anderman

3 days ago i bought a '83 5.0 and it drove home just fine. 2 days ago i was driving it around and it randomly died on me so i put my brothers battery in it, thinking that my battery was dead, and it started just fine. so i thought that my battery could be bad, so i put my battery in my brothers car and it started right up. then i thought that my alternator was bad but it was getting late and i don't have a garage to work in so i left it for the next day. the next day i go to see if my car still won't start but it started up like nothing was wrong with it. then it died again after driving it for a while and wouldn't start.

it seems like the alternator might be going bad, but i'm a noob when it comes to diagnosing problems with cars. what makes me think that the alternator is going bad is that the battery dies after driving it for a while(about an hr total) but the next morning, after a whole night to recharge it starts up just fine. what do you guys think could be the problem?

luckythirteen13

while the car is idling, hook a volt meter to the battery to see if the alt is charging. you could also take it to an auto parts store, most will test it for free.

after an hour of driving and the car dies, can you crank the motor over? if the motor cranks but doesnt start its not the battery. if you find out its not the battery, drive the car around, let it die and then try cranking it. pull the wire off the distributor that comes from the coil, stick a plug in it and lay it on the motor. check to see if you have spark. one possible issue is that the coil is heat soaking and dying.

its common for late 80s to 93 mustangs that have tfi moduals on the dizzy to heat soak from the motor and cause the motor to die

anderman

i'll try that, thanks!