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Thanks for your help Rondog, Nukeday, and others. I hooked up the new
Voltage Regulator and it turned off my gen light. Also seems to not blow the fuse either.

That's good news Zane. Guess I should go get one for my truck too...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Ok, not quite out of the woods yet. My fuse seems to be holding up so far. I think there may be a simple mixup on wriing. Remember the
BY (Black-Yellow stripe) that comes V. Regulator? I am not sure if that goes to my Heat or Gen light. The wire has juice to it though and the light comes on. I have my Haynes manual, but the wire diagram will have to be photocopied at a bigger size. Dang thing is hard to read!

Finally broke down and bought a new voltage regulator for the '78. The one I won off ebay doesn't appear to be the right part, grrrr.

Anyway, dropped it in there on top of the brake lines (it's temporary, I swear), plugged it in and everything works like it should. I haven't driven the truck yet though, so who knows...

I definately got my money's worth on this truck. $200 doesn't go far these days, hahaha...

When I get the old one out I'm going to see if I can put some emery paper to it and then set the air gap per the manual. I might be able to fix it enough to call it a spare...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Truck runs MUCH better with the new voltage regulator. I haven't had it over 50, but it would only go about 20 feet before and then blow the VR fuse. This is good news

While t-shooting, I messed with the fuel pump relay to see if I could restore the fuel pump to the original wiring. The black/red from the relay also goes to some sort of solenoid on the carb, and when I left that disconnected (so as not to have a random 12V source in the harness) the accelerator response was incredibly quick. I reconnected it when I replaced the VR. Now, with the new VR, this solenoid cycles the fuel pump relay on start up. After tapping the gas, it stops. There are some cut wires on the carb and in the harness, so I will see what that's about. Good news is this solenoid (run on solenoid?) seems to be working properly, as does the relay. It shuts down decisively now, an unexpected improvement. Now to get the actual fuel pump back in the circuit...

Wiring is a pain, but the satisfaction of getting it corrected sure is nice

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

That is good you are narrowing down your wiriing.

If those the $200 doesnt go far, it goes even less with some of the new cars. Though if you are at the right place at the right itme, you can get a deal.

A lot of the repairing on these trucks, especially wiring, is putting back other peoples mickey mouse, improperly diagnosed, and fixes. They couldn't figure out what was wrong, so they just run jumper wires and such. And then we have to figure out what they did and why, and then fix it properly.

It is a good feeling when you get figured out and fixed correctly though.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Sure wish this truck would give me some 'good feelings', rondog. ARGH.

I drove the truck in town a bit after the new VR was installed and felt confident enough to take it to work 15 miles away on 55/65 Mph roads. This turned out to be a REALLY BAD IDEA. Got less than a mile away and the VR fuse blew, 4 times in 100ft. I seriously considered pushing the truck down the embankment along I-5 where it quit. Instead, I ended up spending $65 on a tow truck and being 2 hours late for work.

I was so angry with the situation that I spent 3 hours replacing every single vacuum line on my '85 Olds Custom Cruiser (with the E4ME carb!). Yeah, about 20 feet of 5/32" hose in 2" to 2' increments. That'll show 'em. Hahaha...really, I just need ONE reliable vehicle. My unfortunate choices right now are the Luv or the National Lampoon Woody Vacation Wagon, and I'm pretty sick of messing with the Luv. The Olds has a TH200R-4, and the OD was hunting pretty badly. It's like riding an old roller coaster on the inclines...hurketty jerketty... It's hard enough to look cool in grandpa's oldsmobile without it hiccuping it's way down the highway. Still haven't verified if I fixed anything, but at least it still runs. I'll run it out later tonight and see if I did any good, I need to adjust the headlights anyway...

I think rondog has it right on this one. The fuel pump is an aftermarket Purolator (and it's noisy!) and it's been hard wired around the relay. I don't recall at the moment how it was done, but I'm guessing that's the problem. The rest of the wiring in the truck is suprisingly untouched. The heater/wiper/radio circuit has been hacked into and there are taps in the wiper motor wiring but that's about it. I'm guessing someone had an intermittent delay added in to the wipers at one time. Only other change is my electronic dizzy, a cheap stereo, and a new blower fan.

So as not be completely bleak, there is one perk to the regulator swap. The fuel gauge now appears to work below 1/2 full. Coincidence maybe, but I was suprised to see it register at 1/4 tank. Yay?! Probably just means that's one more circuit I should check...

