For those just joining us, original problem, voltage gauge on the dash of a 1993 K2500 (4×4 3\/4ton) Suburban showed a solidly low voltage, around 10V when running while both battery posts on the battery isolator showed a good 12V with the engine off and 14V with the engine running, as well as the alternator post.<\/p>\n
The isolator and second electrical system are additions that I added for touring, mostly for running the electric cooler over long periods without running down the engine battery.<\/p>\n
For those involved in the general debugging conversations:<\/p>\n
I moved both battery systems and the alternator to the same post on the isolator to rule it out, no change.<\/p>\n
NAPA didn’t sell alternator diodes alone and a voltage rectifier rebuild\/repair kit was nearly the cost of a new alternator, so I saved myself the trouble and went with the latter. This unfortunately didn’t solve the problem. I should pull it and return it, but I don’t think the time is worth it. I debating keeping the old one as a spare and eating the core charge.<\/p>\n
I took some jumper cables from the ground post on the engine block to the body inside the engine compartment. The voltage on the dash returned to near normal and I saw the newly installed ammeter show a reading, obviously charging the batteries. Bad ground.<\/p>\n
I went for the low hanging fruit first and pulled the battery ground attached to the negative engine battery terminal that goes right to the passenger side fender. I took a steel brush to the fender, and the contacts, tightened it up good, and retightened the battery posts for good measure.<\/p>\n
Problem solved.<\/p>\n
I should add another ground strap, I thought I had one, but I’m not going to put more effort into this project unless the symptoms return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those just joining us, original problem, voltage gauge on the dash of a 1993 K2500 (4×4 3\/4ton) Suburban showed a solidly low voltage, around 10V when running while both battery posts on the battery isolator showed a good 12V with the engine off and 14V with the engine running, as well as the alternator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.loftninjas.org\/rants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}