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electrical issues in a 1988

M

mwood1985

1/2 ton status
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Jan 20, 2011
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Location
Marietta Ga
I recently swapped to a hydro bellhousing and pedals. I pulled my column out get the pedals in and the next time I drove it at night I noticed im having major voltage issues. the headlights flicker and cutoff when I go over bumps and seems to happen when I hit the brake pedal as well. I made sure I didn't hit any wires during the reinstall but im thining I possibly damaged one and its grounding. theres no problem with the headlight switch off but it rears its ugly head when the switch is on. if the truck sits still it dosent short out. any ideas on where to start looking? battery and alternator both tested good ive got 14.6 at the alternator roughly 13.5-14 at the fuse panel.
 
Is it just the headlights or is everything losing voltage?

The only thing I can think of to just hit the headlights is the harness plugging into the back of the switch, or the ground plug on the left side at the dash support bolts.
 
Be sure your battery cable terminals (and wires going into them) are tight, as well as grounds. A loose battery cable can cause surges which will act like that.
 
im getting flickering lights from my aftermarket gauges the headlights and the radio cuts in and out. the trucks not using most of the normal circuits we converted to carb and didn't need it. when I test the volt gauge with the engine running I get a steady reading of 13.6 plus or minus a tenth if I cut the ac fan and the headlights on it drops to about 12.6. ive checked every wire running to the headlight switch and gauges and replaced anything that looked suspicious. still gotta look at the Radio power wire. blew the fuse for it somehow.
 
constant from the starter is good. the firewall stud got semi bypassed I think. we had to run power from the battery to the stud closest to the brake booster to get the fuse panel to power up off the ignition switch. previous owner hacked my harness to hell
 
The only thing I can think of is to check all the connections there. I had a problem previously where everything functioned properly on ACC power with the engine off, but as soon as I put a load on it (hit the starter, turned on the fan high, etc) everything would just start flickering. Turned out it was just the power cable to the starter was slightly loose.
 
what gets me is its all of the sudden. everything worked fine prior to swapping out the hydro pedals and putting the trans back in. I didn't cut any wires or take the starter loose. just unplugged everything to get the column out and put a new turn signal switch in. everything was plug and play
 
Yep I feel your pain. When mine went nuts I hadn't done anything, it just worked itself loose. I put a lock washer on it (which I think it should've had before anyway) and it hasn't bothered me since.
 
dang it....it quit doing it. now the lights work fine and all I did was cut it off and eat dinner. dang it lol. ill have to mess with it again tomorrow and see what happens
 
electrics are all screwy. whats everyones opinion of the Painless kit 10205 for our trucks? easy to install connector wise and is there any cheaper options. summit sells em for 566 right now
 
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