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electrical gremlins

3K views 22 replies 8 participants last post by  BillyJack 
#1 ·
Ok.. I'm having troubles with the elky. When these questions pop up everyone says check the grounds. How do you know which one to check? I hate electrical problems so type slowly if you respond. Here's the problem. This morning, I noticed my amp ga was registering toward the low side.. below 12 volts. I thought nothing of it because I think that acceptable. This afternoon however, the ga was reading almost 19 volts. I thought the regulator my be coming unplugged, so I checked that.. it was snug. So I tapped the alternator with a hammer just in case the reg was stuck.. hmm. So as I was driving home.. I noticed that my dash lights were brighter than they have ever been. Suddenly, the engine backfired thru the exhaust. Then it started belching thru the carb. The lights went out and the car died. I put it in neutral and restarted it. It backfired a couple of more times. Then, as I pressed the accelerator, the headlights went out. Let off the gas and they came back on. This happened without warning. Now, last week I installed a new steering wheel. This was the type with the post for the horn activation. No wire. After three days of it being changed, something became stuck and since I was in traffic, I had to forcefully turn the wheel, something broke. Then the next day, everything but the horn worked. Anyone care to diagnose? Thanks..
 
#2 ·
strange fa shixxle,,,,seems your self cancel may have broke , however i dont think that is the issue,,sounds to me the alt,has gone full fielded meaning its charging wide open,,,, your light issue is most likely a chaffed wire from the dimmer switch in the collum,, either way time to go back in the collumn,,,not fun i know , but it was mine i would look there first,,,hope my advice was somewhat helpful...and most important ,THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE,,,,:texas:
 
#3 · (Edited)
Thanks Woody. I just put an alt on it a coupla months ago. So warranty should be good from Napa. The elky is going to the shop this week anyway because of the turn signal problems. I bought all new colunm parts so it will all be replaced. So, this week.. new elec in column and check/replace alt.
 
#4 ·
just to be on the safe side i would replace the ign. module. i your alt did short and full charge it could have damaged the module. also check the fusable links at the starter to be sure it didnt kill one. as for the steering issue its hard to hazard a guess but woody brought up a good posibility with the cansel cam or springs. i used a horn contact from auto zone and had a problem with it causeing a tight spot in the steering . i got one from the wrecking yard and solved the problem
 
#5 ·
Hey Mike , my Alt. did the very same thing , my volt meter showed 12 while I was warming up ... as soon asI headed to work on a long strip of road going 60 , then my volt meter started de-flecting to the left , then jumped up to 16 , then 17 and back down to 12 and then stayed around 15 and I turned on everything I could think of I thought would draw some excess current .... I was really afraid that Alt. would cook my battery .. On the way home it was doing the same thing , so I yanked it out and went back to Advance Auto Parts and swapped it out for another re-built Alt. with the Life Time warranty .... I'm glad I always buy the Life-Time warranty parts and from Advance ... I had gone back to Auto Zone three times with a bad Alt. for my jeep and the Jackass behind the counter tried to tell me it was my jeep ... So I made a $20 bet to go pick out 1 Alt. with1 yr. warranty and 1 Alt. with a lifetime warranty .... He stood behind his junk parts ... So he spun both alt.'s on his tester and BOTH OF THEM one showed 10 and the other was 12 ... it should be putting out at least 14 minimum , I told the jerk take your junk alt. back and give me a refund ... hey check your thin braided ground straps that you see bolted on the firewall and other places , for corrosion ... Thanks the Geezer :nanawrench:
 
#6 ·
Thanks Geeze.. I'm gonna do that. I got the alt from Napa so there should be no return issues. I just hope nothing was fried.
 
#7 ·
Ok.. I just got the alt checked and it seems to be fine. I'm gonna put it back on and see what happens. Hopefully, anything that was stuck, is unstuck now.
 
#8 ·
the regulators in those are solid state ,nothing to stick in afraid.when they start going crazy they can kill a lot of stuff.i was on a trip to boston in my 2000 chevy duelly and i had just put a new alt in before leaveing home. randomely throughout the trip it would go full charge and shut the truck down even at highway speeds.the computer would shut it off and set a overvolt code. every time i had it checked it would be fine and auto zone wouldnt warranty it because it would be fine on thier test bench.i finally got the chevy dealer to condemn the alt on paper and called corporate to get it resolved. our elco s wont always shut down but in turn fry
 
#9 ·
So are you recommending another alt.. regulator.. or both? I am electrically challenged so any hints on which way to proceed is appreciated.
 
#10 ·
i would replace at the least the regulator ,but if you are not comfortable with the job replace the alt. it may be something that shows up when the alt is good and hot.the regulator is fully contained in the alt. its an easy task,depending on which alt you have
 
#11 ·
If you have an older alternator that is externally regulated, you may only need to replace the voltage regulator.
15 volts is not really healthy, but will not do a lot of harm.
Once you start creeping to 16 and better, some things are not gonna like it.

Most everything in the car is designed to run at 14.2 volts for the best performance and everything will take a bit more or less..

My 79 C-10 (bought new) has ALWAYS run on the high side for voltage----almost touching the red zone. For over 30 years this has presented no problem at all and this is with a 40 amp alternator.
 
#12 ·
I put the alt back on today and nothing changed. I cleaned off all of the grounds I could find to see if that was a problem. Nope.. so tomorrow I'll change the regulator. That makes me question the testings station at my nei8ghborhood NAPA. I'm getting pretty fed up with this. I just want to drive!:dontknow:
 
#14 ·
Si senor'.. The reg. is a fairly straight forward replacement. doing it today after work.
 
#15 ·
make sure you check the signal wire for voltage.my 86 has the cs serries alt look for battery voltage at the small wire in your alt plug whichever alt you have. cs or si. a cs wont charge without constant voltage to the signal wire where a si will once excited
 
#16 ·
UPDATE!! It seems as though the new alternator was bad. The shop got it warrantied and didn't charge me for replacing it. The same shop also fixed my steering/turn signal/ horn problem. Total cost: $160... driving my girl to work every day! Priceless. Thanks for all of the advice and stuff. Oh yeah! GO TEXANS! :texas:
 
#18 ·
Similar problem

I have a similar problem but cannot seem to find the source. The alternator and the battery are both new and have both been tested. The car, when the battery is charged, only runs at about 11 volts for a little while then it drops to 9. From what we can find, all the wires are fine. I'm stumped.
 
#20 ·
I have a similar problem but cannot seem to find the source. The alternator and the battery are both new and have both been tested. The car, when the battery is charged, only runs at about 11 volts for a little while then it drops to 9. From what we can find, all the wires are fine. I'm stumped.
Might want to start your own thread:texas:
 
#23 ·
First, invest in a volt/ohmmeter. Even a cheap $5 Harbor Freight unit will help in diagnosis. I bought my Camino in '93 because the previous owner was frustrated with electrical issues. He had replaced the starter, alternator and battery, and still had slow cranking as well as max reading of 12 volts from the OEM voltmeter. After some probing, I found a deteriorated negative battery cable and a bad in-dash voltmeter. $35 spent for a used ebay voltmeter and a new battery cable from my local parts store and it's been fine for 19 years (except for a few batteries over time).

Bill
 
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