Battery light on but battery good and alternator test good

[Jimwljr]

Hello everyone I have been reading a lot of post in the last few day's, ever since my battery light came on my 3.8L 96 Ford Windstar. I want to thank all of those that have answered the poor unfortunate soles in the past that had such a problem. Unfortunatly non of the answers helped me. I took my alternator to the parts store and it passed their test twice I put anouther battery in twice and the light still came on. I was just about to give up when I decided to take the alternator off one more time and see if i could take the regulator apart, since the haynes manual that I finely broke down and bought after fixing my van for years without any real understanding of what did what, well the manual said if the alternator was overcharging the battery that it was the regulator, so that is why I wanted to tare into it. after getting it off I noticed that one of the brushes was real dirty and looked a little burnt so I looked at the rotor and half of the copper was missing not just on one side but gouges throughout the entire surface. I thought eureka I have found the problem, then I had a brainstorm what if I could melt solder in the gouges and smooth them down so that the brushes where in contact all the time. So I went to work with my soldering iron and my dremel. Now I have a working alternator, no battery light and my wallet is not any lighter.

[garync1]

You are a brave sole.. If i did that i would have heard snap crackle and pop... LOL.. I would use another shop to test your alt though they should have pick something up on that.. Or the winstar got the best tester of all..