ok, this isn't my thirdgen but it could apply to one, anyway to begin my bronco died and after a "new" (reman) alt and battery it was fine, no big deal right? ok a few days later I leave my headlights on for a few min after I park; I come back outside a few min later to turn them off and discover that it wouldn't start. I have my wife come and jump start me (pls let that go, I know how it sounds ) and it starts but I have no headlights, a couple min later it dies. fast forward to today (and my question) the battery that I had put in there was smaller than what came out (650cca came out and 530cca went it ) so I took that back to wally mart and got a bigger battery (875cca) now it works fine again? why? will it fail again? what and how can I check to avoid that happening again?

 

Hello red90bird,
even though this doesn't apply to your thirdgen I will leave it for the moment and try to answer your question. I work at an auto parts store and a lot of customers will come in and want the cheapest battery possible for their car. It doesn't matter if it is a battery that is rated for their car, if it is cheap they want it. I'm not saying this is your case. Anyway, I have a feeling that your battery failed because of not being able to handle the load required to start your vehicle and the rated output of your alternator. We will also ignore the jump start segment here. BTW, I forgot to mention that with the larger rated battery you should be fine.

 

I was hoping to hear somthing like that but when I put my multimeter on the battery with the engine running it only shows a little over 12v (like 12.05-7). I was under the impression that with the engine running it should be closer to 13v. ohh and I did go to wally mart wanting the cheapest (correct though) battery, its only my winter beater. now on my firebird I got the best I could

anyway thanks for leaving this open

 

With the engine running at idle and no load on it the battery will only show about 12 volts on it. It is when the engine rpm goes up that you will see the voltage show an increase. At least you know where the priorities lie.

 

so I am at school at the moment and I talked to the automotive people and (no offense intended) but they say that I should see 13V or so with the engine running. I am pretty sure that its the regulator (external). so I'm going to try that (a guenine motorcrap). anyway I'll let everyone know if this finally works.

 

the new regulator is in and the bronco is now functional (actually I should say, functional for now). anyway with the engine running the battery now shows about 14v.

trickster: thank you for your input :beer:

 

No offense taken. I forgot about the furd's having that external regulator. Glad it's puttering you around again.

 

haha, beers and third-gens, oh yeah!