HELP - Charging Issue.. once again!

Krazeeun

Krazeeun

Hardway Performance
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
2,369
OK, my truck randomly goes a little haywire and the lights blink and i can hear the surging in my lift pump. It seems that if the truck can not recover from a load being placed on it (like rolling all 4 windows up/down at once), once this load is removed "something" starts fluctuating somewhere and it wont stop until I shut the truck off.

I have; recently removed 2nd battery, replaced existing with optima redtop, had alternator locally rebuilt. Yesterday I took it to shop that rebuilt alternator, they hooked up some stuff to it and said everything was working good, of course I couldn't get it to go nuts while standing there with the guy, we cleaned the battery terminals and he sent me on my way.

This morning while cruising down the highway it just starts going nuts again, to the pont where a co-worker following me to work called me and asked why all my light were blinking :poke:

Also, I thought possibly it was the airdog going bad, so I left the key on and let it run in my driveway for over an hour, it never did the audible "surging" like it does when the charging system starts going nuts

help.... i'm considering explosives :evil
 
Did they check the Alt while it was on the truck or off the Truck when you took it back?
 
they did it on the truck, hooked up something to my two battery terminals and another sort of something that clamped over the charger wire
 
Possibly two things that we run across, on the back of the Alternator there is your output stud and then a another stud with a nut on it and that is a ground, take that nut off and see if there is a washer underneith that nut you will half to pull that black cover off. If there is not get a small washer and put it on and tighten the nut back down. That bosh alternator is popular for loosing ground through there. Also you have a clutched pulley on there did they put a new clutched pulley on or just use your old one?
 
Roger that, will go check at lunch time on the back of the alt

I believe it's a clutched pulley, no idea if they re-used old or not. Old only had 60k on it but I fried the stator by driving on dead batteries (i know i know..) When I got it back from them the entire unit looked brand new, cost me $80.
 
wow that is a cheap rebuild. Yes the back of the Alt one is your out put wire and there is only one other back there, when we rebuild them we always put that washer under that nut. Is this what the truck was doing also when you first brought it in?
 
no, both batteries decided to swell up and go bad nearly instantly one day, I jumped it to get to work, jumped it to get home.. on the way home I was losing voltage, apparently driving on the dead batteries killed the alternator... replaced everything and have been dealing with random blinky lights ever since
 
alright yeah try putting that washer under there first if there is not one and let me know what you have going on then.
 
alright, cleaned both battery terminals again, checked the block ground and body grounds again, put a washer under the "charge" wire on the back of the alternator.

I know you said to put it under the "ground", but both of the nuts i've seen (w/alt still mounted) are both putting out 14.xV while running.... Where is this notorious ground??

PS, my alternator is not clutched, it appears to be direct drive

I havent driven it yet, but I can get it to freak out at least for a little bit by messing with the power windows

I'm thinking of reconnecting the old passenger side block ground and passenger side body ground together just to mock up what it had when I had both batteries

I'm kind of out of ideas... help on finding this alt. ground and any other ideas appreciated
 
Have you tried to put some type of scan tool on it and monitor voltage while driving? See if it's dropping voltage, when acting erratic? Just thinking out loud
 
nope, havent... batt gauge doesnt move off of 14 whether its freaking out or not

i took a video of it this morning, it's really ridiculous... soon as its done loading to youtube i'll post it up
 
ok, it's still doing it... any more info on the alt ground johndeere1?

here's the video showing the electrical "surge" i'm talking about... disco disco

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twtFy_69Bi8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twtFy_69Bi8[/ame]
 
Are you just running one Battery? I had a issue a while back and it cause my dash to light up like a Christmas tree. In the process of finishing up a job on the truck I forgot to tighten the drivers side ground terminal on the battery. It was on just not tight. For what ever reason the ECM did not like that. It wanted the terminal tighten. Tighten it up and everything was fine. I think it was because of low voltage during starting on one battery. The ECM is picky and needs a strong Voltage/Current to perform.

So if you are just running one battery I would get the 2nd one on there and hook up all of your cables as they should be.

And what is the latest update on the 68 from RON
 
Charging issue potentially solved... I made a few tweaks to my smarty tune and re-loaded it, no flashy flashy since... *fingers crossed*

Matt; I havent been to the shop in a while as my big boy job has me swamped and trying to send me out of the country for a while, BUT.. rumor on the street is that the 68RFE from suncoast is COMPLETE!!!!!! RJP has info up on CF about it
 
it's still doing it... jesus please help me not burn truck to ground
 
you think your grid heater is acting up and drawing down the voltage? Hell it should not even be coming on but who knows?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top