From: John Brian Seeling (JBSeeling@cox-internet.com)
Date: Thu Jun 03 2004 - 08:39:14 PDT
OK. lots of poking and prodding around with the multimeter yielded the best
results.
The verdict:
Corroded connection between the battery terminal and the wire that goes to
the "battery" post of the regulator!!! A little baking soda and emery cloth
was all that I needed!!!
The electrical system on the half-track uses two separate "hot" wires from
the positive post of the 12-volt battery: One big wire goes to the starter
and a separate, smaller "big" wire is run from the positive post of the
12-volt battery through the voltmeter and amp meters to the generator's
regulator. My "mystery" problem appears to have been caused by a bad
connection of the smaller "big" wire to the positive terminal of the
battery. The truck would crank and run great (plenty of juice passing
through the big wire's connection), but, evidently, the connection at the
smaller wire was not sufficient to allow enough amperage through to charge
the battery.
The small wire's connection was not totally interrupted because I could get
a reading of 12 volts at the regulator when the truck was not running, and
when the engine was running, that same post would shoot up to 13.5 volts, so
there was some indication that the generator and regulator were doing their
job, and trying to charge the battery, but the amp meter wasn't moving to
the "C" side like it should, and when I tested the posts of the battery,
there was only a very slight voltage difference between running and not
running.
Now that everything is clean and getting a good connection, the D/C guage in
the cluster jumps over to the "C" side like it should when the half-track
cranks up and everything is working like I always thought it should.
Usually, a lesson like this would cost me a minimum of $500 in parts and at
least one full weekend of wasting my time ruining parts and catching things
on fire. Thanks to this list, and the knowledge passed to me by the lessons
of others, I was able to "crack" this mystery in a couple of hours and only
$15 in material. I would like to personally thank Ryan Gill, "Yuke.RF,"
Bjorn Brandstedt, Jeff Gatton, Jeffery Alberhasky, Noel Shelley, RAM, APB
(arthur bloom of M35 products?), Steve AKA "Dr. Deuce," and Tom. However, I
must single out the advice of Lee Franklin as being right on point. He gets
the "hero cookie" for the simple advice that a bad connection at the battery
could be causing it all. However, I want everyone to know that I printed
all of the e-mails, took them with me to my truck shop, and was going to
follow all of your advice until the problem was solved.
- John Brian Seeling
Alexandria, LA
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