Archived Stuck at work

[Hummin Cummins]

I was coming to work today and when I left the house, I got about 2 miles up the road and the check engine light came on and the voltage was low. I went to my neighbors auto elect. shop and he tested my alternator and it was fine. We are thinking the grid heaters stuck. I left and went to work, voltage stayed in the 14+ range. Started trouble shooting the relays according to the manual and found both would click, but only one was closing the circut on the ohm meter. Figured the heaters were stuck and relay is junk now. All my testing was done with both batt. ground cables unhooked as per the manual. I found power at the intake heaters with a test light with the key off and batterys unhooked on the neg. side. Tested one battery and found power coming through the neg. batt. terminal? Tested the other and all was normal.

What did I fry, and is it safe to drive?



Stuck at work and dont wanna catch my truck on fire, please help.



Chris

 

[FourBarR]

why dont you disconnect the grid heaters? forgot to check to see if you are in a cold place.

 

[Hummin Cummins]

I disconnected the heaters at the pos. batt. terminal and gonna run it a few days to see if that really was the problem while I'm waiting for new relays. I think one of them was stuck on. I pulled the intake and all looks fine, also while it was off I jumped them and they both work and heat up, so I'm guessing one stuck for a little bit. Crisis over, I think. Just couldnt figure out why there was power showing on the negative side of the batt.

 

[Hammer]

Chris. .

I may be able to get you a set of relays out of a wrecked 97 if you need them. PM me and I'll make a call in the AM to see if I will be able to get in and get them for you. Maybe this will help you narrow down your search... ... . Andy

 

[tp0d]

did you ohm out both heaters? i`m unsure of the specific resistance on them, but they should both be pretty much the same. If the heaters stayed on with no airflow, they could have overheated, and possible shorted. Probably would want to ohm them with the terminals disconnected.



good luck



-j

 

[Hummin Cummins]

I didnt ohm the heaters, I will tonite. I disconnected the relays until I can try new ones. I pulled the intake and jumped the relays and both heaters heated ok, no signs of overheating on the horn. I think it was a one time fluke with a stuck relay. I'm gonna replace them and try to run it a while and see if it happens again. It started this morning without them ok. Just a little smokey though. Need to turn up the heat in the garage some, I guess.

Chris