Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and harriw
Well-Known Member
Hey folks!
Sorry I haven't been around much, but my baby ('94 ext. 4x4 w/ 4.0 and 5spd) has been running great so I haven't needed any help lately! Until now...
Truck wouldn't start after stopping at Lowes on the way home tonight. Starter cranked once and died each time, Volt meter was pretty low. Explains why the turn signals had been slowing down, and why it had been starting hard... Should have kept a closer eye on that gauge...
Started right up with a jump start, and got home fine. Watched the gauge like a hawk though hoping it would charge up. No dice, it kept dropping. Got home tonight, measured 11.5-11.8V on the battery. Cleaned up the battery studs and cables real well with baking soda and water solution, greased the studs and re-assembled. Checked all the alternator-to-starter-relay-to-battery-etc. cables with an Ohm meter, everything looks fine. Fusable link looks fine, and measures less than 1 Ohm. Ran through all of the Haynes charging system debug routine I could, and it seems to point to the alternator (or possibly regulator, but either one would mean replacing the alternator). I also jump-started it again and checked the output voltage at the alternator. It's identical to the 11.8ish on the battery - should be quite a bit higher right(I already confirmed the fusable link is intact)?
Jump started it from my wife's van and drove it around the block, hoping maybe the original problem was just the corroded contacts. No dice, battery gauge kept dropping (headlights are essentially useless now). I'm now thinking alternator is bad, or battery just won't take a charge, as the wiring all appears to be OK, and I assume the starter and relay are fine since it starts fine from a jump. So I hooked back up the jumper cables and ran the van for a while, using the van's alternator to charge my battery. Seemed to work fine, and I could start using my own battery once I disconnected everything.
So, after all that... Sound reasonable to conclude the alternator's no good? I'll try to start it once more in the morning to make sure the battery held that 1/2 charge, then pull the alternator and have the parts store check it, and get a new one assuming it's no good.
Anything else I'm missing first? I'm probably leaving out a few things I checked, too.
AH - one other thing. While underneath inspecting the starter, I did notice that the casing for the starter motor is cracked at the upper mounting bolt. It's slightly crooked as a result - anyone ever seen this? Big problem, or no (I can try to get a picture in the morning if necessary)? I assume it's been there a while, and the truck has no problem starting off a jump so I think that's probably not the problem.
Anyway, at least this got me to clean off those contacts. One of those things I've been meaning to do for quite a while...
Thanks for any input guys!
-Bill
Sorry I haven't been around much, but my baby ('94 ext. 4x4 w/ 4.0 and 5spd) has been running great so I haven't needed any help lately! Until now...
Truck wouldn't start after stopping at Lowes on the way home tonight. Starter cranked once and died each time, Volt meter was pretty low. Explains why the turn signals had been slowing down, and why it had been starting hard... Should have kept a closer eye on that gauge...
Started right up with a jump start, and got home fine. Watched the gauge like a hawk though hoping it would charge up. No dice, it kept dropping. Got home tonight, measured 11.5-11.8V on the battery. Cleaned up the battery studs and cables real well with baking soda and water solution, greased the studs and re-assembled. Checked all the alternator-to-starter-relay-to-battery-etc. cables with an Ohm meter, everything looks fine. Fusable link looks fine, and measures less than 1 Ohm. Ran through all of the Haynes charging system debug routine I could, and it seems to point to the alternator (or possibly regulator, but either one would mean replacing the alternator). I also jump-started it again and checked the output voltage at the alternator. It's identical to the 11.8ish on the battery - should be quite a bit higher right(I already confirmed the fusable link is intact)?
Jump started it from my wife's van and drove it around the block, hoping maybe the original problem was just the corroded contacts. No dice, battery gauge kept dropping (headlights are essentially useless now). I'm now thinking alternator is bad, or battery just won't take a charge, as the wiring all appears to be OK, and I assume the starter and relay are fine since it starts fine from a jump. So I hooked back up the jumper cables and ran the van for a while, using the van's alternator to charge my battery. Seemed to work fine, and I could start using my own battery once I disconnected everything.
So, after all that... Sound reasonable to conclude the alternator's no good? I'll try to start it once more in the morning to make sure the battery held that 1/2 charge, then pull the alternator and have the parts store check it, and get a new one assuming it's no good.
Anything else I'm missing first? I'm probably leaving out a few things I checked, too.
AH - one other thing. While underneath inspecting the starter, I did notice that the casing for the starter motor is cracked at the upper mounting bolt. It's slightly crooked as a result - anyone ever seen this? Big problem, or no (I can try to get a picture in the morning if necessary)? I assume it's been there a while, and the truck has no problem starting off a jump so I think that's probably not the problem.
Anyway, at least this got me to clean off those contacts. One of those things I've been meaning to do for quite a while...
Thanks for any input guys!
-Bill
