this is my first time posting on the site but I read lots of posts and find everyone super helpful. Anyways, I need some help with my V6 Raider because I'm stuck.
After noticing slow blinkers, sometimes pausing, and a few days sitting my truck wouldnt start. Started it with a jump, drove it about 1 mile and the volt gauge dropped to zero. The battery was old so I replaced it and after about 3 days the volt gauge dropped again. This made me think that my alternator wasn't charging so I had it tested at the shop and they said its fine... Put it back in, changed the 100amp fuse for the alternator, checked connections, and cleaned up battery terminals and jumped it to life again. After fully charging to 16V, when I disconnected the cables it died in under 15 seconds.

My next move is replacing the alternator.

Any other suggestions?

thanks

How does the wire coming from the Alternator look?

The plug and the wire both look fine, nothing abnormal.

Check the volts at the charge wire at the alternator see what that looks like ... An alternator turns into a big magnet if it working so a screw driver will stick to a good one at the back ware the rear bearing is ...The reg could be half bad and its only charging at high RPM's or stops charge at high rpms and just charges at low rpm's ..

Whats the volts at the battery and at the alt when its running ??? 12 volts ? 19 volts? 10 volts ? ??

You need more then 12 volts to charge a battery and 15 volts cooks the water out of a battery and kills it ..

Bad brushes can make a ALT come and go .. There only hitting the rotor every now and then do to being to short ...

Hope you get it fixed

David

Hazardous Toys inc ...

I am having a similar problem it stays charged enough to start the truck but when I turn any acceseries on the volt meter swings a few volts and I have blown 2 signal fuses. I am going to get the alt checked for the 2nd time. no big deal cause I am replacing the alt with a larger one soon but still a pain

More diagnosing.

Today I got into it a bit. There is a switch spliced into the ignition wires as well as a push button starter. When I got the truck 2 months ago, I had to use the push button starter to start it. Today, I took out the switch and the push button and the car starts up when jumped but instantly dies when the cables are removed. This sounds like a quick fix to me but I dont know how to diagnos this. Why did the PO have this started system rigged in? Can I re-rig it to get it running? What do the wires off of the ignition control (BLK/YEL, BLK/WHT, BLK/RED, BLU, BLK)

I have already tested the alternator, and checked its connections.
I have replaced the alt. fuse next to the battery terminal.
I tried almost every switch combo on the ignition wires and nothing worked.
HELP! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

BLK/YEL, BLK/WHT, BLK/RED, BLU, BLK)

I don't know what year your truck is, but from the 89 factory shop manual (go to your home page and edit you sig line to show your truck model for future quicker and more accurate help). I'll list the actual wire color, followed by the stripe color if any and a preceding number that is the cross sectional area of the wire conductor expressed in square MM's, the bigger the #, the fatter the wire. 3 is about 1/8" diameter copper conductor.

fat white wire (3W) 12v+ from battery, via 100A fuse, and fusible link marked ign-st

Black/Yellow (2BY) Ign start position power out to truck to starter solenoid and any other users that take ign start power, like the FI control relay.

Black/White (2BW) Ign on position power out to truck uses

Blue/White (2LW) Ign accesory position power out to truck

Black/Red (?BR) not shown on any shop manual I have for the ign switch, but the fi wiring diagram shows one for the power to the fi relay, which turns on the ecu and fuel pump. black/red is usually a constant on 12v wire in the mitsu scheme of wiring colors, but not always.

Black - probably a ground wire but should not go to ign switch.

Look up any post by montymcv and there'll be a link at the bottom to his site from which you can download an electronic copy of the factory shop manual. A must have...

Thanks. I couldnt figure out why my downloaded FSM didn't have electric information, turns out I only downloaded the engine, chassis, body manual.

I will go dig into it and see what I find out.

I'd start with a continuity check on the fusible links at/near the battery...