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[ian]

So my ranger will not hold a charge i've replaced my altinator and battery but still nothing all the wiring looks good no bad grounds but for some reason it wont stay charged i have to charge my battery every night just to drive and i cant use any of my lights or anything else

 

[RobbieD]

You should have it checked for a parasitic current draw, and also have a competent shop check your battery and charging system. If you're saying that you can't even use your lights, you really need to get a professional auto electric shop to look at it.

 

[Black'03LevelII]

with what Robbie said. You deffinately need to get a shop involved with that problem.

 

[jamie18]

Their is a simple test to check for a draw. If you have test light disconnect your battery ground hook one end of the light to the battery post and the other end to the ground cable. Make sure the doors are shut to keep the interior light off. Now if the light is real bright you defintly have a bad draw. To troubleshoot start by disconnecting coponents until the light go's real dim keep in mine all vehicles will a little draw for radios commputers and so on but the test light should not shine real bright. This will work I have done this before.

 

[Ranger5.0]

test light? In my years as an amature and my recent years as a pro i still dont own a test light. Use a DMM, there is a line between pasasitic curent draws and somthing called a phantom drain. a parasitic draw is less then .50amps, anytihng more and you have problems. Judging by what your saying you have prolly somthing around a one amp draw, or more. That means somthing is on when it shouldnt be, or there is a dead short that isnt blowing a fuse. you need to do a charging system test first to make sure its working. If it IS, then you gotta find the phantom load. Do this by conecting a DMM and start pulling one fuse at a time untill the reading drops. find out what circuit the fuse is protecting and you found your problem.