Electrical Problems

[RedRamAndy]

I fired up the truck to go to the store today and was greeted by an electrical gremlin a half mile from my house.

The outside temp was almost 50 and I let it warm up for about 5 minutes before going.

I hit the left turn signal and the radio went dead. I looked at the dash and no signals, just a steady, non-blinking right arrow! I though, OK, it must be the multi switch. I wiggled the switch stalk in all directions with no luck. With the stalk in the center for no turn, both arrows were steadily lit. I'm still thinking multi-switch. Now I notice that my oil and temp gauges are pegged on HIGH, and the fuel is opposite, down on EMPTY!

Real confusion! Turned around to head for home. I test wipers, nothing. Heater fan, nothing. I wiggle the ignition switch, nothing. Turn the ignition switch to OFF, engine dies, but I turned it right back on and it fired to life. Now something happens: Wait To Start light is on, radio's back, gauges return to normal, (fuel goes UP and oil/temp go DOWN) and heater, radio and wipers work. I hit the turn sig with fear as I turn in my drive, all works fine. As I'm going down my drive, the WTS light the goes out.

This is driving my nuts!

A bit of background; ever since I bought this truck, I notice a pulsing in the headlights. It cycles about twice a second, pretty fast. I listened by the relay block and couldn't hear any clicking that corresponded to this. I can hear a relay click when the engine's cold, but it's much much slower. The headlights are quite bright too. I also notice an extra ground wire run to a new-looking voltage regulator.

I will do some voltage testing, but am afraid to drive it for now.



Any Ideas!!??

 

[Greenleaf]

The extra ground wire is a known repair/safeguard to assist in the elimination of voltage surge such as flickering lamps and a bouncy volt needle.



Clean the body ground wire and connection really well. This will help eliminate a ground problem.

 

[RedRamAndy]

Thanks, I will do that. One project is that I want to put a VOLT METER in my truck and get rid of the Ammeter with the painted on needle. How useless... I've never had one where that needel actually moved.

One other thing that happened a few nights ago: I preheated the truck to take the trash down to the road. ( I have a really long driveway) It was dark and I looked back at the truck as I walked away. I noticed the front parking lights glowing dimly. I went back to see if the taillights were on too and the lights went off as I got 20 feet from the truck! It saw me coming... .

I'm going to check bulbs and the multi-connector going into the cab for starters.

 

[dpuckett]

The pulsing is likely your voltage regulator. Happened in my early 91, too. i relocated the VR to the driver's fenderwell, to eliminate the heat from the exhaust manifold possibly afecting it. It seemed to help.



I'd check grounds for your lighting and control issues in the dash. Might be a bad bulb, too. wont completely go out, but will wreak havoc with everything else remotely connected to it.



Daniel