I have 2 questions. 1. I have narrowed down the problem on my heater controlls not lighting up to the fact I have no ground. When I touch the metal coller to the frame it lights. How do the two lights ground. 2. How can I verify that my alternator is charging. I know this sounds like a simple answer but I want to make sure it isnt feeding from the starter area. Thanks
Steve, you can add a ground wire so that your temp control lighting works( just hide it out of sight). To tell if your alt is charging, get a voltmeter and put it across the battery with the engine running. Should read between 13.8 -14.6 volts
you should also put your brights on and maybe the heater blower to give it a load to see if you get this voltage. the factory ignition system dosen't reallly put that much drain on the system... another way is to compare the voltage when the brights are on without the car running. then start it and have the brights on and check the voltage again. a 12v battery to check voltage its important to have a load of some kind.
Idea Steve, I've been using the same trick for years when I need to see if the alternator is producing juice. Touch the rear bearing cap with something metallic ( a screwdriver works great) while the engine is running. If the bearing cap is magnetic, your good to go,if not, the alternator is not functioning ( for any number of reasons).
I checked the voltage at the battery after startup (right away) and got a reading of about 15.6 then it settled back to about 14.1 is this normal? BTW thanks for all the input, this electrical stuff can really piss me off. Steve
14 volts output when running means your battery is charging. I know what you mean about electrical gremlins...I took out every wiring harness in my car except for the taillights, replaced the fusible links...still turning on the high beams made the left directional blink. It was a bad ground, a 5 minute job, the whole timeou:
