Greg - Excellent suggestion. When I did the R&R of the glow plugs I noticed this same issue. I began removing, examining fuses, pulling each one-by-one. Frankly, at some point the began working. My "theory" was communication between modules had not been re-established. Both batteries were disconnected for 4-5 days during glow plug R&R. I am still puzzled why/how the situation resolved itself but it did - everything began working; yet, now - it's back again. Time to get moving on more diagnostics, thanks for suggestion. Happy you're nearing completion of the dash/radio project.

Jim - How about that - you having owned one, also? Red ones are out there. I remember the day I saw it sitting alongside Route #7 just South of Dogpatch, Arkansas. Went back the following day & drove it home.



Stock Photo

 

Greg - Glad you enjoyed the family vacation story.
Great job on the dash/radio project, it sounded so tedious! 👍 Now hop right on that cleaning/detailing work.

 

I've been threatening myself to do this for some time...I hate spending $$.

 

Began morning w/ heavy downpours...those abated. Collected OBDII codes. Collecting additional charging/capacity data on both batteries. Examining ground cables. DOING STUFF.

 

It isn't looking good regarding the batteries - which is, I suppose, both a good thing & a bad thing. I need a little more time to evaluate, but based on my numbers thus far - neither battery is capable of maintaining voltage & it appears neither battery will take a charge >12.4VDC. After short periods of time each battery begins to lose voltage.
The good news is I installed both batteries 6/26/2023. Each has a free replacement warranty for three years from date of purchase.
So, a little more work to confirm on these batteries, then a likely return to Autozone for replacements.

 

Called Autozone, <5' from my house. Extremely accommodating. They have my batteries in stock. I'm going to disconnect the one I have on the charger, measure it's holding capacity (which I'll bet draws down below 11.7VDC in <30'). Slam the one battery I have out of the truck back into the truck, drive to Autozone & they'll install fresh batteries back into my truck. That's the quick plan if I can manage it today - which I hope I can and I hope it resolves my issue.

 

I "think" I'm on the right track, since these batteries should be able to take a charge greater than 12.44VDC.

 

Norm, an alternator should charge to 14.2. If you put a multimeter on the poles while running, it will be 14.2. Shut it off and voltage will decay rapidly to 12.7 and should stay there until a draw happens. If the battery won't sit, loose, overnight and be 12.7 in the AM, bad battery. Connected to system overnight, and not 12.7 in AM, either bad batt or draw in system overnight. Not 14.7 when running, bad alt or charging circuitry.

So, what I mean is, they can take a charge more than 12.44, but won't hold it once you stop charging, it goes to 12 and some in about 30 seconds.

 

I'm right there with ya on the "hate spending $$". It's easy to say "you can't take it with you", but then I think about what I might be able to leave my kids/grandkids to give them a better life.

 

Norm - Good luck with the batteries, I hope it's as simple as that, and that they're still under warranty. I hope you get full replacement cost on the warranty. Good luck!

I've got to get out and mow, it's getting to be a forrest out there again. I'm going to do my cardio workout 1st, because if I mow 1st I won't want to do my cardio. I should be pooped tonight. I've been watching alot of the NHL playoff games, there's been some really great ones. I don't really have a dog in the fight, but I think I'd like to see the Oilers vs the Leafs in the Championship.

 

Agree, understand. ALT should be capable of charging any battery at >13.8VDC measured at the battery truck running - most (99%) should charge a battery between 14.2VDC - 14.8VDC. And, those numbers are for a new battery charged to capacity. I already stated both batteries lose voltage and drop to 11.7VDC after being charged to 12.4 (the highest I could charge each battery. NOTE: These batteries were either in the vehicle (disconnected) or isolated outside the vehicle.

End of day, both batteries were bad - only capable of maintaining a state of charge of 27% on one battery and 33% on the other battery. Double-down Autozone is selling complete $hit batteries. I will NEVER buy batteries from Autozone EVER again. I could elaborate with details, but I will not. The state of charge of their brand new batteries - ALL OF THEM not just the Duralast Gold batteries are ~12.6VDC. A brand new battery should read >13VDC. Autozone batteries suck donkey ****. Never will I buy another battery from Autozone - NEVER.