More to come. This has got to be the most problematic rig I've bought in a long time. I will get it running, eventually...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Remember the old Charlie Brown movies where he yells ....

AAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!

for like 1/2 an hour? hahahaha...

That was me today after about 8 hours of rewiring, tracing, and retracing the circuits in my '78...

I rewired the fuel pump per the factory drawings for a Series 8, but some of the carb wiring colors don't match. I've got 2 wires that are snipped and go no where coming from the truck side harness to the carb, and a third with a factory bullet on it that's not connected to anything. Bleah...

While messing with it, I found some stuff under the dash that really got me scratching my head. There were two BW wires tied together and taped off. I didn't like the looks of it, so I pulled the tape off, cleaned up the ends and ... no start. Looks like the BW wires are part of one of the pedal switch circuits. The switches for the clutch/brake not only are inop, but the buttons on them don't come remotely close to landing on the pad for either pedal. So, someone jumpered these together to complete the start circuit. BUT, before I figured that out, I hardwired around the fuel pump relay, so I could drive the d&*m thing. I'll put it right tomorrow, I didn't figure this out until I was cleaning up and putting everything back together.

So, after all that, I took it for a spin and at about 25 mph, it blew the Voltage Regulator fuse. hmmm...

The cascading relays under the fender cover both seem to work, but I've already snipped and staked the fuel pump relay connectors for an aftermarket relay. I'll pick one up in the next day or two. I can't be sure the pulsating I had when it was wired correctly is coming from the relay itself or the solenoid on the carb. Before I replaced the VR fuse, I pulled the ballast resistor out of the circuit, and drove it home and parked it.

So, I could really use a bit of assistance on this thing. If someone with a STOCK '78 could go look at their truck and write down the colors of some stuff, that would be uber helpful. What I'm looking for is the 4 wires coming out of the harness connector just under the passenger side wiper post, and their corresponding colors on the chassis side. So, both sides of the connector. Also, the wire colors coming off the carb itself, obviously there should be 4. Does that make any sense? A pic or two would be cool too, and maybe easier to decipher.

I will make this run, but your help would be appreciated. Thanks!

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

I need one of those! I have a 77, will it match up?
Please PM me if its available, and how to pay, etc
Thanks

he still has it you can send money order or paypal... money order for $24 or paypal for $26 ...let me know which way and ill send you info

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My old but now gone Luv...

paypal is easiest worth the two bucks extra.
Gotta headlight light switch?
thanks

I was out messing with the truck a couple of days ago, popping fuses and so forth when I noticed the battery was bubbling over while it was running...hmmmm...

Well, I've never seen it, but I know that a bad alternator can overcharge a battery and cause all sorts of weird stuff.

So, I swapped the alternator with an extra I had here, jumpered the VR fuse with my little speaker wire and started the truck.

Last week, I had to make a new jumper becuase I melted the insulation between my gator clips. So I know something was putting out way too much voltage. Tonight, the jumper stayed nice and cool.

I'll test drive it over the next couple of days and see what happens, but I think it will run again.

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Your regulator might be bad. It is stuck on full charge and over charging to the battery.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Thanks Ron. That was my original diagnosis also. It has a brand new regulator, which I hope I didn't damage with my troubleshooting.

I'm pretty confident the alternator was the problem, but I'm no where near ready to say I fixed it. When I had it running last week, if I turned on all the accessories and lights then the battery bubbling would just about stop. So, a load seemed to settle it down. The other key piece was that it was popping the VR fuse at prolonged, high speed. Originally it would not do it any other time. So, constant overvoltage at speed = bubbling battery, alternator degradation and ultimately a fried fuse and total alternator failure (constant high voltage out).

