Okay, so I started it up just before and took the positive cable off the battery when it was running and the engine quit. That means my gen is not genning? Please look at the wire with the fuse holder attached to the hot lead of the fuel gauge in the thumbnail below (see arrow). What the heck is that? Both the Old Navy truck and my parts truck had one of those attached. What's it for? Where do I take power from for the heater fan, turn signals and radio? There doesn't seem to be any provisions in the harness for power for those. Andy
Looks like a wire cover of some sort. I have yet to encounter one. Check the wire diagram in one of the shop manuals.
Wiring diagram Andy - here's some info on the turn signal. Hopefully someone will fill us in on the best place to access power for the turn signals and the other accessories - heater and radio. Larry
They probably ought to be hooked through the ign. switch. Just so nothing gets left on by accident. Jim
Lo and behold... ...a member of this forum is selling an NOS GM turn signal set-up EXACTLY like the one that came on my truck. He was nice enough to copy the installations instructions and email them to me. What a gem. You are correct, sir. Power for the turn signals comes from the ignition terminal of the ignition switch. About the part in the thumbnail above. It is a fuse holder with a 14 amp glass fuse in it. You've all seen those inline fuse holders before. This one has a little do-hickey that screws on to the hot post of the fuel gauge. That do-hickey then accepts the inline fuse holder. Any help about that??? I'm guessing it was a dealer add-on for some type of accessory. Lastly, any help on the generator issue or where to take power for the heater fan and radio? Andy
Andy, I would think that you'd want to hook the heater and radio through the ignition switch also for the same reason shooter2 stated.
Electrical Andy, before you take off the generator, use a volt/ohm meter and test to see if you are getting volts. You should be able to pull it straight off of the two outer terminals on the voltage regulator. If there's nothing there, it probably means the gen needs some work. (could just be brushes, so try that first) I hooked my turn signals up to one of the power terminals on my light switch. You can pull it off of any good power source and it will work. Same goes for the radio and heater, but don't make the mistake I did. I took my radio off of the accessory terminal on the ignition switch and I loose all radio station memory when I shut the truck down. I believe on the new radios they need a continuous power source or the get althiemers! Something else to fix when I get bored of body work
Andy, a quick way to check your generator is to "motorize" it. If it works as a motor it will work as a generator. Take the fan belt off the generator pulley, hook a ground up to the field terminal (marked Field, FLD, or F) and a hot wire to the armature terminal (marked A or ARM). The generator will turn slowly as an electric motor if it is good. This will isolate that as a problem source and leave the wiring or regulator as the culprit.(pic) On trucks we add several accessories to we put a buss terminal somewhere on the inside of the firewall and run a single wire from the ignition or accessory terminal to it. This gives as many posts to wire to as needed because without it the post on the ignition switch really gets crowded. (three terminal pictured) The "hot" terminal on the light switch usually has three screws and is a source for the horn, cigarette lighter, and for modern radios the memory wire. The horn is obvious when it's working and the cigarette lighter pops off by itself but I don't like to wire anything to it that can be inadvertly left on. If your ignition switch doesn't have an accessary terminal and your heater is hooked to the ignition terminal you might have to turn off your heater motor before the engine will turn off, especially if the heater is on "high". It becomes a generator and backfeeds into the switch when you turn off the key. Not a prominate problem but has baffled some when it happens.
