Hey guys,

I've had a voltage fluctuation while the truck was warm off and on for a few days now, while driving to work (100km commute 1 way) so at first I figured maybe the grid heaters were coming on, but yesterday when I got there, sure there was a fluctuation in the voltage gauge, but as I was taking some of my stuff out of the truck I heard the starter try to engage, which led me to believe that it might be the shutdown solenoid, as I know the two are connected. but before I go get carried away with parts, I was wondering what your thoughts on this was.

Oh ya, the starter is only 14 months old at the most

Thanks,
Devin

 

Your starter contacts are worn out and sticking. If you don't take care of this $20 problem right away it will fry the $200 shutdown solenoid .

 

Ya, that was my second thought but it's not like it sticks after starting, this happens after driving for 30-60mins, and after dropping $300 on a starter last year cause of the no start/stick problem was hoping to hear a different answer, but at the same time it makes sense.

also when this happened the truck still shut off with the key, with no delay

 

Its sounds like it may be a ing sw problem .

 

I've got starter contacts and a solenoid saver on order from PDR, hopefully they call me back, there was some confusion as to if they carried them or not, but was buying from them as I need some lukes links anyway, we'll see hopefully nothing bad happens from then til now.

 

You should do some testing while your waiting for parts , it does not sound like the problem is in the starter .
Rig up a test lite to the small wire at solenoid , run a long enough wire to get lite in cab , go for drive to see if it will lite , if so then do again , but this time after starting engine , disconnect that wire from solenoid & leave test lite connected & drive again .
If lite comes on then tap into start wire at bottom of steering column , to see if worn out sw is causing this .

 

I'll try that on my next days off, or if I can do it while at work, it's going to be a hard problem to troubleshoot, as it doesn't do it all the time, just certain days, thing is I know it was cold and snowy out the other am... so it might be weather related, sunday was the first time the starter was trying to engage though, when it did it the first time, I shut the truck off and re-started it to see if it would do it again, and it did, I tried fiddling with the switch yesterday and it didn't repeat, so it might just be one of those things until I can catch it in the act.

Thanks for the help
Devin

 

And the saga continues...

Turns out my alternator was going bad, about a week after this happened, so I bought a brand new Denso for it, found I still had a slow cranking issue so I installed the new stater contacts, everything is fine again, until today, on my way to work AGAIN... On a sunday at that (no parts stores open) voltage gauge was fluctuating again, I figure no big deal, it's been alright every other time, so I have like 1km away from work, then my lights dim down (noticeably), then the transmission starts hunting, so I figure, okay maybe the tps is getting dirty. I pull into the yard and try to rev up the truck to make the voltage gauge move, doesn't work, let it idle for a minute, and I hear the starter engaging again, so by this time I've decided it needs an ignition switch, so I shut it off, then it repeatedly back to back goes into the crank cycle while the key is in the run position.

So I make my run and go to come home, voltage stays low (just above the line between the 8 & 14) truck seems low on power, still doesn't click with me until I hit the highway and I have no overdrive, so I go fuel up, truck starts charging a little bit (almost 14), I however had to get home so I kept driving home, I get about 20km down the road (I had just about enough of the no O/D) so I throw the tranny in neutral, then shut the truck off, then start it back up, put it back in gear, and it goes into O/D, only worked for about 3km though, then went back to screaming.

Trans can be manually shifted 123, but I beleive if in D starts in 3rd, but tach works, speedo works.

Main question, would the ignition switch cause all of these problems or do I have something else going on like maybe a faulty sensor or a failing PCM (unsure about the PCM cause everything else works but the charging and the od)

 

First I would disconnect the trigger wire at the starter solenoid. You might hook a test light to the wire that you can see while driving. Also hook up a start wire from the starter solenoid to a button then too the bat. This should stop the intermittent starter until you can trace the problem out.

This should keep the truck running and save the starter from destruction. From this point you can trace the wiring back until you find the culprit.

Mike

 

K here's the final deal, it's all sorted out again now.

We ruled out the alternator failing and not charging by re-installing the old one (still works but doesn't charge a full 14v) charging didn't change, made some calls, was told to check the wiring... and I found what happened to be a severed wire going to the fuse box (in the loom it's the green with orange stripe) which after looking at the PCM has the same, splice in a section of wire, due to the corrosion, and we're back in business.

The Manual lists the wire's function to be the "Automatic Shutdown sensor", unless that's the gasser side of the manual, but it seems to follow the same path, PCM to Fuse box

The Voltage fluctuation was actually the wire shorting out on the shock washer, and it was disengaging the charging for the alternator, the starter problem turned out to be the ignition switch, and for $60 and about 30 mins of my time, am glad I changed it anyway