I won't elaborate on some of the ineptness I was subjected to at the Autozone store but I've lost all confidence in Autozone. Is it my store? I don't know, but it's Autozone and they'll pay the price with me as discontinuing a majority of my purchases w/ Autozone.

Truck running fine, all electrical is working, things are back to normal - except the brand new batteries they (we is more like it) installed in my truck are FAR less than brand new batteries. I am so over this and done w/ it. Done buy batteries from Autozone.

 

Yeah, I got full replacement cost because the batteries I bought had a 3 year full replacement warranty. The batteries they provided to me were/are incapable of being charged >13.0VDC. They are NOT brand new batteries. They may think they're receiving brand new batteries but I'm here to tell you Autozone batteries don't hold the mustard. F'em!!!

 

My brain feels like it's been beaten with a large carrot. The anguish one can suffer when dealing w/ inept irresponsible drones working for corporate America is unbelievable. I think I might be done venting - don't count on it (quite yet).

 

Well, I'm sure as hell glad they didn't charge you for batteries that are inferior from the get-go. That's pretty f'ing bad when a battery won't even last 3-years, but in your case I guess you can count yourself lucky they didn't last 3-yrs, and a day!

 

??
They did exactly that already two years ago. Sold me inferior batteries.

They charged me for bad batteries on 6/26/2023 (date of purchase).

 

Yes, when you look at it that way, I guess they did. I was speaking speaking in terms of the replacements you got today. I'm sure I could have worded that post better.

 

The replacements I got today did not cost me anything as stated earlier. It's a three year 100% replacement warranty. They damn well hadn't tried that $hit.

 

There used to be a red Opel Kadett Rallye around here when I was a teen, along with some of the others from that brand. Never see them anywhere anymore. I would think that maybe one would show up at a show, or even for sale online. Last week I turned the house a/c on, the compressor kicked on, but no cooling took affect. Went outside to have a look, and the fan wasn't working. Second time in the eight years since it's been installed. Called a HVAC company that was new to me, (the guys who installed it are out of business). They came yesterday and pulled the fan, and checked a couple of other things, including pressure. Sprayed a lube oil of kind on the shaft, and reinstalled it. It kicked on. The fan has a ten year warranty, and they will submit a claim to get a new one. Just paid for the service call.

 

Dan - All-in-all you dodged a bullet & walked away pretty good on the HVAC house call. I have not turned my A/C on yet this year.

 

--Dan, when i worked at Consumers they wanted us to be jacks of all trades. I never worked on A/C systems, but I remember the other guys mentioning how so many outdoor units wouldn't start 1st time in the spring- they said bugs would get between the contacts on the relay. A big percentage of the time a 8 dollar relay made it start. Well mine didn't start that year so I was looking at the relay and clunked it with a screwdriver... Craziest thing happened, the relay slammed shut and fried a bug that was between the contacts! I can see it in my minds eye today- so weird! Anyway now A/C worked but I bought a new relay and replaced it a few days later.
--Olds is done!! Yeay!! now to get cleaning on it. Wifey and I are going to a vintage trailer group's (Tin Can Tourists) camp out down at Dearborn Park tomorrow. Pulling the old 1958 Easy Travler with the older 1956 F100. Raining like hell today, I hope it quits so we can load our stuff!

 

Greg - I just read the history of the Tin Can Tourists (TCT) founded in 1919 & viewed a stockpile of photos. Have fun!

 

Good morning everyone.

Not a bad start to the day. Signed 8 wheels in the overtime hour, thanks to an additional wall guy and some wheels my wall guy saved from yesterday.

I decided to forego the afternoon overtime hour and went home and mowed the entire place. Took me two hours. We were supposed to have rain but it never came so I took advantage.

Norm you should buy an Opel for your cheep commuter car. There must be one somewhere. Mom drove a Kadett wagon in the early 70s. Don't remember much about it, though it got traded on a 74 Mazda RX4 wagon in 76. Oddly enough the Mazda was brand new, and had languished on the dealer lot for two years.

