LUVTruck.com

Alrighty last night i was driving around whith all the accsesories on (fan motor on high lights on and turnsignals on) And i noticed that my GEN light came on super dim and pulsed in time whith the blinker. Well i took a multi meter to the batery and it was reading just shy of 14volts when the motor was running and about 13.5 whith the motor off. Thats perty standard. So i had my alternator checked and it checked out as good. Could this be a small amount of a voltage regulator problem manifesting? My front blinkers are aftermarket ones for trailers so they draw some amperage i suppose (they blink slower than the stock ones did). Thanks for the input.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

well i tested the voltage regulator and everything checked out except it pushed 15.2 volts insted of 14.8volts. So its a little high. Could this be a side effect of the electronic ignition?

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

I would not think the ignition would factor into the charging system much. The thing that finally got rid of the slight glowing gen light on my 77 was hooking up grounding straps from the motor/trans to the cab. Could be you just have a loose ground some place on the truck. Apparently, bad grounds in the cab/body like to leak back through the charge light and cause it to glow a bit. Mine tended to get brighter with the heater blower turned up but it was always on a bit unless everything was turned off.

well its glowing realy dim randomely sometime now. When i started the truck it was on and then i hit a bump and it turned off. I was beginging to suspect a bad conection. I guess ill check that ground strap, last time i pulled the motor i seem to remeber it beeing in bad shape.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

Where is this ground strap that you speak of ? I should probably check mine on the '79. I had the same exact glowing that XL speaks of and it did it the same way, was not there when everything was off, but got brighter when heater was turned up. Now the truck won't start at all, battery is fine, just no juice to anything, not even the dome light. Completely dead. So I am guessing bad connections somewhere. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

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http://www.purerockradio.net/

I've got the same problem on my 79. In the process of restoring it now and thinking of replacing all the grounds while I've got it apart.

the strap comes from the shifter tower to the body in tranny tunnel.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

If you don't want to crawl under your truck to check it out, just buy any old battery cable and bolt it on somewhere. You can put it under the hood somewhere from the eng. block to anywhere on the body. If the original down on the trans. is still good, You won't hurt anything by having an extra ground wire.

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

Yeah it sure don't hurt to have more than one good ground. I tied the harness in the back to the frame and the bed, replaced the trans tunnel wire, and hooked the block to the firewall just for good measure on my 77. You can pick up a short battery cable with bolt on tabs at both ends fairly reasonable at most parts stores. Since its not running full starter power through it, you could use a small cable like what you might find on a riding lawnmower too.

well i didnt encounter the problem untill here recently. But heres the wierd thing, that wire that 800 spoke of is intact but was resting on my header collector. The second i got it off the collector no more problem. But this dont make sense becouse the electricity should still ground out point A to point B, even if a point A and 1/2 is introduced right? Well anyway i think im going to replace that wire soon.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

by the looks of your motor your collector is powder coated right? Well the coat would probably still conduct electricity but then would have some resistance to it therefore it wouldn't totally ground through it.

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

yeah but the wire is still intact A to B so thats why im confused...

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

corrosion b/w point A1/2 and B maybe?

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-Old ride-82 Luv diesel 5spd with some upgrades
-Past rides-82 Sierra, 78 Coupe De'Ville, 91 2dr Blazer, 86 RX7, 86 Porsche 944T (rear-ended and totaled)
-Curr. rides- 1970 Ford LTD 4dr, 390 4Bbl, 2nd owner! With a few Extras 00' Civic beater...

yeah im thinking the fittings on the ends are shot and me just moving em around renewed the connection. Im replacing it this weekend.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...

Heat=resistance. Having wiring too close to your exhaust would impede the current flow and cause trouble in the circuit via your ground strap. I've had similar problems with cables, wiring, etc. exposed to too much heat around exhaust, heaters, the radiator, etc. When the temperature goes up, some wild electrical stuff happens sometimes because of a drop in voltage due to increased resistance from the heat applied to the wire. The same thing can happen if you use too light of a guage wire. As the wire heats up from trying to handle too much current, the voltage drops at the same rate and the output gets weaker and weaker. That's why it's always important to use heavy guage wiring, watch where the devil you route it, and throw in a few extra body-to-chassis ground straps just for good measure.

Maddening stuff, huh?

yeah i have the thing fixed, i ran a ground strap for a battery from the aternator mounting braket on the front cover to the brake cylinder holding braket. No problems since and its not in the way of anything.

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1980 LUV 4x4, going under re-construction...