Strange electricals

[Oliver]

Well my charging light and brake light have been coming on simultaneously these past few weeks. They would click on while driving (hot or cold) and go off after a minute or so. While they come on all the lights dim a bit and that slight constant squealing noise from the engine bay goes away. The RPMs drop slightly as well.

 

This morning the charging light flickered on/off about 20 times really fast like a kid playing with a light switch. It freaked me out so I didn't go to work fearing getting stranded on I90 at 5:30 am.

 

I thought that my alt is going bad but I guess it could be something like a voltage regulator or a battery issue?

 

The belt has a little bit of movement but less than 3/4 of an inch.

 

Where are the connections I should look at on the alt?

 

If it is the alt going bad I think I'll look for one out of a Max. since I can't fab up new brackets in my apt.

 

:help:

[Animal]

Get a DVM and measure the voltage at the battery. With the engine running and all lights, radio, blower, etc. off, it should read around 14v dc. The regulator is part of the alternator, so if either is bad you'll be replacing it/them together.

 

Check your grounds. This seems to be a fairly common problem. You can visually inspect them and use the DVM connected between the "-" side of the battery and the body then the engine. It should read 0v dc.

 

Your problem may also be a flaky key switch or loose wire - hard to say without being there.

[Oliver]

Wow, I'm smart. I'm cheching the voltage and it seems good, ground reads 0V so I decide to try the battery. Yup I put the leads across both terminals! My meter started smoking and I think it might be toast now. -thnkboutit-

God! What a f*****g Noob thing to do.

 

I really shouldn't be allowed to open my hood.

 

 

Way to go me!

[88pathoffroad]

DC voltage shouldn't smoke any voltmeter I can think of. Especially at only 12V. Save yourself some time and just go to an auto parts store and have them test it for you...

[Animal]

Are you sure you had it on DCV not OHMS or AMPS?

[davekell]

thx ollie i had to do 20+ today, mike didnt do nothing , came in and there was 15 waiting for me! and it rained all night till 9:20! :allclean: lets go to the ORV thursday, the rain washed all the mud off my rig. and my wife didnt get the video.she had it on veiw and not recored, so we missed my big splash!

[Oliver]

UPDATE!!!

 

SO I got the batt and charging system checked. ANd they were ok. Put some belt tensioner on there and it seems to have helped.

 

Last night I decided to get a little mud on a trail nearby. as I'm going down the bumpies I notice that my headlights are severly diming and brightening over and over. Needless to say I turned around and hightailed it home. Once on the smooth pavement no problems.

 

This mean that I have a loose connection probably or a bad alternator?

[sw]

sounds like a regulator letting out its last breath of life.

 

(regulator being in the alternator)

do the yank spec pathys have hitachi or bosch alternators?

 

bosch alternators are very easy to put a new regulator in.