Single battery conversion gone wrong... help.

Krazeeun

Krazeeun

Hardway Performance
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
2,369
OK... had starting issues, battery wouldn't hold a charge. Pulled them, had them checked out, both checked out bad. Picked up an Optima and decided to do one battery conversion on the truck. (Free up space, no grid heater, live in fl... etc)

I removed the entire passenger side wiring harness, including the slave cable that went to the other battery, the charge wire from the alternator and all wires associated with the grid heater system.

I installed the Optima, hooking all connections up except the slave cable, started the truck and got a check engine light, the lightning bolt and check gauges. Looking back over my connections I realized I needed that slave cable to charge from the alternator to the battery. I got a new connector, crimped it to the (0ga?) slave cable, weather proofed it, installed it on the back of the alternator then hooked to battery. Cleared all codes with smarty, no more lights, codes or annoying beeps.

At this point it was 930pm, i cleaned up shop assuming it was a job done. Drove home, noticed my battery gauges was hovering around 12v instead of 14 like it normally is/was. Popped open the hood with the truck running and smelled a "hot metal/burnt rubber" smell but could not pinpoint the source. With the truck running I got 12.36vdc at the battery, 12.34vdc at the back of the alternator.

Did I miss something or is my alternator smoked? :bang
 
add:

I drove the truck for about 25 miles after I noticed the battery issue, jump started with my wifes car in the morning to go to work, then used a jump-box to get me to parts store & SunCoast and the gauge read 14v so the alternator was charging prior to the battery swap
 
is the driver's side battery ground not enough? The truck starts/operates perfect... just no charge and smells like burnt electrical
 
i guessin..but did the alt wiring and all that end up the same..dont it grnd t the batt too..if yer smellin it itll be hot to the touch probly too...if u can smell it its too hot to be good...
 
The only connection to the alternator was the 12v "charge" wire, the wire that actually supplies current from the alternator, it was going directly to the passenger side battery terminal, then the "slave" cable went across my radiator support to the driver side battery. I took the "slave" cable, put a new connector on it and hooked it up to the back of the alternator.

I'm going to go home at around 3 and mess with it some more, few more tests i'm going to try...
 
Have you checked to see if any of the cables are grounding out?

I wouldn't run a single battery on a newer truck, they have alot of electronics that depend on them. Now a 12v race truck, sure, but not a street 6.7.
 
I understand the reasoning for wanting to run 2 batt's... guess I'm stubborn. If it doesnt work out I'll just put it all back.

Alternator is at local rebuild shack, it tested out bad. Won't be til next week til fixed...
 
If you ran the truck with bad battery's, or the alt wasn't connected. The alt is smoked. Period, I went through this at TS. When I put the new alt on, there was a big red warning placard attached to the pulley.

I drive a 6.7 everyday with one battery.

Just make sure you have a good lead wire, from the battery too the alt, when you put it back on.
 
Yup, i dropped the lead wire off with the shop too, they're gonna solder it up and make sure it's good to go.
 
shop called and said my alternator's done... should know this evening if a rebuild solves my problem
 
MISSION SUCCESS

The stator and .... (brain fart) some other thing was bad on the alternator... the guy said driving around on dead batteries killed the stator and whatever else was wrong with it was probably what caused my batteries to get smoked..
 
by the way... it's good to go now... rebuilt the alternator...
 
Krazeeun said:
OK... had starting issues, battery wouldn't hold a charge. Pulled them, had them checked out, both checked out bad. Picked up an Optima and decided to do one battery conversion on the truck. (Free up space, no grid heater, live in fl... etc)

I removed the entire passenger side wiring harness, including the slave cable that went to the other battery, the charge wire from the alternator and all wires associated with the grid heater system.

I installed the Optima, hooking all connections up except the slave cable, started the truck and got a check engine light, the lightning bolt and check gauges. Looking back over my connections I realized I needed that slave cable to charge from the alternator to the battery. I got a new connector, crimped it to the (0ga?) slave cable, weather proofed it, installed it on the back of the alternator then hooked to battery. Cleared all codes with smarty, no more lights, codes or annoying beeps.

At this point it was 930pm, i cleaned up shop assuming it was a job done. Drove home, noticed my battery gauges was hovering around 12v instead of 14 like it normally is/was. Popped open the hood with the truck running and smelled a "hot metal/burnt rubber" smell but could not pinpoint the source. With the truck running I got 12.36vdc at the battery, 12.34vdc at the back of the alternator.

Did I miss something or is my alternator smoked? :bang
Click to expand...

What all did you have to do to use a single battery?
 
yank out the extra stuff and throw it up in the attic.

tips:

you'll have to make a new "charge" wire from the alternator, I put a new connector on the slave cable that used to hook the batteries together and bolted that to the back of my alternator

DO NOT run the truck without the charge wire hooked up

find a new home for the gird heater relay thing

remove the passenger side wheel well.. you'll see why.
 
I have been runnin my same 1 stock battery from 03 in for 2years now and no grid heaters as well.I have had no problems starting mine in 5 degree weather either lol
 
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