Pretend it's a long bed Mazda.

Hi sincitylocal, I have to admit that I haven't considered that as an option, as until a week ago I was having no problems whatsoever. The battery was purchased new in February, so because of that I have not looked at it as a potential issue. I suppose anything is possible, but to be honest, anytime I have run into a bad-celled battery, the shorted cell may hold surface voltage, but cranking the motor for a bit (with the coil wire off) to drain the surface charge has resulted in an almost immediate result on a meter of 10 or less so volts. That I have not done, so thanks for the tip-to-try. Maybe I'll turn the headlights on with the motor off for awhile and watch the meter readings.

Picture 1, before doing any load tests.
Picture 2, after letting turning the headlights on "for awhile."
Picture 3, voltage during cranking.
Picture 4, voltage after turning off the headlights and letting the battery sit to recover.

Last photo. I went back and looked at the pictures, and the 11.15 reading was taken while the engine was being cranked, so that is why it was blurry.. I think I figured out an upload limitation per post. Maybe 2~3 meg. Plus Google kept choking with the upload. So once i deleted the bad series of posts in Google, I came back into Opera and the photo uploads were almost instantaneous. It would be nice if repairing things was that easy.

Hi everyone, it's me, again. "Maybe" I have figured this puzzle out. I have have learned some kind of lesson in this about verifying the wok. I went back with my meter and started checking things, and found that even though I thought I had a good body ground from the battery, when I took meter readings on the head of the bolt that secures the ground strap to the body, it was showing an open, or excessive resistance, not because it wasn't tight, but because I hadn't gotten all the corrosion (rust) when I thought I had cleaned it up the first time.

The best I could get in terms of ground path voltage to the body from the battery was 7 volts, which would bounce up if I pushed on the head of a bolt like a dentist would do with a loose filling . Lots of floating resistance. What that meant, was that the regulator, which is grounded through the lamp to the body, was unable to sense a rising ground charge, and push open the field gate in the regulator. Since the gate was staying closed, battery voltage was left alone to climb. The battery is supposed to discharge to the body and the engine, not send excessive charge through the regulator to the body while trying to find or force a regulator ground.

Since I may have shorted the regulator inside of this alternator prior to finding this issue, I may be in for another alternator, because I may have fried the regulator in this one.

Part of the hidden cost to owning 37 year-old-hardware. Rust never sleeps.

Good detective work !

After a week away, testing the work, saying thank you Cusser. Maybe my eyesight is failing. I went back, and found that both wires were not blue. Only one was. Note to self, "don't try sorting out wiring issues with a poor light source." The other wire in daylight was dark green, and was supposed to run to the thermostat housing, to plug into a switch that was missing the dark green wire that I found I had hooked up wrong.

That leaves me with a missing entirely 18 ga. brn/w wire to activate the idle up solenoid.

In all of this swapping around of alternators, I ended up with a brand new one out of a land not American via AutoZone. My original is back on the car, working as far as I can tell just fine. I'm so confident I'm not even carrying tools.

One thing they helped me with because I didn't have a multimeter, was the Loan a Tool program. The Fuel Injection test kit has a digital multimeter included as part of the set up. When I returned it, it didn't even smell like gas or diesel. I have a meter coming via E-bay and I think Harbor Freight would have been an option had i though about them earlier. But it worked for me. It might work for you.

Well, gone for a few days, so I guess it's time for an update. I am pretty sure my alternator issue has been laid to rest, and I still haven't resolved anything with AutoZone. I guess I am still in an active boycott against them. The new alternator is what I ended up with since they haven't bothered to call me back regarding the first incident.

I had to replace my 37 year-old 20 gallon fuel tank. I was quoted $80.00-$100.00-$220.00-$290.00 by four different sources to R&R the thing. which I ended up doing myself and getting the gumption award for it. I'm still not out of the woods with it. I paid a guy to put the lines back on, and the supply line is leaking at a rubber hose-3/8" fuel line connection. I'm going to try to use a fuel injection hose clamp, because the squeezy clamp and a replacement worm hose-clamp haven't worked so far. Gas in the tank, but air in the line means no go.

Pep Boys had the best price of anywhere I looked. They had a replacement unit manufactured out of Canada.

For now, I have stuffed a rubber hose into a gallon jug full of gas and ran the supply rubber line into it for now. It isn't pretty, but the fuel pump is working and I can move the truck.

Old faceful, the fuel geyser.

Most of my life has been lived in the Southwest United States. I'm not too familiar with rust.

Her is an interesting turn of events. On 8_30_2018, someone named Hector went into my truck cab and stole my tools. Nearest I can figure, close to $450.00, and probably sold for a drug deal. He was caught and arrested after a guy named Wally saw him do it at the time and told me the next day. Wally told the story to the police but wouldn't cooperate so the police didn't get a warrant and obtain video footage putting Hector at the scene. Hector gets out of jail, and is now acting like a rabid dog with the threats he is making. The police won't arrest him, because in New York, harassment is a non-arrest-able offense. At least SIX incidents since he got out on the 31st, with a wink from the Court and a "promise" from Hector that he will behave. The brother has threatened me. I bought pepper spray today, manufactured by Sabre.