I've had decent luck with Duralast batteries. I buy my batteries these days at a battery house, they are cheeper and basic black. Look good in the old cars. The best luck I've had with batteries, besides Interstates in the 90s, are the Advance Auto Parts Gold. The worst, Sears Die Hard of the 80s.

My next inside project for Mom's house is going to be painting the hall bathroom. I need to get going on the floor in the living room. That was a project for August when Mom was going to be at my sister's for two weeks. Thanks to plenty of family drama she isn't going to my sister's for two weeks, probably ever, so the floor project will be hampered by not being able to move everything out of the room at once, and Mom being in the middle of everything. I'll paint the bathroom first and that will be sort of a ramping up to the bigger project.

If the rain holds off I'll go out to lunch. If it rains I'll eat at my desk. I usually lose my primo parking space and have to walk from the back 40 when I get back, no fun in the rain. I don't know how much longer I'll go to this place, the dish I get is dangerously close to $20, borderline worth it if I were honest with myself. I like getting out of the building once in a while, and really I'm just reminiscing from when the other people ran the place. But 20 for fried rice, nah.

Okay back to it. Hope everyone enjoys Hump Day.

 

Greg - Nice job on your Olds, I wish I had your automotive skills! 👍 The camping trip sounds fun. Like Norm did, I'm going to have to look up some history on the Tin Can Tourists. I hope you have a great time and be safe!

 

Mike - Sounds like you got off to a good start, hope the rest of your shift is productive. I mowed yesterday too. It's hard for me to keep up with it right now, it seems like it needs if every 3 or 4-days. Good luck with the.planned projects at your Mom's house.

 

Thanks Chris. The whole place is a project. Funny, I lived there 18 years and didn't do hardly anything. Then Mom moves in and it's non-stop work.

A friend of mine is(was?) a member of the Tin Can tourists. She went on a few club outings, said it was a blast. I could fix up my Spartan Mobile Mansion and join. Or not.

it's beautiful out so I went to lunch. And I got my same primo parking spot when I got back. After work I'm gonna mow at Mom's.

Been looking for a cheep pickup truck just to get me by until I can do something about my truck. I'm having a devil of a time finding something I like, and that's affordable. People who have C10's I swear are on crack. And Dodges are worn out. I'm tempted to fly to Missouri and check out the big diesel Dodge. It's an hour from St. Louis. That would be an awesome drive home.

 

I have elected to relegate my time/efforts to tracking down cleaning/replacing all ground wires, terminals, connection points, etc. on the diesel tractor for likely next 1-2 months beginning today. Will be entertaining for sure. Damn near have to take truck apart. LOL Seriously though lots of work. I’m fine w/ that as know where & how corrosion manifests itself in metals.

 

Sidebar point of discussion(s). Historically DC (battery powered) wiring diagrams were written based on what is (today) referred to as “Conventional Flow (diagrams). It’s fine to consider Conventional Flow as a diagram to follow in wiring schematics; yet, verbiage is incorrect (even today) but they somehow manage to get away with it. More after I get back from some wiring stuff.

 

Here ya go Mike, a little incentive for your Spartan.

 

Dan - Dave & Amy have some nice toys. Is that a red 1964 corvette Stingray? Who are Dave & Amy?

Mike doesn't have enough time to have fun.

 

I'm gaining ground at a snail's pace on diesel tractor ground wiring - I think? Super cleaned four ground fastener locations only to find out my efforts created an issue - two steps forward one step back - maybe more. Ey...Yi...Yi...Yi...Yi. First lost 1/2 the instrument cluster gauges, then gained some back, lost all the windows, lost dome light & under hood light. Headlamps/Marker/Turn signal lamps all work, truck starts & runs. Suspected my wiring for the Indian War Bonnet I mounted on the hood as a hood ornament - that wiring scenario works just fine, thus far anyways. Gone from being beat up w/ a carrot to being beat up with a wooden stick. Something took a **** and it's intermittent & this is no longer fun. Exactly why most automotive service shops don't want to touch electrical - unless the customer has very deep pockets. Baby steps...baby steps...but this would be expensive at a shop @ $100/hr. I'm in it for 4-5 hrs & I've managed to make things worse.

