I have a 1993 3.8 taurus and i am having severe electrical issues. If I leave my lights or door open for 15 or so minutes my battery is drained no matter how new the battery is or if its just been juiced up. my mom and a friend have driven my car around and both said it has just refused to start, absolutely no power at all. car would not start, no lights would come on at all and then a few hours later it just started back up. theradio was coming on for awile but now it just won't do anything. As far as the window motors are concerned 3 of the 4 are now refusing to function. the drivers side still works and i was able to use my master control to JUST put the passenger side down but it would not go back up. I now have come to find out i must drill a rivet bolt out just to get the motor released and i wondered if there were any other options left and if maybe electrical surges had perhaps fried the motors.

 

Ah ain't no electicle genius ,
but It has and still is one of my favorite subjects and because I enjoy working with electrical/electronic things maybe I can offer a short term possible solution.
Sometimes if you apply an extra shot of available current you just may at least get the windows to go back up. This you can do with a jumper battery.
There has to be a protective fuse/circuit breaker to protect an excessive current drain from pulling your battery down and also possibly starting an electrical short type fire.
This brings up another consideration, your battery should not become totally discharged in that short period of time unless the battery is either weak or the charging system is not charging as it should.
Did you check the battery terminals for good contact?
Do you have access to a voltmeter?
Newer Ford vehicles use more sophisticated modules to control the functions giving you trouble, but they were not in use in 93.
Keep me informed and I will try to assist you, Thanks

 

i dont know why you are the only person responding but this forum is quite dead..

im not sure were you would want me to hook all the wires up to to jump the thing off since the colors are so random on the wiring but i can attempt that. like i said before i dont know why i gotta drill those rivets out and i dont even wanna imagine how id put a new one in. also i can still put the window dwn if i got it bk up so that motor has got sum functionality in it.. I dont know how to harness whats still working in it though.

i got an alternator check since i was idling well the other day and the guy said my alt was working great.. i dont know.. the radio is still coming on and off tho. I may change the batt cables just because but im confident in them and the batts and they were new and strong and versatile..

 

Maybe I didn't state the suggestion clear enough.
What I meant was to provide extra juice to the system with an additional jumper battery.
Many times the additional boost will allow the motor to work and at least you would be able to close the window.
It is important to know if this works because if it does, it means your electrical system is lacking enough power in other words the battery is not up to par or possibly there is a problem with the cables.
There is only one way to check an alternator and that is while under load. Do you remember how the gent that told you is was ok tested it?
We always check for sufficient power and ground connections before tearing out a window motor. There is nothing like replacing one only to have the same problem when you are done.
By the way there are some very experienced people that try to assist on this site. Unfortunately we have to work for a living and don't always get the time to answer all questions. So please be patient ,if you have the time.

 

whAt i meant to say was there was not a lot of traffic in certain areas on this site. i got plenty of help from car sites but i thought since im loaded dwn with a bunch of fords now i might as well go to a ford fanatic site.. thats all.. there were 145 visitors and 4 members including myself on when i made that last post, i found that disappointing, and i wrk too.

Jump the whole car off then do it, i gotcha now.

the test was him hooking a device to my battery cables and letting the car run, thats all.

i do have the time to wait because im not the one who has to sit in a soggy passengers seat.

 

clean you cables and conections real good and make sure they are tight

 

i think there is a bit of juice deprivation tho because the radio cuts out at times but revving the gas cuts that out

 

It appears you're going in the right direction.
Do you have or have access to a volt or multimeter?
If you do or plan to get one, here is a fairly simple way to check if the alternator is putting out enough to keep your battery ahead of what you are pulling from it.
With the engine running, place the negative(black) lead on the ,cleaned, negative battery cable. With the headlites on ,blower motor on hi, and heater setting set on AC . That should give enough draw to see if the alternator at least can keep the battery on the charging side. Place the voltmeter on the positive post of the battery and have the engine up to approx 1500 RPM, slightly above fast idle, you shoulg get a reading of at least 14 volts. If not place the red(positive) lead on the battery post of the alternator. You should get at least 14 v0lts there. If not in either case the alt should be checked for all good connections and if ok replace it. A battery will put forth resistance when fully charged or when it is on its way out. Some will take all the charging system has to offer and will not hold it. At rest your battery with no drain, all accessories off, should read around 12.4 volts. If not it is either not fully charged or is defective. The bsts way to confirm the full output from your alt is to clamp an inductive ammeter on the cable /wire coming off the battery post of the alt and load the system with as much as possible (lites ,AC, wipers, rear defroster and the alternator should put out at least 75-80 amps. If not change it.

 

i tried to jump the car off and still no success so even though the window still goes down i am assuming the motor is gone and nothing else can be done right?

 

... man it aint just two wires its like 7 all candy cain colored man..

heres the updatye tho, i think every motor is good except the back passenger. thats fine i guess. the issues are this.

we had the wire we thought was the power so we went ahead and hooked the door light into that. in the process we ended up sparkin a bunch of wires togethor got the motor to start working again, it worked about 7 times on its own then stopped again. now when i push the unlock button it makes my gauge cluster and orange lights outside come one. lock does that trick half the time, a quarter makes a strange grinding sound then the rest of the time will lock my door. the radio isnt working, none of the vanity lights, compartment, door, or trunk lights will come on. im wondering how much of this i can just run intio a fuse at thnis point. idk wtf happened but im thinking an old school set were everything is as directly linked to the batt as possible is the only solution. i want to hook my radio and these overhead lights to my windshield wiper fuse, i am also trying to hook some lights and the back door into the fron t doors engery supply for the window. for whatever reason the drivers side door window motor has not AT ALL been effected by all these other issues. im wondering how that is as well.
im also wondering if i can hook the electric door key buttons and the door lock/unlock to a power source to get them bk in commision.
i would also like to say my radiator is now leakin and idk where or why. its leaking a large amount of coolant but sometimes it just stops. idk how a hole that big can seal it self but it does.