Not sure where to ask this so I'll try it here. My truck wouldn't start yesterday so I popped the hood and noticed the postive cable clamp/post connection was extremely corroded. So I assumed that was the problem and removed/cleaned/re-attached etc. and pulled my booster over to it and jumped it off.

I drove to town which is a 20 minute drive thinking by the time I got there to do my errands the battery would be charged. After my first errand got into the truck to attempt start and ... click ... click ... had to get a jump from someone so I drove back to the house thinking I better look deeper.

On the way back to the house the radio suddenly got scratchy sounding and the engine started missing, so I looked at the gauges (not idiot lights on this model thankfully) and the volt gauge was pegged all the way to the left (which is 8 volts) so I shut off the a/c and radio and the engine gained more power and I made it home.

I pulled up to my warehouse and popped the hood, pulled the positive cable off the battery and the engine ran even smoother and seemed to have more power. Thje vol;t gauge jumped back up to + 13v so I figured the battery was bad and shorted to the chassis somehow and was pulling the alternator down. I figured at least the alternator was good or else the engine wouldn't keep running. But then I walked around and turned the a/c back on and the volt meter went back to 8v.

I am confused but this is obviously a simple problem. Hey I am a Sawyer and can fix about anything but haven't messed with auto/truck engines since high school and that's been many decades ago. Any help appreciated.




.

 

Take the battery and have it tested - any auto parts store will do it for free. That is more than likely your culprit. I would do a thorough cleaning to the ground terminal (on both ends) as well.

 

Thanks Shamrock I will do that later this afternoon. Do you think it's normal for the volts to go down to 8 from 13 when the a/c is turned on AND the battery is disconnected? I guess I'm wondering if both the battery and alternator are bad, in that the alternator has enough left to run the engine but when the a/c compressor is brought online it breaks down under that higher load.

I'll update the thread when I get it solved, thanks.




.