new to gn and volt problem

[jonstaley89]

Hey guys im new to turbo buick world but not gbodys. I was wondering what I should know as a new guy to the trbo buick world. Also having alternator problems. Changed alternator and battery and car still doesnt hold a charge. Before new battery died while deiving. Since the new battery the turbo even lags from juice. Ideas? Is the new alternator bad? Everything os hooked up correctly.but now the tuebo begans to build but doesnt boost, I think its bexause of the charging problem. Any help would be great and info

 

[TurboBuRick]

Key on engine off, does the volt light in the dash work?

 

[earlbrown]

turn the key on without cranking the engine.... Is the 'volt' light on?

 

[earlbrown]

Key on engine off, does the volt light in the dash work?

JINX! You owe me a beer!

 

[jonstaley89]

Lol. Umm no it doesnt but pulled out the dash and replaced the volts bulb with a 194 bulb and still no volt light

 

[jonstaley89]

Also im located in New Mexico and there is no turbo buick places here, so im worried who to call

 

[jonstaley89]

Also on the back of the volts socket has some kind of white plastic resistor with a little fuse in it. That normal?

 

[Rafs-T-Type]

Have you checked out the ground connections? Also you can ask for help in the southwest forum. There is probably someone in New Mexico that is close enough to lend a hand.

 

[jonstaley89]

How would I check thw ground? And ill have to look for the southwest forum

 

[earlbrown]

Lol. Umm no it doesnt but pulled out the dash and replaced the volts bulb with a 194 bulb and still no volt light

That's your problem. The volt warning light has to work for the alternator to work. If that bulb gets some corrosion in the socket or if the socket doesn't make good contact with the plastic ribbing strip it will kill the charging system.
The resistor is there so the charging system will still work if the bulb blows. I would take a pencil eraser and clean the hell out of the contacts on the ribbon strip and the bulb socket. Once the volt light starts working, you should be back in bidness.

 

[jonstaley89]

Well I cleaned the shit out of that socket and the ribbing strip with an eraser and pluged it up, and still nothing. Now is there supposed to be 2 seperate ground wires to the alternator? I have one thats duck taped up and has a connector on it with nothing pluged and it looks like it heads in the dash. The other heads into the towards the motor and disapears. Ideas? Possible socket being bad, or paper? Before I did use steel whool on the paper and the connectors

 

[jonstaley89]

Seems 1 of those wires run underneath motor around to this box that says painless preformace (tried all numbers on the box to figure out what it was, nothing). Then the other one runs up a bunch of wires next to brake booster then disapears. Also another wire from the battery is a little red one that runs up to the harness in the top left and wraps into it then disapears, possible goes to the blower and such. Or to the fuses or little boxes on top left of motor bay, against the fender, blower blower motor and stuff.

 

[HouTX87]

Get a field fix harness from Caspers. I'd still figure out the problem with the volt bulb but this harness fixes the issue of the bulb being the weak link in the charging circuit.

http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/product_info.php?products_id=1344

A volt booster would be a good idea too.

http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/product_info.php?products_id=614

 

[Rafs-T-Type]

Get a field fix harness from Caspers. I'd still figure out the problem with the volt bulb but this harness fixes the issue of the bulb being the weak link in the charging circuit.

http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/product_info.php?products_id=1344

A volt booster would be a good idea too.

http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/product_info.php?products_id=614

I like the first idea, but a volt booster isn't going to help this problem. If the engine can't run on it's own power, a volt booster won't even band-aid the problem.

As for the grounds, see if this thread helps out - http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/ground-wire-locations-on-engine.236784/

I am not a good wrencher. I just take care of some stuff sometimes. The only 2 grounds I know are a small one from battery to frame, and a decent one from the firewall to the back of the head?

 

[HouTX87]

I like the first idea, but a volt booster isn't going to help this problem. If the engine can't run on it's own power, a volt booster won't even band-aid the problem.

As for the grounds, see if this thread helps out - http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/ground-wire-locations-on-engine.236784/

I am not a good wrencher. I just take care of some stuff sometimes. The only 2 grounds I know are a small one from battery to frame, and a decent one from the firewall to the back of the head?

The volt booster won't fix his problem, I agree.

 

[earlbrown]

Seems 1 of those wires run underneath motor around to this box that says painless preformace (tried all numbers on the box to figure out what it was, nothing). Then the other one runs up a bunch of wires next to brake booster then disapears. Also another wire from the battery is a little red one that runs up to the harness in the top left and wraps into it then disapears, possible goes to the blower and such. Or to the fuses or little boxes on top left of motor bay, against the fender, blower blower motor and stuff.

Oh no. Someone's been in there modifying and installing nonstock stuff. Can you post a picture of the "painless" box's area and let us try and figure out what's not stock?

 

[jonstaley89]

Here is some pics

I swapped the seat belt socket and bulb with the volts one. volts worked for the seat belt but still nothing for the volts. Once it was running and had it jumped, went ahead and tested the alternator with the negative terminal trick, thinking it would turn off and diagnos itself... I was wrong, it kept running with no problems. Turned the car off, waiting a couple seconds, and the car was dead dead. Not a turn, light, nothing.

 

[jonstaley89]

How does these wires everybody talks about work? I looked the website up, and by looking can say I understand what they do, or where they go

 

[jonstaley89]

Also this kit how does it work? And I forgot to say I check and fixed every ground, termanals. Only thing I disnt touch is in the pic of the far away box, the black cord is the neg terminal. When I started to unscrew it twisted all of that assembly. I disnt know what I was twisting so I tightened it and left it alone.
Im going to try to explain what I seen and touched.

-From the postive battery terminal 3 wires in one
1. goes from pos to alternator
2. small guage wire runs up the left side and attaches to that mess of wires, possible goes to the blower motor.
3. The thickest wire runs to the "painless" box thing, and then the box shoots underneath the motor. Havn't chased that wire down yet.

-Alternator has 2 grounds
1. Is the one that runs from the alternator ground to the pos battery
2. Is a bunch of twisted wires(2 or 3) that run to the back of the firewall, pretty sure into the dash. One wierd thing about these wires is there is a connector with nothing connected and its been duck taped all the way up. So next to the connector there is a couple of random connections that probably was used at sometime.

-Negative has 2 wires
1. The little wire is the wire to the fender ground.
2. The big one (the one I started to unbolt and decided otherwise) runs to the exhaust bolt (or maybe its the long link that attached to the turbo)

 

[earlbrown]

Oh damn. You need to post a location and have someone local come take a look at all that aftermarket stuff. If you were local to me I'd start with hedge clippers and end up with a pile of unnecessary aftermarket stuff laying next to the car.

Is that thing behind the battery next to the turbo a ford solenoid to boost power to the starter? I see a non stock ground going to the PS header and it looks like some sort of boost actuated something or another. Possibly a voltbooster and quite possibly your charging problem.