Archived 2004 Not charging.

[AMS1]

Not charging, owned it 3 years now, it is always was slow to go to 14.4 volts upon start up, talking minute or two. Not charging alarm comes on check gauges it goes to 8 volts flat line at that point. The alternator was checked at Advanced and is good, there is battery voltage to excite the field at the connector it lights my test light. Checked fusible link once I discovered it had one, its good and the connector on the end for the battery terminal was removed and a new brass connector was filled with solder and the 6-8 gauge wire was sunk in it. Put it all back together and its still not charging. No check engine lights and the tachometer is working. Totally stumped. There is something I am not aware of obviously.
Anyone have any ideas. I do not own a manual for this 3rd Gen. truck yet. Just my 1st gen. Near Ft Drum NY and its cold out.
Thanks Tim

 

[klcammie]

Do a search on here for charging trouble. There is a thread like yours where the alt. checked good, but later they did a ripple test and found that alt. was not good. Don't know what a ripple test is but it found his problem.

 

[cerberusiam]

Load test he batteries and make sure both are good. One bad battery will mess it up. Check and clean all battery clamps and connections, check the ends next to the clamps for being soft or limp. The cables will corrode inside the sheathing and cause issues, check the cross over cable closely as it is the only way the driver side battery gets charged and provides a signal to the ECU. Battery temp sensor is under the driver side battery, make sure it is not shorted or corroded and telling the ECU battery is charged.

The AC voltage from the bad diodes won't stop charging but it will sure mess up sensors and cause codes. Tach works off the CPS sensor and is totally separate form charging curicuit. It is also not unusual for the gauge to read low then slowly rise the 4-15 volt range on startup, the gauge is a fake and only shows what the ECU wants, you need to check battery voltage at both batteries to see if charging is happening.

 

[wcjp]

Use Jumper cables to bypass the factory cables for testing purposes. It does sound like the alternator is bad.

 

[Ozymandias]

Any codes?

 

[AMS1]

Just wanted to thank you guys for responding to my post, especially since I looked like a first time user. I actually owned a 1st gen and have been on the site since 2005. Just been along time and couldn't remember my user name and password and email has changed at least 3 times. TIngersoll is my old username. PToombs used to help me keep it running. I wanted to take the 2004 truck out of town and I had to leave before I could check anything. It is fixed and my 99 started to do the same thing and it was cured the same way. Easy Fix: the 0 gauge cable coming from passenger side battery to driver side battery was not allowing current flow into the driver side battery. I took both + terminals completely apart and used a wire wheel on a cordless drill and put a new finish on the connectors and after putting them back together and starting the truck. Bingo, Immediate charge. My 80 year old Dad couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it." The Basics Dad, always go back to the basics. Many Thanks again.

 

[klcammie]

Got to love the easy and cheap fix. Glad to hear you are up and charging. Thanks for the follow up so we all know what worked. Happy motoring.