AZDeuce
Active member
- 484
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- 28
- Location
- Tonopah, AZ
I am at my wit's end! My Blazer has been DOWN due to electrical problems since November 2010!
I have had several posts on this beast over the last 8 months, but haven't asked any questions in 2-3 months. But I'm asking now.
Heres the deal:
Took the M1009 to my buddy, Javier, who is one of our electricians at work, he said he'd look at it for me, because he was tired of my crying, this was a couple months ago.
The truck's #2 Alternator wouldn't charge, I had rebuilt the alternator twice, and both time it worked, sometimes for days as long as I kept it in the yard at idle, but once on the road, I rarely got more than a hundred yards and the #2 Alt light would come on.
WHAT IN THE WORLD!!??
Javier had the thing for 3-4 weeks, and couldn't figure it out, he asked me to come over 2 weeks ago, and help walk him through the 24V part of the truck.
When I got there he had a 12V reading on the #2 Alts Exciter Wire.........WITH THE POWER OFF! I'm pretty sure #2 exciter wire should be 24V but ONLY with the key in the ON position.
Is this correct?
So I turned the key on, and he still had 12V instead of 24V. But then he pulled the plug off of the #2 Alt (key off) and he checked the brown wire at the plug and got NO reading.....but when he put his multi-meter on the male ends of where the plug connects to the Aternator, it had 12V flowing backwards from it on the exciter wire connector.
I NEVER thought that the power might be flowing backwards, so that was a good catch on Javier's part. So that meant there must be some kind of malfunction of the Alternator......AGAIN!
When we turned the key on, he checked the exciter wire at the plug, and I believe it had 24V. So I had BOTH of my Isolated Ground Alternators rebuilt at a local shop with a GREAT reputation. (Gen-Star, Glendale, AZ)
I gave the rebuilt Alt to Javier, a week later, he called me up and said your truck is working great, come pick it up. I did, and it seemed to be working great...until I turned the headlights on, I know my switch is worn, and I have to wiggle it to get it to work. The front lights came on, but I had no tail ights. The flashers/turn signals/brake lights all worked however. Just no tail lights, (YES, I checked the bulbs)
I drove it into town (about 30 miles one way) while in town I went to make a turn, but the turn signals didn't work, neither did the horn, flashers or BRAKE LIGHTS!
They just quit working but my charging system was still ok. I high tailed it home on the freeway, so I wouln't have to rely on my non-existant brake lights.
When I got home, I killed the truck, and restarted it, all the Alt lights came on, then went out just like GM had intened them to do. I bought and installed a new light switch but it did NOT help....still no lights what-so-ever.
So I wrote some MV friends about the lights, and one wrote back and said to by- pass the flip up/down black-out switch to the left of the light switch.
So this morning I pulled the dash, and the switch right next to the light switch, I unplugged the wiring harness plug from the switch, and took readings with the key on and off, (I know it SHOULD work with the key off) but I got NO voltage, on my multi-meter either way from any of the wires on that plug.
I had already scoped out some 12V recepticles in the fuse box that weren't doing anything, so had bought some 14 Ga wire, and a inline fuse holder and some 25A fuses.
I cut all of the wires from the plug,and stripped them, I re-tested them, and now got a 12V reading on the solid orange wire....why I didn't get a reading while it was in the plug beats me.
I put all the 16 GA and smaller wires together (there was 4 of them I believe), and inserted them into a 12Ga crimp connector, connected the two 14 Ga wires into the other end, and figured I was good to go.
But still no healights when I pulled out the switch......DOH! I took a reading on the orange wire that had just showed me 12V and now it was dead. So I cut all of the wires out of the crimp connector. I discovered when the Orange wire was free of the orange with black stripe wire
it had power, connect it to another wire and it would quit working.
Beats me, but I'm sure that aint right.
So I hooked up my in-line fused wire to the fuse box and ran it for power instead. Now I had headlights, tail lights, horn, brake lghts, flashers, and turn signals
WOO-HOO! We're back in business!
So, I re-install the dash, then go to start it, the lights came on but #1 Alt's light was dimmer than before, when I fired it up, the #2 light never went off.......DOH!
I took a reading on the #2 battery while she was running it showed 12V (instead of 14.5V), I checked the plug, while still attached to the Alt, and the brown wire showed 12V, and the red one only 24V instead of the normal 27V.
I shut the truck off, even with the key off, I had a 12V reading on the #2 exciter wire.
I started taking wires off one at a time off of the engine harness block on the firewall, when I removed one of the big red wires, I found the wire had 24V flowing through it, With that wire disconnected I checked the exciter wire on #2,(it's still connected to the Alt), and now I got 24V.........but the key is OFF. It should be 0.
I'm at a loss........where should I go from here? My guess is that I should pull the engine harness apart and look for two bare/burnt wires making an unauthorized connection. What else could it be?
I have one isolated ground Alt. left, I don't want to "waste" it. I need to figure out whats wrong and fix it first, THEN and only THEN will I install the rebuilt alternator.
I think it's weird that the power wire going to the blackout switch would have power while disconnected, but once connected it no longer has power, I'm wondering if the lights and alt problems are somehow connected?
I'm wondering if by by-passing the original power source, and forcing power to the lights with my inline fused wire, I
back fed something, and killed the alternator.
