noted that the 4.0L SOHC in the Explorer was the same block as the 4.0L OHV in my old Ranger. In fact, the Ranger had no distributor; it was the 1st year of the coil pack. So I dug through the back of the basement and found my bucket of alternators. On top was the Ranger unit and it is almost exactly the same as the Explorer alternator, except the charge wire post was in the back; as opposed to the top in the Explorer unit. So I ran outside and popped the Ranger unit in there. I just got done a half hour ago; but it runs fine with no battery light or message. And it seems to run smoother than it has been, but that could be me though. So glad I took that alternator off the Ranger before sending that truck to the junkyard.

This is one of those instances when I am glad I kept old parts. Otherwise I would have had to go into work very late in order to find and install a better-fitting alternator. Also glad that I modded both the Ranger and Crown Vic with 3G alternators (I think the "3G" means the amount of plugs). I was running electric fans and modified the headlight wiring in both vehicles and decided that the lower amperage OE 2G alternators would not hold up (infact, the Crown Vic OE alternator was only 60A). The Ranger alternator is from Powermaster and it's a 140A unit. Stock alternator on the Explorer is rated at 130A; so a tad above the original. I am going to purchase another alternator in case this one doesn't hold up. I will post pics tomorrow because my phone is being a real poser at the moment.

 

Nicely done.

Do you know if the explorer is doing the load shedding thing with the alternator where the computer monitors the overall system need for current and varies the output level of the alternator?

​​​​​​I believe those alternators have a communications connection via a pigtail. My point in mentioning this is that if the replacement alt is not a rebuilt Ford, it cannot communicate with the ECU and will run full tilt at all times.

The alternator output voltage is also varied if the vehicle is using a Ford battery management system, where they are not charging the battery full tilt at 14.4V it's supposed to extend the life of the battery. However when you put in a new battery, you must reset the battery management system in order to tell the vehicle it is a new battery or the way that it handles the charging will be for an old battery and it will shorten the life of the new battery.

What year is the explorer?

 

It's a 2005 Explorer XLT. Both the OE alternator and the Powermaster unit have the internal regulator harness, the pigtail (lone white wire), and the charge cable. When I swapped the 3G units on the Crown Vic and Ranger; I had to cut the old internal regulator harness plug and separate the white wire for the swap. Unfortunately, I know very little of Ford's charging system and just followed the instructions from a Fox body Mustang website. I will login to an Explorer forum and ask those questions.

Next time I am at the junkyard (depending on how successful I am with the Crown Vic), I will pull the charge cable off of an Explorer and make my own harness using thicker gauge cable.

 

Nothing major to report. Gearing up for the partial renovation of the kitchen. Since we're getting warmer weather, I have been getting tools and materials together to complete the back porch steps. I cut and drilled some 90* steel stock to use as anchors for the bottom of the stringers; which don't lay flat on the concrete pad I laid down. I couldn't find my old Black & Decker drill; so I grabbed the abused Ryobi drill that I used to initially prime the 351W in the Crown Vic. There is a little cause & effect thing going on with that drill as I nearly burned it priming that engine a few years ago. When I was drilling my brackets for the stringers last night, it got incredibly hot after a little bit. I guess I permanently injured that drill. Probably shouldn't have used it in the first place for priming. Live and learn I guess

 

I completed the kitchen renovation a few weeks ago. I realized that the set of cabinets and countertop that I removed were the originals that the house came with 68 years ago. Something I just noticed now. I also moved the refrigerator closer to the oven. They were in opposite corners of each other and one would have to walk16ft from one to the other. I cut that down to a 6ft distance between the two. My Mom is very pleased and has already adjusted. I am still finding myself walking to the refrigerator's old spot. Eventually I will adjust. As such, I now have a pile of house debris in the backyard that I need to dispose of.

Which brings me to another new(ish) project; cleaning the basement. I will need to rent a dumpster to get rid of the debris. In order to fully utilize a 20yd dumpster; I am going to clean out the basement and get rid of anything that we will not be using. I already started by organizing my tools last weekend. I realized that I still have quite a bit of Crown Vic parts that need a home. So I will have to start working on that car again to get rid of that clutter. Hopefully this will be the motivation for me to get that car running again.

This brings me to a 3rd project which has been a long time coming. I have been wanting to gut and renovate the downstairs bathroom since my college days. All of that clutter is where the plumbing for the bathroom would run. So I will need to do all of the above mentioned projects to make this happen. So that's the update for this thread.

 

Not only do I not like plumbing, I'm not any good at it either.

Did you have to deal with lead paint or asbestos insulation issues doing the kitchen? I'm thinking the cabinets were on an outside wall, and if we're talking 70 years old, that's the fifties......