Electrical Troubleshooting Tips

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Possible Corrosion at starter solenoid

This affects

Ford Taurus 1992-95

Thunderbird 1992-95

Windstar 1995

Lincoln Continental 1992-94

Mercury Cougar 1992-95

Mercury Sable 1992-95

Ford suggests changing the corroded connector with a service wiring kit and connector assembly.

Apply di-electric grease along with replacing the wiring and service connector to the terminal connector will aid in corrosion protection.

The wiring and connector assembly are available from Ford. (Part Number F4VY-14A41l-A).

The di-electric grease part number is D7AZ-19A331-A. Instructions are included with the kit.

Ford’s warranty program allows 0.6 hours to cover the time required for this repair.

The harness kit and di-elecrtic grease are also available from aftermarket sources.

Tracing why the battery died — and preventing it

The basic concern with later model Bosch alternators is that if the battery is a bit low, in many cases the internal regulator will not kick in and turn the output of the alternator up quite enough to recover.

This is prevalent with vehicles driven short distances or who have added options to their vehicles.

The vehicle will run fine until one day the battery will be dead. Tests will fail to show the cause of the battery drain. A company called Group 6 Performance in Tucson, Arizona has come up with a solution to the problem.

It offers a kit which replaces the internal regulator with an external electronic regulator. The kit includes a Motocraft regulator, new brush holder assembly, wiring harness and an instruction sheet. Installation is quick and easy.

In some applications, it may not be necessary to remove the alternator from the vehicle. After disconnecting the battery, simply remove the old regulator/ brush holder from the unit.

Install the new brush holder supplied. Plug the new wiring harness (available in two lengths 3 foot and 6 foot) into the brush holder.

The remaining wires are attached as follows:

Yellow wire to the output plug, the original warning light is attached to the terminal on the black wire coming out of the harness and the black ground wire coming from the brush holder is connected to any engine ground.

Find a suitable mounting place for the new regulator and attach it with the two self-tapping screws included in the kit. On most vehicles, room can be found on the fender well. The other end of the harness is then connected to the regulator.

If the vehicle was originally equipped with a battery temperature sensor, it can either be removed from the harness or left disconnected.

The warning light will continue to function as original and there will be no changes in operation other than the voltage will be held at the correct level for battery maintenance.

The charging system is fully temperature compensated, so there is no battery “gassing”. Output capability is usually increased by about 20 %.

Special thanks to Frank at Group 6 Performance. For further information contact:

GROUP 6 PERFORMANCE

1634 S. Research Loop Ste.150

Tuscon, AZ 85710

Phone: (520) 290-2442

Fax: (520) 751-1268