Anybody have an idea.......I'm lost!
I have had several posts on this beast over the last 8 months, but haven't asked any questions in 2-3 months. But I'm asking now.
Heres the deal:
Took the M1009 to my buddy, Javier, who is one of our electricians at work, he said he'd look at it for me, because he was tired of my crying, this was a couple months ago.
The truck's #2 Alternator wouldn't charge, I had rebuilt the alternator twice, and both time it worked, sometimes for days as long as I kept it in the yard at idle, but once on the road, I rarely got more than a hundred yards and the #2 Alt light would come on.
WHAT IN THE WORLD!!??
Javier had the thing for 3-4 weeks, and couldn't figure it out, he asked me to come over 2 weeks ago, and help walk him through the 24V part of the truck.
When I got there he had a 12V reading on the #2 Alts Exciter Wire.........WITH THE POWER OFF! I'm pretty sure #2 exciter wire should be 24V but ONLY with the key in the ON position.
Is this correct?
So I turned the key on, and he still had 12V instead of 24V. But then he pulled the plug off of the #2 Alt (key off) and he checked the brown wire at the plug and got NO reading.....but when he put his multi-meter on the male ends of where the plug connects to the Aternator, it had 12V flowing backwards from it on the exciter wire connector.
I NEVER thought that the power might be flowing backwards, so that was a good catch on Javier's part. So that meant there must be some kind of malfunction of the Alternator......AGAIN!
When we turned the key on, he checked the exciter wire at the plug, and I believe it had 24V. So I had BOTH of my Isolated Ground Alternators rebuilt at a local shop with a GREAT reputation. (Gen-Star, Glendale, AZ)
I gave the rebuilt Alt to Javier, a week later, he called me up and said your truck is working great, come pick it up. I did, and it seemed to be working great...until I turned the headlights on, I know my switch is worn, and I have to wiggle it to get it to work. The front lights came on, but I had no tail ights. The flashers/turn signals/brake lights all worked however. Just no tail lights, (YES, I checked the bulbs)
I drove it into town (about 30 miles one way) while in town I went to make a turn, but the turn signals didn't work, neither did the horn, flashers or BRAKE LIGHTS!
They just quit working but my charging system was still ok. I high tailed it home on the freeway, so I wouln't have to rely on my non-existant brake lights.
When I got home, I killed the truck, and restarted it, all the Alt lights came on, then went out just like GM had intened them to do. I bought and installed a new light switch but it did NOT help....still no lights what-so-ever.
So I wrote some MV friends about the lights, and one wrote back and said to by- pass the flip up/down black-out switch to the left of the light switch.
So this morning I pulled the dash, and the switch right next to the light switch, I unplugged the wiring harness plug from the switch, and took readings with the key on and off, (I know it SHOULD work with the key off) but I got NO voltage, on my multi-meter either way from any of the wires on that plug.
I had already scoped out some 12V recepticles in the fuse box that weren't doing anything, so had bought some 14 Ga wire, and a inline fuse holder and some 25A fuses.
I cut all of the wires from the plug,and stripped them, I re-tested them, and now got a 12V reading on the solid orange wire....why I didn't get a reading while it was in the plug beats me.
I put all the 16 GA and smaller wires together (there was 4 of them I believe), and inserted them into a 12Ga crimp connector, connected the two 14 Ga wires into the other end, and figured I was good to go.
But still no healights when I pulled out the switch......DOH! I took a reading on the orange wire that had just showed me 12V and now it was dead. So I cut all of the wires out of the crimp connector. I discovered when the Orange wire was free of the orange with black stripe wire
it had power, connect it to another wire and it would quit working.
Beats me, but I'm sure that aint right.
So I hooked up my in-line fused wire to the fuse box and ran it for power instead. Now I had headlights, tail lights, horn, brake lghts, flashers, and turn signals
WOO-HOO! We're back in business!
So, I re-install the dash, then go to start it, the lights came on but #1 Alt's light was dimmer than before, when I fired it up, the #2 light never went off.......DOH!
I took a reading on the #2 battery while she was running it showed 12V (instead of 14.5V), I checked the plug, while still attached to the Alt, and the brown wire showed 12V, and the red one only 24V instead of the normal 27V.
I shut the truck off, even with the key off, I had a 12V reading on the #2 exciter wire.
I started taking wires off one at a time off of the engine harness block on the firewall, when I removed one of the big red wires, I found the wire had 24V flowing through it, With that wire disconnected I checked the exciter wire on #2,(it's still connected to the Alt), and now I got 24V.........but the key is OFF. It should be 0.
I'm at a loss........where should I go from here? My guess is that I should pull the engine harness apart and look for two bare/burnt wires making an unauthorized connection. What else could it be?
I have one isolated ground Alt. left, I don't want to "waste" it. I need to figure out whats wrong and fix it first, THEN and only THEN will I install the rebuilt alternator.
I think it's weird that the power wire going to the blackout switch would have power while disconnected, but once connected it no longer has power, I'm wondering if the lights and alt problems are somehow connected?
I'm wondering if by by-passing the original power source, and forcing power to the lights with my inline fused wire, I
back fed something, and killed the alternator.
Anybody have an idea.......I'm lost!