This all started when my truck sat for about a week and I went to go start it and the battery was dead. I jumped the truck, it was fine for a couple of days and then boom, dead again from just sittin over night. Jumped it again, drove out to Wyoming and whenever I start it up out here the battery charge will stay so low my check gauge light will stay on, then it will work its way up just past the first notch and stay there until the truck is warmed up and then it will go a bit past the 14 and stay there. I will return to site, shut it down, plug it in and the same thing keeps happening. I have been reading about a sensor that controls the cruise control and such may be to blame for a battery charging problem. Could that be the culprit?

 

I would run it down to a parts house and have them do a load test on the batteries. After that check the crank trigger that controls the alternator (to some extent) it is right on the front cover. It sees the notches in the dampener and tells the truck it is running.

 

Crank trigger on the right of the front cover of the alternator? Can't find it, anyone bored enough to take a picture and point it out?

 

It is above the harmonic balancer on the timing cover.

 

I had a problem with mine not charging sometimes. I replaced the batteries and the problem more or less went away. One thing I always do is wait for the "wait to start" light to shut off and let the truck idle with no lights or blower motor on until the voltage gauge reads over 14V. Sometimes in the cold weather I have to let it set for 30 seconds before it hits a normal charging voltage but it hasn't given me the "check engine light" and low voltage on the gauge since.

John