Jump start oops

[velojym]

Well, I'm a friggin' idiot.
When I rolled Earl back a bit, a couple days ago, for a wash, I forgot to turn the ignition switch to the 'off' position.
So, today when I went to drive him to the post orifice, he was deader'n a doornail.
I backed my car up to jump him off, and after hooking up the truck's battery, one of the donor-end clamps fell and sparked against the truck's bumper. I saw no immediate ill effects, to I wiped my brow and hooked 'em up.

Once they were connected, I went back to start Earl, and noticed a prodigious amount of smoke coming from the block on the firewall, so I immediately disconnected the cables, grabbed my extinguisher, and kept a wary eye on the offending area. The wires cooled off and stopped smoking, so I parked the car and just leaned on Earl for a bit. I have to dig his manual out from the boxes in the basement, but I figure I'd go ahead and post to see if anyone can tell me how badly I might have damaged my truck.
There's no power at all to the ignition, the interior lights, or anything. Haven't checked the headlights yet... so I figure the least I'll get away with is a wire and maybe a big fuse.

[velojym]

Went back out, though it's getting dark now. There's nothing electrical coming on. I checked a couple of the fuses, and they're still intact, and just out of curiosity I checked the battery on my multimeter. It's showing 8.65v right now, which is understandable since it didn't get a complete charge out of the above.

[Sartobuilt]

Probably smoked a fuseable link on the junction block or at the starter.

[1980c10]

Probably smoked a fuseable link on the junction block or at the starter.

^^What he said^^
Quickest way to check is to test voltage or continuity from your battery to the alt; If its dead work you way to the dist block, then the starter.

[velojym]

Probably smoked a fuseable link on the junction block or at the starter.

^^What he said^^
Quickest way to check is to test voltage or continuity from your battery to the alt; If its dead work you way to the dist block, then the starter.

Thanks. I'll try that in the morning.

[bake74]

Probably smoked a fuseable link on the junction block or at the starter.

^^What he said^^
Quickest way to check is to test voltage or continuity from your battery to the alt; If its dead work you way to the dist block, then the starter.

     x3.  Sure sounds like the problem to me.

[velojym]

I metered around, and found full voltage (left the battery on a trickle charger overnight) all the way back to the firewall. Between the little two-studded junction block and the fusebox was a wire with a spliced-in section of green insulated wire, just twisted together and covered in electrical tape.
Both pieces of tape burned away, leaving a couple of very iffy twist joints. I'm heading out to grab some lunch and see if I can find a bit of wire to more securely splice in. My fingers are crossed, hoping that someone's piss-poor wiring skills (it wasn't a fusible link, by the way) saved my truck from further damage.

[velojym]

Nothing blew or even really melted. The previous owner's wiring left a lot to be desired, though. I wish I didn't have to keep putting off so much work on Earl, but finances aren't really there right now. I did go and get a proper fusible link, though.
Now it's crankin' some but the battery doesn't have enough juice in it just yet. Gonna leave it on the trickle charger for a few more hours.
This is just a little bitty charger I got for my wife's scooter, so I'm gonna have to spring for a real one soon. My old one went in a yard sale (unbeknownst to me)... hope the battery's still ok.

Before...



After...

[87454westernhauler]

God that truck of yours is in nice shape!

[velojym]

God that truck of yours is in nice shape!

Was that tongue-in-cheek? I'm not much good at getting jokes.
If not, yeah... this is a rust free, straight truck, with only a few problems due to a sloppy engine install. Otherwise, it's a great base for just about anything I care to do with it... still wondering about that, though.

Come to think of it... if they use a lot of salt up in your locale... yeah, Earl's in pretty darned nice shape.

[87454westernhauler]

i was complimenting u! "Earl" seems like he has been fairly well maintained exspecialy compated to 99.9% of trucks up in my area! I could only dream of fining one in my area for less than an arm and leg!

[velojym]

I'll have to remember that if I ever decide to sell him.

After we got home from dinner, I went out and turned the key. He started right up.
However, the voltmeter is a little lower than usual... just over the caution zone... the range with the white bar. I revved the engine a bit, and it showed no change. It dipped a little, then recovered, when I turned on the headlights, and revving the engine a little didn't do anything to the brightness.
I shut him off, waited a few seconds, and hit it again. He started right up... though if it's not charging, there's probably still a few starts left in the battery.
Could I have fried something in the alternator? Or did I just not really notice the "normal" range before?
Tomorrow I'll throw the meter back on and see if I'm getting good charging voltage independent of the gauge.

Edit: I went ahead and checked it. The truck started fine, but I was getting zilch on the multimeter, reading directly from the battery. That was odd... I shut the hood, turned on the headlights, and pulled out onto our street. The headlights started dimming immediately, and by the time I was a quarter mile down, I had no lights. I high-tailed it back to the house and parked him. A turn of the key and nothing. Dead again.
It had been running fine, even after the headlights were just about completely out, and the voltage gauge had bottomed. It didn't seem to want to die or anything until I turned the ignition off. Then, nothing.

Battery, or alternator? I'm thinking the battery is toast. No idea about the alternator.
Good thing they're relatively cheap in these trucks. Even so, I'll have to wait to afford one.


-just tested my multimeter. Works perfectly. Earl's gone nuts.

[velojym]

Poking around this and a couple other websites, it appears that my alternator was probably keeping the engine running while it turned, and everything else died with the battery.
I left it charging overnight with a smart-charger, then through most of today. I got it to the point where it was reading full voltage, and started Earl right snappy-quick... about three times.
Then, with the headlights on and a quick drive down the road, it faded within seconds to nothing. Now I can't even get a tiny interior light to glow.

So, if I'm guessing right, and the Haynes manual isn't any help beyond this guess... my battery is toast, but my alternator should still be working ok.
Too bad the only spare battery I have right now is the deep cycle for our trolling motor.

[1980c10]

With the truck running test your battery...Should be about 13.8 volts if your alt is working.

[87454westernhauler]

idk if you have a tester, but hook one up to the terminal on the back of the alternator when it is runing and see if it has any output. we had an issue simillar to yours where the alternator was good still, but it wouldnt charge the baterry and truck would just run off of the batery, found out that the fusable link by the starter was toast. i would test alternator and then check the fusible link next.