Cascade Crew

Al Hasse · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:07 pm Post subject: Strange voltage indication

When I started off for work this morning, I got into the purple '92 and went through the normal routine. After about a block, my volt meter reads below 11 volts, so I turned around and brought the car home. After parked and in neutral, the meter reads a little more than 13 volts. I thought, ok let's try again. As soon as I put it in gear and start moving, the volts dip down below 11 again. During all this, the meter on my audio system (second battery on isolator) reads 14 volts as it always does when the car is running. This leads me to believe that either my starting battery or my battery isolator is starting to fail.

So now I'm in the red '89 until I figure this out as I don't want to be stranded on the side of the road with no electrical.

BTW, the battery has been in the car for better than 6 years and been drained at least twice during that time.

QwkTrip · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject:

So help me understand. How is the second battery charged? Is it charged directly by the alternator with a remote voltage sense? How long have you been running this setup?

Al Hasse · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject:

The problem seems to have cured itself while the car sat at home today. Maybe I have a loose connection to look for somewhere.

This is similar to my setup. The alternator charges each battery as needed, but the forward battery has priority. It has worked well for me for more than 4 years.

Al Hasse · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject:

Problem came back Monday and stayed. When idling in the driveway, I stepped on the brake and my heater blower shut off, released it and it came back on. Also, I had no cooling fan (which I didn't know at the time). Eventually, the voltage drop was enough so that the heater blower would not come on at all.

Found the problem to reside in the alarm. It uses the brake light switch (on the pedal) to disable the remote start function when shutting the motor off. Pulled the wire off the brake switch and no more voltage drop. I'll be going to my installer this weekend for some warranty repair.

Al Hasse · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:41 pm Post subject:

Problem does not reside in the alarm. There is no signal on the "S" terminal on the alternator. It's supposed to be battery voltage when the motor is running. Appears to be a fuseable link, or the sense loop is open at the indicator & resistor or at the ignition switch.

Al Hasse · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:17 pm Post subject:

This morning, the problem was isolated (hopefully) to the ignition switch. It is not providing any output to the accessories (cooling fan, HVAC blower, power windows, etc) and, if I read the wiring diagram correctly, off that same circuit is the sense line for the alternator. Without accessory power, the altrnator doesn't get the signal to start charging.