 

We've all heard the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", which might apply here? Unfortunately, I usually take it one toke over the line, "If it ain't broke, I'll break it!"

 

Hi guys,

Just got back from Gabe's hockey game. First, this afternoon I had a really nice visit with many old friends and work acquaintances, many I hadn't seen since I retired 7-years ago. It's incredibly hard for me to believe it's been 7-years! I wish we could have stayed longer, but I really didn't want to miss Gabe's hockey game, and I'm really glad I didn't.

Gabe set another personal best tonight scoring 5 goals and 1 assist. I didn't know there was even a term for when one player scores 5 goals in one game, but he did, promptly telling me he got a "Glut" when he came out of the locker room. With him playing approximately half of his team's ice time, ~18-minutes total, that comes out to 1 goal every 3.5-minutes he's on the ice. The kid is blowing me away!

Hope everyone had a great day and is having a relaxing evening. Now time for some more hockey on TV!

 

The Vette is a '61 or '62. I have no idea who Dave and Amy are, though like you, I saw their name in front of the trailer. This is a pic that I took at the Gilmore Car Museum's Red Barns Spectacular in 2021.

 

Chris - I have a talent (gift) for pissing myself off.

Panthers are taking it to the Maple Leafs.

 

Possibility I fried a fuse or tripped a relay. Evaluation of fuses/relays my 1st plan of attack for the morning...

 

I think you need is some friends to come over and help you.

 

Got the repainted core support about as good as I can get it on the 68. Will do the top radiator plate and re-sticker here shortly. Need to drive it more.

Mowed the house's lot this afternoon.

They are reorganizing the upper levels of my company. There's some new departments, and they've so overpromoted management that the group manager means basically nothing, so they made everyone general managers and eliminated that rank under it. I am continually driven further into cynicism (there's not a verb for being cynical, nor am I disappointed, angry, or saddened, it's more of a expanding grim knowledge that this is the way it is) by my company promoting people for anything but technical merit. We end up with smooth talking ignoramuses in charge. I have noticed that a woman, older than I, made it into management a decade ago and became stagnant, while another woman, younger than I, began a meteoric climb at that time. One could wonder if the executive VP was a philanderer who chose that moment to trade in for a younger model. I believe I know who the next younger model will be here soon, and her climb has begun, too. I try not to judge based on gender, but these women are all "engineers" yet don't seem to know a set of calipers from a crescent wrench.

 

DEI Engineers

 

Good morning everyone.

Got a whopping two wheels signed on overtime, and I got them in the last 10 minutes. And now the lead comes and tells us tomorrow is the last day for overtime. The summer schedule starts June 1, which is always an increase in wheels, so I'd say something is afoot.

That's a nice picture Dan. I have a picture of my Mansion but I don't know how to get it off my phone. Suffice it to say it isn't as nice as that one.

John I know some/most of your management is simply inept, but is it possible they skip you for promotion because you are good at what you do and they don't want to lose that expertise? We had a guy in the other department that was tops in electrical stuff, also an excellent mechanic anyway, and a heck of a nice guy. He put in for lead continuously and kept getting passed over. It came out that the foreman didn't want to lose his experience on the airplane. He finally made lead when he said he was transferring to another department. In the meantime, lesser people were promoted to lead because they were basically dolts and offered nothing to the operation. I think Norm hit it right on the head.

Chris I think you guys are in for record temperatures coming up. You can't catch a break. Torrential rain and now hot. I forgot when construction starts for Abbey Road. Gabe is really on fire. Good for him.

Going on an hour for regular shift and I'm not even close to getting the first wheel. These young guys don't understand what their lackadaisical attitude is going to get us.

Okay have a good day everyone.

 

Hm I wonder what I posted that a moderator has to approve the post.


slantflat
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