I put back the ignition switch that was in the truck when I bought it, and also reinstalled the battery cables that were in it when I bought it. For my check tonight, I even snapped the old Voltage Regulator back in. All in an attempt to alleviate any 'upgrades' I might have done that were causing the problem. I even pulled the inline fuse for the stereo. Basically, instead of NO output this alternator seems to have failed the other way, with TOO much output. I'm going to try to take the old alternator in to AutoZoned or Napa and have it checked. I can't call the truck trustworthy until I know...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

The alt. is on full charge all the time. That all is knows how to do. The regulator does just what it name says, it regulates how much juice goes to the truck from the alt. It's like a water facet.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Yup, but if the circuit is shorted, the alternator will run full-field (overcharge). So I may still have a short somewhere in the circuit. The VR fuse was blowing becuse the regulator was not able to adjust for the voltage coming out of the alt. Still looking for a spec, but generally a regulator only regulates up to about 14.7 volts +/- .5 volt. The typical current draw is around 6-10 amps or so with no load. Amperage decreases and voltage increases as the load is increased (within limits obviously), which is why my battery stopped bubbling with all the stuff turned on. Like water, there is both volume (voltage) and pressure (amperage) to consider. In the water analogy, a pop off valve would be the the fuse. Basically the VR fuse keeps the whole thing from developing too much pressure and blowing the spigot off the pipe...

Jeez, it's been too long since I messed with this formulaic stuff, I should probably go double check my facts somewhere. I'm pretty knowledgable, but I'm definately rusty.

Thanks for keeping an eye on me, with my luck I'll melt the harness before I get it right...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Ok, so I should quit trying to be soooo smart and just listen to you guys.
My new NAPA voltage regulator was putting out 17 volts. Yah, the battery didn't like it much. I had another here, put it in and it settled in right at 12V with no load. Thanks rondog.

I also took a little time and followed taz's recommendation and cleaned up a bunch of terminals.

Since it's been sitting, the choke looks like it's stuck, the dizzy cap is all chalky and it misses every once in awhile. But it runs without popping fuses. I'lm going to take it out for a drive in a bit.

The alternator I had here is about twice the size of the one that came off the truck and I had to pull the smog pump to get it to fit. While doing so, I found that all four of the air tubes in the head were loose. One was actually all the way backed out. No wonder it was running like crap. I tightened them up, but since I know they will come right out, does anyone know what size brass plugs I need so I can pull the runner completely?

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

When I got back from my little jaunt described above, the battery was totally flat. My 3rd voltage regulator was not charging the battery, or the battery was cooked dead. Grrr. I let it sit a couple of days.

Finally got a little bit of time today to sort this out some more...

I don't know why I didn't think of this much sooner, but I took a meter to the '79 4x4 to compare it to the '78. Duh.

Anyway, the only differences I could find were the electronic ignition and the ignition switch. We've been over the ignition switch several times, and I pretty much blew it off, as the truck ran fine when I got it with the switch that was in it. It was a 3 pole marine type switch, and the IGN and ACC were tied to the same post. I took some time to actually read the manual and it clearly says that these should NOT be connected. But like I said, it ran that way when I got it. When I started working on wiring it correctly, I started having all these voltage regulator problems. The more I tried to get the fuel pump wired to spec, the more problems I seemed to have.

So, I went and bought a 4 pole switch (Echlin ECHKS6180). I put the original voltage regulator back in, and I then hardwired the fuel pump to the input side of the ballast resistor. Put in a different battery (I think the old one was boiled out). Started it up and let it idle to get nice and warm. Had about 13.8 VDC at the battery, 12.6 VDC with the lights, stereo and blower all on. Had 10.5 VDC on the output side of the ballast resistor. Took it for a 15 minute drive at 60 and the fuse held. The VR was humming pretty good though, so it's still suspect.

If you recall, I replaced the alternator a few days ago. So, I'm not entirely sure what actually fixed it. At this point I'm not sure it matters, I'm pretty sick of working on the d@mn thing.

Anyway, I'm going to pick up some deck boards tomorrow, it should be interesting to see how it does. It's going to take a long time for me to trust this truck again...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

A quick update on this:

- I replaced the original battery cables, and found the stud in the starter solenoid was backed out and loose. I repaired it and ohm'd it out before I put the old starter cable back on.

- Replaced the battery

- Cleaned the contacts for the fuel gauge, at the sender. Still need to clean the dash connection...

- Cleaned and reinstalled the two fenderwell harness grounds

- Replaced a funky turn signal bulb (glass came loose from the seat)

- Moved the fuel pump wiring to the input side of the ballast resistor

- Put a spare package of fuses and a brand new electronic VR on the passenger seat

Took it out to a co-worker's house today across town, getting up to about 55 three or four times for a couple of minutes each time. Uneventful trip, and I brought back a bunch of boards to make my shop bench and shelves so I can organize and make room for the '75 in the garage

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison