volt indicator light

[84sithlord]

What sets the volt indicator light off? I've had battery and alternator checked. Both checked good. Checked grounds. All seem secure. Would a blown relay set it off? (i'm refering to a relay that i have an electric fan hooked up with) Thanks.

 

[84sithlord]

any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

[TurboRegal84]

Is the volt light constantly on or only when a certain accessory goes on? (like blower motor, fan, etc)

 

[DavzGN]

Many years ago I had a break in the circuit board on the back of the instrument cluster that caused a no charge condition.

 

[turbojd]

If you can't track down the problem with the volt light you can always use Casper electronics"field fix kit" which will let the car charge if you have a problem in the circuit board clust, providing your SOL fuse is not blown.

 

[84sithlord]

i'm not running any accessories when the light comes on and it is constantly on. some times illumination is steady bright. sometimes illimunation varies...gets bright, dim, and pulses...(make any sense?) i will have to get the field kit this wk/end to check that....in the meantime, is there anything i can do with multimeter to try and narrow down the culprit w/out throwing a bunch of parts to the car? thanks guys!

 

[84sithlord]

SOL fuse? (s@!t out of luck)? lol! lookin at the fuse box diagram in the sticky, not sure which fuse you're referring to.

 

[Jerryl]

If you can't track down the problem with the volt light you can always use Casper electronics"field fix kit" which will let the car charge if you have a problem in the circuit board clust, providing your SOL fuse is not blown.

Maybe I missed it, but I dont think there is one for the HA alternator.

i'm not running any accessories when the light comes on and it is constantly on. some times illumination is steady bright. sometimes illimunation varies...gets bright, dim, and pulses...(make any sense?) i will have to get the field kit this wk/end to check that....in the meantime, is there anything i can do with multimeter to try and narrow down the culprit w/out throwing a bunch of parts to the car? thanks guys!

Disclaimer: I suck at "electrical anything" , but this is what I remember;

It may have something to do with the brown wire from the alternator or dash connections.
The light MUST be on for the alternator to charge, and will/should go out when the alternator charges.
If the brown wire is defective or not connected, the alternator will not charge and the loight will stay on.

Put a VOM on the battery before start and after start and post the voltage readings.

 

[84sithlord]

sweet! thanks Jerryl! will do!

 

[fmster]

I had the same problem with my hotair alternator and volt light on.It turned out to be that the alternator had a slite
short in side,but it was still charging.Try another alternator.

 

[youngstr]

I had the same problem and mine was the charge wire from the alt to the battery was heat soaked and brittle and would not conduct, and the voltage had to go somewhere so it took the path of least resistance and iluminated the voltage light.....check ur charge wire for continuity, if thats it then u have a 10 dollar fix.

 

[84sithlord]

ok. here we go 12.52 vt with engine off. 14.65 vt with engine running. noticed something on scanmaster, o2 millivolts didnt go over 222 at idle (needless to say, it idled like poo.) thoughts?

 

[youngstr]

Where did you take that voltage measurement from? battery terminals? back of altenator? I only ask cause the key on sounds normal, and the running should be around 13.4 or 13.8 14.6 is just a little high, did you check continuity on your alt to battery cable? some condition is showing the regulator that it needs to turn up the voltage on the altenator, that condition could be a bad or baked wire that does not conduct check continuity on all ur altenator connections the gm plug gets baked by heat from the up pipe...check them all. that millivolts reading is the dot on ur scanmaster blinking? or solid when u see those numbers?

 

[84sithlord]

the millivolts were jumping so the dot was blinking. i checked the battery terminal posts. i found the brown wire. looks like its been repaired several times to me. i will check again this evening. i will post readings directly from alternator. i have also been having hard starts...having to give gas to get it to fire then it runs like crap until it a)burns of coolant in cylinder or b) goes into closed loop mode. i ran the no start check list and came up with results that resembled a bad ignition module. i upgraded to the 87 ignition module and coil pack, new plugs (e3's), and new plug wires. the same results.....i plan on running a compression check this weekend to verify if i have a blown head gasket...(i have a sneaking suspicion that i do at #5 cylinder). its my understanding that a blown head gasket will also make for hard starts. a guess i'm trying to put all the pieces of this puzzle out there. i really appreciate everyone's input. please keep the suggestions coming! i owe you all a beer! lol! or soda...whichever you prefer! lol!

 

[84sithlord]

btw, the volt indicator light was illuminated before i did any of the ignition upgrade....no change there.

 

[youngstr]

Ok, if ur dot on ur scanmaster is blinking the car is in open loop, now ur sensor is showing those low o2 numbers, but in open loop ur computer does not use those o2 numbers to correct the fueling, it fuels directly from the BLM table if I remember correctly. just a question, what did you gap those e3 plugs at?

 

[youngstr]

I gotta go put my new fuel rail on, so thats gonna take up my afternoon, the race is on to get the car ready to go down to nc for the nats

 

[84sithlord]

Lol! good thing is Richard's is about 35-45 min from me. getting there without overheating or something else going wrong is the trick. i will fire it up tonite and see what i get. i did notice the blm's were low as well. they gave me .42...advanced auto. i have a tt chip, 87 ecm, razor's alky, 60lbs injectors, hotwire, not sure what fuel pump is, walbro went out on me. probably a napa special. a few other things....

 

[84sithlord]

they came pre gapped

 

[youngstr]

I would ask other folks on here what they are running their e3's at, if they are gapped too wide you will start hard and stumble the more ur into the throttle. I just changed mine had to go to the good ol stand by, autolights, gapped them at 32, the ones I pulled out spread and were at .37 and .38 I installed those at .34, so went a little tighter this time just took it out, doesn't stumble at all pulls good.