Wierd voltage meter / alt 1 issue

[pinwormfood]

hi guys, here's the problem. on my 1009, my alt 1 was shot ( i suspect) so i replaced it with one a buddy of mine that laying around that came off his working truck a while back. my voltmeter is playing tricks on me. sometimes it reads in the green. sometimes, in the yellow, and then sometimes, it hardly moves off of it's resting point, way down in the red.
12 volts to the alt 1 main red wire.
12 volts to the red wire on the plug
12 volts to the brown tickler wire with key on.
i replaced the plug that goes into the alt, as that looked like the plug and connections had seen better days.

now my belt isn't the greatest, i have a new one coming.
now, truck running, i get 14.5 vdc at the rear battery, and 14.3 at the front.

batteries both tested good on load tester.
both gen1 and gen 2 lights come on with key on.

anyone have any ideas of what could be going on.
i know the guage is getting power because when you turn the key on, the needle jumps a little bit. it gets excited. lol, no pun intended.

any ideas fellas? this thing is beating me up.

thanks, pinworm

 

[Westech]

***now, truck running, i get 14.5 vdc at the rear battery, and 14.3 at the front.***

Sounds like its been hacked to 12V.... No one is going to be able to help you if that is the case.

You should get 14.5 on the front battery and 28-29 on the rear. You got some problems. Get the TM and start tracing the wires and do the trouble shooting.

 

[rnd-motorsports]

I would change the belt and see what happens A little slip from a belt will show as a weak alt the reading you are getting are not bad both batterys are 12 volt so about 14.3 14.5 is the reading you want! the only part of system that is 24 is the starter if you check the battery post or output on the alts them self you will never see over 14.5 if all is good

 

[pinwormfood]

***now, truck running, i get 14.5 vdc at the rear battery, and 14.3 at the front.***

Sounds like its been hacked to 12V.... No one is going to be able to help you if that is the case.

You should get 14.5 on the front battery and 28-29 on the rear. You got some problems. Get the TM and start tracing the wires and do the trouble shooting.

NO, it's not hacked. it's a stock 24 volt. so that rules that out. thank god. why would i get 28-29 on the rear. shouldn't a 1009 just be 12 at each battery? or 14 or so when charging?
i have the tm and I have been trying to trouble shoot, that is why i came here to help with something that I can't figure out in the tm.

 

[pinwormfood]

I would change the belt and see what happens A little slip from a belt will show as a weak alt the reading you are getting are not bad both batterys are 12 volt so about 14.3 14.5 is the reading you want! the only part of system that is 24 is the starter if you check the battery post or output on the alts them self you will never see over 14.5 if all is good

is there a test that I can do AT my alternator with my multimeter to see what it's putting out? right now, at the battery looks good, or at least ok...so why would my gauge change its mind as to what it will show? even at 14.3 or so, it should read in the yellow. right?

i guess another question i have, the gauge, what exactly does it read and where does it get it's information from? perhaps something is screwy there.

thoughts?

 

[rod]

NO, it's not hacked. it's a stock 24 volt. so that rules that out. thank god. why would i get 28-29 on the rear. shouldn't a 1009 just be 12 at each battery? or 14 or so when charging?
i have the tm and I have been trying to trouble shoot, that is why i came here to help with something that I can't figure out in the tm.

Nope you need 24+ volts at the rear battery to spin your 24 volt starter.

 

[Westech]

I give up.. The TM's are wrote to a 5th grade rearing and understanding level. Just forget it.

 

[pinwormfood]

Nope you need 24+ volts at the rear battery to spin your 24 volt starter.

ok, let me get this straight. when i put my voltmeter leads on the pos and neg terminal of the rear battery, i will get 24 volts?

 

[pinwormfood]

I give up.. The TM's are wrote to a 5th grade rearing and understanding level. Just forget it.

ok, you are right and i give up. wanna buy my truck for cheap? it's not working so i don't want it anymore.

come on. it's lousy attitudes like that which prevent people from learning in a positive environment. ****, you should have just told me i was a retard, and i should not bother with such things, and let the "grown ups" handle it.

 

[pinwormfood]

retest

ok, i went to check again, lest I am retarded.
i have 12.91 volts on battery 1(front batt) pos and neg terminals to the leads on my voltmeter

i have 13.06 volts on battery 2 (rear batt) pos and neg terminals to the leads on my voltmeter

now across the two batteries, one lead touching the neg of the front battery and one lead touching the pos post of the rear batter (the post toward the firewall and marked pos on the body of the battery) I get 25.98 volts.

so how is my system hacked? am i missing something here that they didn't teach me in 5th grade?

all insults and screwing around aside....how is the truck hacked or not wired right?

 

[pinwormfood]

I give up.. The TM's are wrote to a 5th grade rearing and understanding level. Just forget it.

were written.

reading, not rearing.

thanks for the help westech. but hey, at least you can read the TM's.

 

[mistaken1]

It helps when reporting voltages to indicate where the meter leads are located when you take your measurement. I see you did that in a later post. 14.3V across one battery and 14.5V across the other battery when running sounds good to me.

Perhaps your issue is intermittent or you voltage meter is bad (or simply a loose and corroded connection at the meter).


Just to defend Westech (not that he needs my defense) there seems to be a lot of new people jumping on the site and posting 'their truck don't work how do I fix it' without putting any effort into reading and following the manuals. It is one thing when someone has tried and is stumped and needs help verses someone who appears too lazy to bother with the manuals and wants someone else to do the troubleshooting work for them.

I had an older instructor (security system vendor) tell me that young people today cannot read and follow manuals. He said they have to be shown how to do something or else they will never be able to install the system if all you give them is the manual. Personally I believe these young people suffer from poor reading comprehension as they went through public skool believing that reading is only for geeks and dweebs.

 

[AZDeuce]

Pinwormfood:

My CUCV has been down for over 3 months, so I ain't your expert, but I'm learning, and I think some of the information you've been provided is bogus, compared to what I have learned both from manuals and the help of some very electrically educated members on this site.

I just discovered 2 weeks ago that my fusebox had melted several of the connector pins between the engne harness and the fuse box, and thats the main problem of my CUCV (M1009). I have take out harness and fusebox on the way. Thanks to members on this site.

THE TESTS:

First, with the key OFF, put you multi meter on Alt 1 (drivers side), the main wire and the red wire in the dual plug, you should have around 12.5V, Btry 1 (closest too radiator) should be the same whether its 12.3 or 11,9 due to a low battery isn't important, but all 3 readings should be the same.

Alt 2 doing the same check will show 24.5V (give or take) at both the main wire, and the red wire on the dual plug, but only 12.5 (or so) at Btry #2.

Now turn the Key on and you should get 12V or close to it on the brown wire (also known as the exciter wire) on Alt #1, I cannot remember the reading for Alt 2's brown wire it could be 24V but i believe it's 12V also (sorry don't remember).

Also I may have screwed up, and you will only get power on the red dual plug wire with the key ON, but as long as you get power on both of the red dual plug wires at some point you should be ok. You will only getpower at both brown "exciter wires" on the dual pliug when the key is ON.

Start the truck, and take the same readings at the main wire, and the red wire on the dual plug. On Alt 1 you should be getting 14.5 (more or less) and the same on Btry 1.

On Alt 2 you should be getting between 27-28V on both the main red wire, and the red wire on the dualplug, but will only get 14.5 at Btry 2. this is CORRECT, and don't fret it.

If that all checks out, then, I'd look at the connections going to or coming from your volt meter.

Hope this helps, and I didn't confuse you any worse than you already are.

Good Luck