I was putting a relay away and managed to ground the pole on something, the hot wire for this relay was plugged in the fuse block using a blade connector and an ignition slot, there are several of those slots, anyway end game now I don't have power to any of the ingnition slots on the fuse block, car starts runs fine but i don't have power for my scanmaster and stuff, everything thats fused with regular fuses works, is there a fuseable link that controls those IGN slots on the fuse block or has someone else run into this problem before?
no power to ignition slots on the fuse block ! eek!!
- Thread starter youngstr
- Start date
novaderrik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
those slots operate off one of the fuses in the fuse box.. check the fuses in that area of the block with a test light.
Thank you for the suggestion, I'm done for today, but I'm gonna pull every fuse on that block and check'm all first thing in the morning. I cut my losses earlier today and wired all my stuff to the battery slot and used a relay mounted under the switches in the console to ativate them on key on, If I get the ign slots working again it will be bonus at this point. My car has had an electrical stroke this month, I lost the alternator 2 weeks ago, got it rebuilt and put back on only to find out for some reason I don't seem to have enough voltage on the gm plug to activate the voltage regulator, then when I thought to just run a fresh wire from the ignition slot in the fuse block I go and bump a relay and ground it and take out the ignition slots.....yep...time to call it a day, someone elses cause it sure aint mine...time to drink some beer.
novaderrik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
you don't even need to pull the fuses to check them- you can use a test light on the exposed metal tabs on the back of the fuses with them plugged in.. each fuse has 2 tabs, and if there is only power to one of them it means the fuse is blown.
Ok, Swapped a fuse out that looked iffy I had a test light, but couldn't get any juice accross any of the tabs on the fuses, pulled them one by one and broke out the ohm meter and tested them for continuity, all showed good except one, and like magic voodoo I have ingnition slots hot again..... I really expected them to have over engineered it and had it running off a fusible link in some impossible to find or get to kind of place.....Now I'm down to my original problem, that charging circuit with the GM plug that goes into the alternator. From what I'm told its supposed to have voltage on the sensing line that tells the voltage regulator to turn on and what voltage to run at.... I'm all good with that it makes sense, but I don't get how exactly it works when the VR doesn't work, guess I'm looking for a walk thru on how the circuit works so I can understand it, which would no doubt help me fix it. How much voltage should come across the sensing line that goes to your voltage light? that would be a good place to start. If anyone can spell it out for me I would apreciate it.
Ok, heres what I got, after using my bat charger and putting a good charge on it, at the battery I'm showing 12.65 v key on 12.2 , at the alternator, gm plug pin 1 (from voltage light) at plug 0 volts, key on 12.2, pin 2 (comes from alt + pole) at plug 12.65 volts, key on 12.2 , all seems pretty good as far as I can tell..... heres where it gets weird, engine running - pin 1 12.48v pin 2 14.6v and the weird part scanmaster 2.1 says batt 11.8v which as the cooling fan kicks in slowly falls I can drive across town and back and pull in the driveway scanmaster reads 10.8 v and then turn it off and at battery i show 11.56v kinda like its charging but can't keep up, but voltage reading when running look like its charging away, ..... so..... can anyone make heads or tails of these numbers? I tried to get readings key off, key on and running at the gm plug at the top of the alternator seems like alternator is charging but it doesn't seem to be carring thru the system, could I be chasing a bad ground? if so where?
novaderrik
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 12, 2004
does the "volt" light in the dash come on with the key on and the engine not running? the power to activate the voltage regulator goes thru that bulb.
if the light doesn't come on you might have a blown bulb or be getting a bad connection at the back of the cluster.
with the key on, push in on the cluster- if the light comes on, then you have a bad connection. the best way to fix it is to pull the cluster out and clean all the contacts with a soft pencil eraser. then take a small screwdriver and bend the tabs up a little bit for a more solid connection. i did this on my car back in '04, and it's been good ever since.
if the light doesn't come on you might have a blown bulb or be getting a bad connection at the back of the cluster.
with the key on, push in on the cluster- if the light comes on, then you have a bad connection. the best way to fix it is to pull the cluster out and clean all the contacts with a soft pencil eraser. then take a small screwdriver and bend the tabs up a little bit for a more solid connection. i did this on my car back in '04, and it's been good ever since.
when you turn the key low voltage light comes on nice an bright, goes out when you start it, voltage come off the alternater pole to the battery is 14.6 yet the ecm sees it as 11.8. thats what makes me think i'm chasing a ground....like something that grounds the ecm.
