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Yeah I plan to do that tomorrow, not sure if I have enough wire to do it, and too dark to look now, but tomorrow ill rip the new one out and check.
It does say on Cooldrive site the alternator is for 95 and on TB and late TD 42, there's no vacuum pump on it, but I wonder if it's wired differently as there is another alternator listed for DA? mavericks and GQ trolls from 88-94 (mine is 88) not much could be different though, apart from the regulator wires, does anyone know if they're reversed on later trucks?
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Ok it appears I have incorrect information.
Rod, first off, with ignition on and off, the white wire has 11-5-12v. The white/red trace wire had 7.5 off and 9.6 on.
I connected this plug to my old alternator and had the same problem. (Batt and earth still connected to new alt)
It also appears now that removing the plug doesn't affect the dash, I'm certain that yesterday, when I disconnected the plug, the dash lights and voltmeter went off, tonight, when I double checked 3 times, disconnecting the plug had no effect and I had to either disconnect the battery or ignition relay to make the dash go off.
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It's ok,
The white wire with a red trace should not have power in it with the ignition off and disconnected from the alternator.
Something is causing the ignition circuit to have power when it shouldn't.
The ignition relay you are removing is the bottom one beside the fuse box inside the vehicle? yes?
What happens when you put the relay back in (without turning on the ignition?) do the lights come back on?
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Yes that's what I though, it would also explain why my battery is draining.
Yes, the relay is the bottom one in the fuse box. If I pull it out, the lights go out. If I plug it straight back in with the key still off, the lights stay off. I've swapped the relay with the 2 other relays in the box and had the same result.
The lights that stay on are the brake/handbrake light and oil light, (first and second lights on bottom row) battery light doesn't come on at all.
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Has anything electrical been fitted to the vehicle recently?
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Not recently, no. But I don't know how long all this has been happening for, I've been chasing a fault for some time, as I said, first a new battery, then a new starter, now the alternator.
I can't seem to trace it to anything specific, and as far as I can see, everything that has been fitted, apart from the HID light conversion and my air horn runs off the auxiliary battery. I have disconnected all aftermarket wiring from the main battery that I've added and tomorrow I'm going to look at the wiring that's been added prior to me, however there wasn't anything on the truck when I bought it, no cb, lights, fridge, anything, not even a stereo I don't think.
My MSD unit, HID's, fridge and sub and stereo were all installed by an auto electrician and they all run off the auxiliary battery.
Can I cut the signal wire and rewire it with switched 12v?
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What I think is happening is, for some reason there is a low voltage in the ignition circuit when the key is off.
This voltage is not enough to switch the ignition relay on but it is enough to keep it on when the ignition is turned off.
Do you have problems shutting the engine down? does it want to run on? try disconnecting your MSD and see if the lights stay on.
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No, it normally shuts down straight away, maybe a little bit of run on, on a hot day, but nothing incredibly bad, a few rotations at most. Ill disconnect everything off the auxiliary battery tomorrow, one by one and see what happens.
Now that I think about it, when my HID's were installed, I used a ARB lighted switch, the auto lec told me that when he turned them on, then off, and back on in quick succession, one light wouldn't come back on, and when the HID's were switched off, and the car lights pulled back to low beam, the high beam light and the 2 lights in the driving light switches would stay mildly illuminated. It pissed me off, so I decided I'd just have him disconnect the light circuit from the switches and they all worked fine.
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Ok I'm too headscrewed to keep fiddling with it today, cant think.
I disconnected the auxiliary battery totally. Tested the white/red trace wire with key off, no current. I will be re connecting things one by one and seeing which thing is at fault and going from there.
Turned the key on and off, still have red lights staying on. I'm starting to think now it might be the dual battery set up as all that was connected was the starter battery, nothing on the earth side, and only factory wiring on positive side.
My next step will be to disconnect the dual battery set up and just run the charge lead to the main battery. If this doesn't work, bring marshmallows and cocoa because its gonna go boom.
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Ok progress....
Removed the auxiliary battery, no drain through alternator now. Will chase that later.
Red light/volt problem SOLVED. Beside the battery, there is a tray with relays under it. Removed that and there is 3 relays, AC, Horn and Ign/Choke. Truck is running a Holley and doesn't have a choke as its on gas. Disconnected this relay, problem solved. Key and dash function as normal. I'm not sure what else it controls, if I need to, ill replace it, if it's only for the choke, I won't.
Next step is to connect the belts and start it up, make sure I have charge and then look for the drain on the aux battery.
I will still replace the dual battery setup, this one is rubbish, tbh, it's at least 10 years old and wires are brittle and too thin for my liking.
For now, I think I have fixed my major problem. Will see what happens tomorrow when I put the belts on and fire it up.
