Hi there, I have an older Frankenstein truck (recently purchased) that is a mixture of chev and GMC parts (not that Frankenstein I guess) so not exactly sure what model year the engine and such is. Anyway, on to the problem. I was driving home last night and lost all electical power (no headlights, interior lights, radio, etc.) but the vehicle still ran fine. No loss of engine power or anything. When I got home, tried to start and battery was dead. I just recently replaced the battery (two months ago) so I am hesitant to blame it on that. Could this be an alternator problem? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Matt

Well it would make sense that the altenator is shot because the battery was dead, although if you had no lights at all (not even dim) that seems wierd too. Normally if your alt. is going then you will slowly find a loss of power (as the battery dies) and then eventually the engine dies (when the battery is dead) ssoooo if the lights were on but just dim then yeah i'd say it's time to go shopping for a new alt. Hope that did something for you!

i had the same problem but i had my altenator checked and it is good...same with the battery, both are good. I connected everything up again and my gauge on my dash still says that the altenator is at less than 13 volts ( i am guessing it is the altenator gauge or maybe it just reads the volts in the battery because there is a picture of a batter in the gauge, no words.).

Here is the whole story. 86 chevy 350 carburated. i changed the v-belts to a serpentine system from a 94 chevy pick up (aluminum brackets). I changed all the accesories to new parts for the 94. Yes, all brand new, not rebuilds. i checked with my local electrical rebuild/reman. shop ( good friends of mine but dont work on weekends ). He told me how to hook the alt up from the old style 2 prong to the CS style 4 prong. It worked great, it has been 3 or 4 weeks now. yesterday i had the same problem IAMCANUCK had...the rest you already know good battery and altenator, too.

i checked the all the wiring i could from the alt. to the battery and all say 12.44 volts. look at the gauge and it says about the same thing; where before it would read around 14.4 (above 13).

any ideas, i still think it is the altenator. testing it on the truck with a volt tester ( red lead on bat. terminal and black lead on neg battery terminal i got 12.44 volts ).

appreciate some insight if you have an answer.

thanks

nidhogg

my friend had the same problem with his van and it was a fuseable link. not sure how that applies to the alternator or whatnot, but it's this wire and it act's as a fuse . the one on his engine died so he switched it with the other one in the van so he had no lights but engine worked. just a tarde-off till he got a new one. i don't know where it is or how to replace it but that's what it sounds like the problem might be.