I have all of those exact issues. Mine is due to corrosion in the ETACS unit (silver box up near the inside fuse block) and also corrosion on my fuse block.

I hadn't thought of that there is great old school alternator shop in Ballard. I think they rebuilt an alternator for me when I had the sailboat.

Slapped a new battery in the truck this evening. Well new to the truck it is a working battery from another vehicle in the fleet.

Once the truck was running pulled the battery cablse and attached them to a multimeter to see what kind of power the alternator was producing. The multimeter was fluctuating between 11.5 and 14.4. Is this a valid test and what should the alternator reading be?

Thanks,

~ Jon

Without a load, the regulator will have a hard time setting the correct voltage.

One thing to watch out for is that when you disconnect the alternator on a running engine there is a potential for damage. When its charging the windings have a current applied to them. On a load disconnect that current needs to stop or the alternator will produce a high voltage (since it now has no load).

The problem the windings are a large inductor and there is no such thing as an instant change, the magnetic field has to collapse first and that takes time. This generates a very high output voltage. To prevent this high voltage from blowing out it diodes there are a set of Zener diode that shunt this spike to ground.

Thins can be very stressful on them and they may not do this forever. This is why a loose battery terminal can kill your alternator.


Kevin

Put those cables back on and test the voltage at the battery and then at the alternator output. Test them at idle, and then at different RPM's in increments of 1000 up to about 4000. See if you find anything interesting.

Took the truck out for spin today with a fully charged battery and the instrument lights would come on when the headlights were turned on or the truck was idling. Think I'm safe to say the alternator is going south. Found a shop that will rebuild the alternator. Best case scenario 65 bucks, worse case 110 bucks for the work with a one day turn around !!

Now to figure out the neutral safety switch and how to get the alternator out it looks like a bear. Time to get the manuals out.

Thanks for suggestions and help guys!!
~ Jon

That's a good deal. Hope it turns out well for you.

The alternator isn't bad. Just pull the airbox first.

Wait, I may be wrong. Check the dside of the tranny for the neutral safety switch on yours, incorporated in the tranny shifter position switch.

A funky PL actuator shorted to the "lock" function will drain a battery in no more than a couple of days. Pretty hefty current draw there. If your dside door is hard to unlock with the key, I bet your actuator is bad. Somebody posted on here in the last couple of years about fixing it, I think...

edit:

the fix is in scottie's reply here

As far as the actuator, I have pics from when I fixed mine a couple of months ago if you need them for reference.

I pulled the alternator Friday night. Once the alternator was loose could relieve the tense from the belt to get the alternator out . The tensioner belt bolt was seized and did not feel like fighting it. Hit the bolt with a good shot of penetrating oil then cut belt. MontyMcV thanks for the air box tip that helped a lot.

bOURGE, thanks for the offer. Once the alternator is back in will look at the actuator.

~ Jon