Electrical disturbance....help!

[deepseeman]

please look at attachment....

 

[Crash_AF]

Contents of the .doc file to save others the trouble...

Ok, here is my issue that is making me pull my hair out. Im almost bald....help!

I have a stock 84' CUCV, still 24v. She has been running fine and then the other day I noticed my volt gage was running right at the ylw/grn line. I took a mental note and went on travelling. Went into the store and came out, started her up and noticed the gage was all grn. So I figured I had no issues.

A few days went by and it did it again. This time I made it home and had no issues....so I thought. The next day I went to start it and both my batteries were drained to below 4volts. I charged them both up and load tested them. tested fine. took my alternators off and had them tested. tested fine. I was still confused and noticed my battery cables were shabby. I replaced all battery cables and starter cables. So I gave her a start and she ran just fine.

here I am now it has been two weeks with no issues. The gage showed a drain while running and I didnt have a clue what to do. Both alts charging, cables connected properly what else could it be.? After a few stops she was still in the ylw. parked her and went out the next morning. all dead. Charged the batteries, poked around with my volt meter and was receiving 24volts at the top post of my GP relay, I cant remember if thats correct or not. This time I noticed the GP relay wasnt clicking. I cranked her over a few times and she started. Im off to the races....wrong.

I went on a weekend outing, parked her for a couple of days and it was time to leave. Went to start her and I had no instrument lights. I poked around and found that my 20amp engine fuse was blown. I replaced it and she started right up, but the volt gage is again running ylw/grn border. I got her home disconnected the batteries and went away for the holiday. I am due back on Sat. and need to have her running for work on Monday. Does anyone have a clue as to what could be wrong?

added note: sometimes my passenger headlight will be dim or not work. This has been an issue for awhile though.

Thanks for any help.....

 

[Crash_AF]

Have you taken voltmeter readings (with your multimeter) while the needle is in the yellow? It's hard to diagnose the problem while everything is charged up...

Did you check the smaller plugs on both alternators? Are either of the Gen lamps on?

Your headlight issue is a bad ground around the passenger's side headlight, check/clean it.

Later,
Joe

 

[deepseeman]

generator lights are not on. the voltage output is over 27volts combined while the meter is in the yellow. Cleaned the ground directly behind the passenger side light. Hopefully that takes care of that issue.

What would cause the engine fuse to blow?

 

[BobM]

I just went thru a similar run with my 1008. Intermittent electrical gremlins are hard to fix. Mine turned out to be (I hope!) the brown wire (That had been changed to black.) in the plastic connector of the driver's side alt. I cleaned this connection twice before going spastic on it the third time.
Good luck. Hope you got your problem solved.

 

[dunedigger]

My headlight was dim on one side when I bought it. The spades right on the back of the headlight itself were all corroded but the harness was still cleen. Cleaned up the light and greased, works great now.