Struggling w/electrical ! !

[R C Cola]

Had this problem for 2 yrs I know of. 200k in this time frame. Battery overcharges and goes bad. Replace seems to fix. Replaced alternator, regulator (4), now on 3rd. battery and second alternator. Started this hunt because my lites were getting brite and briter (not dim) noticable from a distance. Affects all lites trailer everything. Posted in other forum ""



What volt output is the alt supposed to be capable of ?



Should the regulator (external firewall mount) bring it down anyway ?



Does over the road high miles shorten the life of a heavy duty battery and how much ?

Thanks..... R C

 

[mykal41]

The alt should put out 14. 5 volts constaly. I had the same problem with my 89. I replaced all the grounds and switched to an optima red top, and I have been problem free.

 

[southpaw]

RC I am by no means a spark chaser, however I have had problems with elctrical circuts and after all the experts throwing parts at my problem I always clean all the grounds especially the one from battery to the radiator area and any others i can get to. Emery cloth and dialectric grease have cured many of my electric problems and its amazing to me how the grimlings can make their magic manifest in different ways, good luck. KE.

 

[R C Cola]

Grounds

Good plan, I like it. Shops start by throwing parts, most expensive first and when they get to the one that fixed it they say everything was bad. Thanks

R C

 

[R C Cola]

Electrical ?

As ususal you guys are right on. Thanks. Found a couple of bad ground connections, corrosion, rust, etc, and one fuse blown in such a way if you just look at it looked fine. With test lite no power thru fuse. RC

 

[1stgen4evr]

"Does over the road high miles shorten the life of a heavy duty battery and how much?"



NO, not in my experience. (Roughly a 800k miles behind a 6bt) Battery troubles are related to other things.



James

 

[RWWinslow]

With 400,000 miles on a 6BT, the battery life is not affected by OTR miles