From: Amnon (amnon@deltaforce.net)
Date: Thu May 23 2002 - 18:02:12 PDT
Well, first off, thanks to everyone that responded.
I went ahead and tightened the belts (found out one of the bolts wouldn't
tighten up, replaced it with a longer one and a nut on the other side).
Cranked it and it did the same, if I didn't hold the rpm higher than idle,
it knocked off when the glow plugs came on, but no squealing. After a few
time of cranking, something scary happened. While turning the key to the
start position, I heard a loud hisssss from under the hood and a little
smoke rose. My daughter jumped back a few feet yelling that the truck is
catching fire :-). I looked through the windshield and realized it came
from one of the battery posts. I picked up the plastic cover from the post
and saw something amazing. Part of the connector melted! There were two
huge lead drops (part of the connector), one under each of the bolts that
hold the cable down, the bottom of each drop has melted the battery casing
and was stuck to it (had to use the end of a flat screwdriver to knock it
loose. The cable itself was so loose, I pulled it off the connector with no
efforts whatsoever. Took the connector off, installed a new one, cleaned
the end of the cable and installed it into the connector, checked the other
connectors they were all fine. Started it, and other than slowing down a
little every time the glow plugs came on, it was fine.
Now question. is the starter 12 or 24 volts? Since the batteries are
hooked in series, are the alternators hooked in series too to provide 24
volts to charge them or are they "somehow" charging a battery each?
> From what you describe, it certainly sounds like it's not charging
> when at low RPM and that the belt does need to be tightened. Perhaps
> the alternator is about to fail?
>
> I'd tighten the belt, charge the batteries externally with a charger,
> then see if the problem persists. Then I'd change the batteries. (Get
> a larger set of batteries that have as much CCA as you can afford.
> More battery can't be a bad thing.)
>
> I had a similar sort of issue with the Ferret and a bad battery of
> the pair causing a charging imbalance and lack of sufficient 24 volts
> of power to run at low rpm for extended times or crank it up for more
> than a few seconds. This all left me in an intersection here in
> Atlanta trying to hand crank a ferret armored car. The cop just
> wasn't sure what to think....
>
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