Here's the deal: I was doing a little off roading in my '98 Expy EB. On the way home, charging system light (the one that looks like a battery) comes on. Took it to the shop. They say it's the alternator. (Battery is dead @ this point BTW.) They want $340 to put in a remanufactured one. I told them to charge me up, and I'll drive home to do it myself for $120.

Barked my knuckels (is that how you spell that?) a few times, but got the new alt on. Turned the engine on - it started up fine. BUT, the charging system lamp was still on! Now, I didn't drive the truck - I never took it out of park. I just started it up and observed.

My question is: Does the battery light on the dash go out after you put the truck in drive? I forget, it's been out of commission for a couple of days, and for the 2 or 3 before that the light wouldn't go off.

Anyway, I turned the truck off, remembered I had to recharge the battery, (It was reading about 60% on the charger) and it's charging right now.

Do I need to idle it for a few minutes for the computer to reset?

Will it fix it's self when the battery is back up to 100% and I re-crank it?

Any help?

 

Not sure if I could have knocked a plug/wire loose while bouncing around. The shop did say it was the alt. but that is probably one of the more expensive parts to replace. I guess I should get a buddy to drive me to the autozone to check my old one.

Also, forgot to ask: are there any fuses I should be checking that could have anything to do with this?


Thanks for any ideas, I really appreciate anybody's help!

 

Mine did the same thing only on road.
I tryed to make it to the shop and batt. was history at this point.
it tuned out to be the alt.
I wish I would have been closer to my house, the dealer is charging me 400. +
for an alt job. Should call Calif. the bend over state.
As far as your light staying on the only thing I can think of trying is disconect
the batt. and turn on the head lights and this gets read of any juice left in the cpu. and it may reset the light, worth a try. I have hurd of a fuse from the alt. to the ign. I think it is a green wire, check it out.

 

that's another thing... my battery got pretty worn down. Got to the point where it wouldn't even click when I turned the key. But the dealer said it was fine after a full night's charge. If it shows "good" on their machine, it's good right? I didn't know because I heard that if the battery wears down to zero it can't ever get back up to 100%. so I guess it never got down that far.

 

You are absolutely right. And the dealership is wrong (there's a suprise hah!). Yup, the lead acid batteries when drained past a given low voltage will begin to permanently lose their ability to recharge to 100% Heck, that's why they have those dry cell batteries for boats - you'd be hard pressed to find a fisher using a car battery for their trolling motor. It wont last long!!

It really cheezes me when dealers try to blow that kind of smoke up customers rear ends! Have you read yellowFX's story

okay, breathe, bre a t he slow, calm, im okay now!

 

That is true with the batt. but the light still should go off even if the batt. is a little low. I would just keep an eye on the batt. i've kept batt. going for a long time even after a low volt period. but I don't have a trolling motor.

 

The light staysoff with the engine running.
It turns on if the alt is not charging. BTW did the dealer test the alt output with the alt on the truck or off? A short to ground in one of the circuits can turn on the light and stop the alt from charging. How detailed of a test did they do?

JMC

 

UPDATE:

Truck is still showing the charging system light. I took the neg. cable off and let it sit for about 15 min w/the lights turned to on. Then I re-connected and drove about 2 miles. Light never went off. So where is the maxi fuse? I'm asuming it is along the alternator wiring, and not under the dash in the cab. I'm going to get my old alt. checked, starting to think there was nothing wrong with it in the first place and it could be something as simple as bad wires/blown fuse.




JMC: Not sure if they took the alt off or not. This is a college town, so I'm sure they are used to preying on us stupid kids! They probably did the easiest test there is and decided to say it was the alt.

I am still wondering if everything is fine since I put on the new alt, but now the battery has been so drained that it won't charge anymore - causing the light to show. (is that even possible???)