Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Gen Light On Lights flickering what to do?

[RedSled]

For the last 2 -3 weeks I have noticed my headlights and dash lights flicker constantly. The volt meter also seems to fluctuate more than I remember it doing in the past. It stays between 12 and 14 but it seems to move a lot.



The Gen Light has come on for the past 4 or 5 days, only at night. I cleaned all the battery terminals and thought it was solved, because the Gen light didn't come on that evening. Last night it came on again.



What should I look at, or what causes the Gen light to come on? Is this a bad ground, generator, loose wire, bad battery,pcm?



Thanks in advance



Zander

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Sounds like a lazy voltage regulator inside the alternator.....

Too bad the voltage regulator isn't external... .



Dad's truck had whacky voltage readings for a few months... . it would take a while before it decided to charge. Recently he informed me that the alternator finally decided to let loose... . it wouldn't charge at all.



He swapped it out - and all has been well since.



(BTW - his truck has about 130k on the clock and it's a '98 - I don't imagine plowing snow with an electric/hydraulic plow did it any good. )



Matt

 

[vssman]

I'd also check the connections at the PCM. Last year I was working on the truck near that area, and somehow loosened one of the connectors. When I started the truck, the light was on. Took the connectors on/off a couple of times and life has been good.

 

[RedSled]

Cold weather makes it worse?

In the first post I mentioned that I only noticed this at night. So I thought maybe the gen light coming on had something to do with the headlights. I just took a 45 min trip during the day with my lights on, and the volt meter was at or just over 14 the entire time.



It has been cool here in the evenings (50ish), and I wonder if something is going on with the grid heaters? If there was a problem with one (or both) of the grid heaters cycling could this cause the Gen light to come on? BTW its almost 75 out today so I wouldn't expect grid heaters to come on when I leave work this evening.



Thanks again



Zander

 

[Woodenhead]

Sounds like your alternator is on its last leg. Mine acted similar to this for a while before more weird things started to happen like ABS light coming on and off, radio off and on, tach up and down etc. It all started with the Gen light coming on at idle with lights on, then got worse with the grid heater cycling.



New alternator fixed it all. 165,000miles on stock alt.



Mike

 

[RedSled]

????

Ok, its gotten cold again and the symptoms have not returned. Volt meter is holding steady at just above 14.



The only thing I found is that one of the wires going to the heater grid solenoid was a little loose. The loose wire was one of the small gauge wires with the rubber L shaped boot. It wasn't real loose but when pushed it went down about and 1/8th of an inch or so.



I don't know if this would cause the gen to misbehave like it was, but the problem has not happened in several days.



I wish all problems would disappear by simply posting them here.