Alrighty.... I pulled the dash plate and cluster and made sure that my plug was seated proper, and my low voltage light comes on at key on, and goes off when the cars started, but the internal regulator on the alternator does not come on....
on the gm plug I'm showing 12.4 v on the line that the low voltage light is connected while running, and the other wire that goes to alt pole is showing 14.6 v when running and at battery i'm showing 11.7 v running , ecm showing 11.5 and dropping while running.
Would it help to pull the mount bolt for the alt and slide a hoop and ground wire on it and put the bolt back in, and ground that wire to the large ground coming off the battery? I'm wondering if a weak alt ground is why the regulator is not kickin on....anyone got a different theory or am I on the right track?
on the gm plug I'm showing 12.4 v on the line that the low voltage light is connected while running, and the other wire that goes to alt pole is showing 14.6 v when running and at battery i'm showing 11.7 v running , ecm showing 11.5 and dropping while running.
Would it help to pull the mount bolt for the alt and slide a hoop and ground wire on it and put the bolt back in, and ground that wire to the large ground coming off the battery? I'm wondering if a weak alt ground is why the regulator is not kickin on....anyone got a different theory or am I on the right track?
unhooked the adj bolt on the alt and sanded the finish off the bolt hole on both the alt and bracket, then put a wire with a hoop end on the bolt and re installed it, connected it to a know good ground and still no regulator. I turn the key to on and have a voltage light in the dash on, then start the car and no voltage light, but no charging either..... This is starting to really get under my skin , I'm usually pretty good with electrical stuff. Anyone got any ideas?
, I'm usually pretty good with electrical stuff. Anyone got any ideas? BRAD_PADGETT
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
unhooked the adj bolt on the alt and sanded the finish off the bolt hole on both the alt and bracket, then put a wire with a hoop end on the bolt and re installed it, connected it to a know good ground and still no regulator. I turn the key to on and have a voltage light in the dash on, then start the car and no voltage light, but no charging either..... This is starting to really get under my skin
I recall reading way back when that if the volt light in the dash is burned out the alternator will not work properly. It is a simple check or if someone else can recall this better than me- please chime in. Brad
The voltage light seems to work fine, when you turn the ignition to ON it lights up along with the check engin and oil lights, on steady, then when you start the car they all go out. The light doesn't seem to be the problem, I just took the # 2 wire on the gm plug that is supposed to go to either batt+ or the + pole on the alt and moved it from the + pole on the alt to batt + pole. at key on Gm plug unplugged, #2 wire has batt voltage 12.6v, wire# 1 from the voltage light has 12.2v starting the car same #1 11.8v #2 12.1v, now, plugging the plug back into the alt, on #1 I have 14.6v running, and # 2 has 12.1v ???? ok that last one would that imply that #1 terminal for the gm plug has become ground and the regulator in the alt is bad? sorry had to edit , wrote some stuff backwards.
Well, now its even more confusing, I just went down and started it, and thought to check voltage at the alt pole, all is the same with the other voltages, but I'm showing over 19 volts at the pole of the alt, travel down the 10 gauge charge wire 2 whole feet and it 11.9 and the battery charge wire is good no breaks no frays.....the problem almost has to be a ground, how could I show that much voltage at the alt and yet none of it seems to be getting to the battery?
Actually I thought stock was a 12si remy delco alternator....which is 3 wire gm set up hot from the charging post of the alt to battery and an internal regulator using the infamous GM plug with a red and white wire. but no I'm using a 12si powermaster so same wiring pattern. The regulator was doing its job, it kept seeing that the voltage wasn't going up so it kept turning the output of the alt up trying to adjust to the situation, my problem wasn't voltage there was plenty coming out of the alternator, the problem was it wasn't moving, lots of voltage no current, on testing the charge wire I had continuity but turns out the was a lot of resistance evidently the wire was baked by the uppipe that runs right behind it like a typical hotair setup, I strapped a fresh piece of the same 8 guage wire on and boom....13.5 volts at idle, 13.8 off idle, charging like a champ.
Thank you to all who tried to help out, electrical problems can be such a pain, so much time wasted, car sitting, and I hate that cause I love to drive it. I'm glad it's fixed and that it was only 3 dollars and a lot of wasted time...didn't get to put on my fancy bilstien shocks that I just got. oh well next weekend.
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