Roland’s random electrical annoyance

Roland’s random electrical aggravation 2023:

Roland roaming around in his natural habitat- the west district. Pre landslide era…


I have an annoying electrical issue with Roland my 85’ 22R pickup with about 160k miles. Recently replaced the engine, cracked exhaust manifold, intake and carburetor.



It still needs some adjustments but has run good until this last summer. I have been using it as my daily driver (11 mile commute) all summer while fixing a few things on my Tacoma that cropped up/broken during my last fast AlCan trip.


I recently installed some driving lights for fall use, and also installed a switchable volt meter/ usb charger.



A couple weeks later I started experiencing a troubling random issue. While driving to and from work(and just about anywhere else) the charging light would come on while driving- so I would turn on the volt meter and check the volts, it would read 12.9-13.2(plus or minus) volts then start dropping to 12.7 or even less. Initially this might only last for a few minutes, then bingo charge lights go off, voltage comes up to 14.4 and normal voltage till the next event.

I checked battery connections, looked for loose wiring, tested the battery condition, and charging system. Everything looked good/normal. This normal reading would last for a week or less and occur again- totally random timing, I couldn’t tie it to bumps in the highway or anything else.

Eventually it happened in the driveway, so I tested the charging system using a Solar BA 9, got good reading for the battery, and poor readings for the charging system, while doing this the anomaly stopped and ops were back to normal as were voltages-14.4V. I retested the battery and charging system, and everything checked out good and normal. So I suspected there might be a loose or back ground, the 6AWG ground cable from the block to the body looked pretty dodgy so I built a new one and hooked it up and tried that. Same basic thing happened with random,though not immediate, slightly increased frequency.


Obviously this reduced my driving to just commuting and shorter trips. Luckily by that time I had finished work on the Tacoma and was able to use it for longer trips. While still trying to figure out the issue, along with all the other stuff that needed to be done around the area.

Fast forward another week, and the next odd thing started to happen, again at totally random times. I would park my truck and if I wasn’t happy with my parking job I would reposition the truck - the truck decided to not even start- no charge light, not even an idiot light, not an ideal situation. So after work I got another mechanic buddy to have a look at it with me and it started just fine. We jawed about it, wiggled a few wires, really didn’t find anything and so I went home.

Needless to say this began to happen a bit more frequently with the same random occurrence schedule. Luckily the weather started a few weeks of random rain ( no garage of course )which was absolutely no help. Aiming:



So I parked it for a bit to get caught up on other life stuff till it dried out some and went back at it from a different angle. I replaced the alternator, disconnected the ground cables and cleaned everything figuring that it might not be getting a good ground. This did help, consistent voltage readings lasted almost the entire day of doing errands.

then it happened yet again, this time over in town 18 miles away after I took the alternator core in, and went to the store. Then it was no lights at all, charge or otherwise, no clicking, I could hear a solenoid clicking somewhere under the dash behind the radio. But nothing. So I got it towed home the next day, parked it and said F$&k till next summer, and proceeded to jump into getting ready head outside for the winter.

So my plan is to go through each ground a clean the mating surfaces up, build new ground cables and start looking upgrading/replacing the starter solenoid, maybe upgrading/checking out the starter wiring and possibly the ignition switch. Chase down and print the pertinent wiring diagrams, and research the hell out the topic - not overly successful on either angle so far.

Not sure what else to look at. Any ideas out there?

 

I would go back an double check all of that recent wiring you did just prior to all of these new electrical issues.

Maybe you knocked a wire loose, cracked or broke a wire or ground that is not normally something you would have touched.

It sounds like a ground issue, or even an internal issue with the battery itself. Have you tried a different battery yet?

 

Thanks for the response. I did test the battery with a Solar BA-9 and it showed the battery as good, CCA good as well. The charging system showed good as well, until -luckily the truck decided to pitch it’s charging light fit while I was under the hood, so this is one of the reasons I am leaning towards grounds and worn solenoid contacts and wiring upgrades. Heck i might even wire in an old Ford fender mounted starter solenoid.

I do plan on double checking everything I did, looking into the ignition switch, and pulling the starter and checking the solenoid on it as well. I realize that the HID lights may have prompted the issue, which kinda points me towards the OEM starter solenoid, maybe worn contacts? Also planning to upgrade/size all the ground wires and wire brush the landing spots as well.

I am definitely going to install the GM CS144 series alternator and upgrade the 80amp fuse in the charging system as well. It is an older rig and while I am the third owner, my friend the previous owner was a minimalist, not fixing anything till he had to. That and its previous life was down in the high desert, I am also going to do a deep dive into the wiring- a noted weak link in not only Toyotas but basically every vehicle built after 65’. Unit cost is the main driver of absolute minimum engineering, and planned obsolescence.

I have all winter to chase down diagrams and post questions. Your input is definitely appreciated…