Nabors stupid expedition!

[superexpy]

I have been chasing down some weird electrical issues with the nabors expy. I thought it was going to be the GEM but I guess not. When they were driving it the other day the radio and speedo started shuting off and on, The door locks were slow and clicking sounded from the dash. Yesterday when they tried to start it, it did nothing but click the number two relay with key on or key off. This relay is the battery saver.There was no power to nothing. So today The nabor went and got a GEM from the junk yard and we installed it and still the same issues so I started checking for shorts. The battery is at 12.47vdc so I then metered the starter solenoid right next to the battery and it metered 6vdc-7.52vdc so I unhooked the battery cable off solenoid and the wire now reads 12.47vdc. I then checked for power on the wire from there to the under the hood fuse box and got 6ish vdc. so I pulled the 8g power feed off the under the hood fuse box and the wire read 12.47 vdc to battery. With the main battery feed disconected from the under the hood fuse box I checked the + feed side of the fuses and all were shorted. Is there anything that could fail and would cause this. If everything is hooked back up everything through out the electrical meters out at 6-7vdc except the battery and its at 12vdc.

 

[toms89]

Ground wires? Battery terminals?

Did he replace fuse block that the gem piggybacks?? Mine had water in it which caused issues.

 

[toms89]

I am trying to follow what your saying...

Voltage at the battery terminals is 12.47 with everything hooked up or no??

 

[superexpy]

Ground wires? Battery terminals?

Did he replace fuse block that the gem piggybacks?? Mine had water in it which caused issues.

Battery terminals are good Ground is good and the fuse box was replaced along with the GEM. I have a hard time believing that even thoe it is a used GEM from a wreck expy that it two has the same problem. Its also a 99, I forgot to add that. I also did not see any signs of water on the old one when we pulled it.

 

[toms89]

Still not clear on this..

If you read 12.5 volts at battery while everything is connected but only 6 volts at fuse block and starter solenoid it has to be bad connection somewhere??

But if voltage at battery terminals drops with load or when connected to starter solenoid / fuse block I would first suspect bad battery.

 

[stamp11127]

Corrosion or poor connections are the main causes of voltage drop. Disconnect the battery and clean all the connections, both pos. and neg. Take readings again as you move away from the battery. The max allowable vd is .5v on both sides of the circuit.

Anytime you have a large drop you should correct the problem in that segment then continue the readings.

Also make sure the leads for your dvm are clean. If not you will get incorrect readings. You should be able to move the lead without having a change in the reading.

 

[superexpy]

Corrosion or poor connections are the main causes of voltage drop. Disconnect the battery and clean all the connections, both pos. and neg. Take readings again as you move away from the battery. The max allowable vd is .5v on both sides of the circuit.

Anytime you have a large drop you should correct the problem in that segment then continue the readings.

Also make sure the leads for your dvm are clean. If not you will get incorrect readings. You should be able to move the lead without having a change in the reading.

Kinda funny because after I posed my last post i was playing around with the meter and I put my leads on the Battery + & - to see what the battery would do with a load and when my lead touched the battery post and clamp the hood light stopped flashing and went bright so I tried to wiggle the terminal which was to tight so I moved it with channel locks and everything started working. Kind of weird that there wasn't really any visual corrosion between post and clamp but I guess there was something on it causing allot of resistance. In my defense, I suspected the battery in the first place but everything was tight and no corrosion.

 

[pop-ralph]

Battery terminals

I learned a long time ago,with any electrical problem start at the battery posts and clean them even if thay look (ok).

 

[superexpy]

I learned a long time ago,with any electrical problem start at the battery posts and clean them even if thay look (ok).

I just learned that today!

 

[kmh1596]

Glad to see you've found the issue. Did you tell the neighbor what happened, or tell him it was an "electrical gremlin"?