Awhile back someone on here had an intermittent short in the + cable from the pax side battery. It was shorting onto the end of a bolt on the front of the engine, that coupled with a bad engine ground??>??

 

Sorry it took a few, Im back. After colser examination I counted and it pops every 3-4 seconds. Id say almost exact at 3.75 seconds, but it still doesnt always do it. Sometimes it will sometimes it wont.

Altinater wires all look to be in good shape.
Both battery grounds to block are freshly cleaned.
all other grounds I found are clean.
No codes.
Doesnt matter id A/C is on or off, itll still be arcing either way.

I took a piece of 12 gauge wire and held it to the engine "wheel" while engine was running... The pop/arc stopped as soon as I touched the wire to the wheel. Didnt even have to ground the other end to the frame. BUT grounding the wire gave the same result of no arc.
It seems very wierd that all I did was touch the ungrounded wire to the back side of the wheel, and it stopped.

I will try watering the belt, beacuse I also thought it could be a bad belt situation and static building up.

Please keep the ideas comin and Ill will keep you all updated.

 

Wow, if it were 3.72 seconds I would know exactly what it is. But 3.75 seconds, I have no idea, heh, heh. By touching the wheel while it is rotating and the arcing stopping I would think the wire acted like a static wick. I would say your problem is static electricity....

 

UPDATE...

Yea static is what Im starting to think too.

I tried the water thing and sure enough, it stopped it for a minute. Then it starts to come back real small and slowely gains strength till its like it was before spraying with water.

So now that ive found that minor very temperery solution, where can I go from there? Think a new belt might do it? The belt was last replaced about 2 years/25 k miles ago I think. Is that about a belt life span?

 

Try some belt dressing first, Wd-40 works too. That is a very strange situation though. I guess with our dry air it might be expected but that is wery, wery strange.

On Edit - Just thought of something... What kind of Ice Melters do the use in the winter there? Have they switched to that New stuff? When they first started using it in Denver, they were having really bad problems with power lines arcing because of it's conductivity, even after it dried. If it got a wet again, it would come back. They had to start washing down power poles to get the stuff off.

Just a thought...

 

Just spray some on the belt? Should I hit the all the belt wheels too?

on edit.. Wow no way really?? I have no Idea what they use here.
Ive hit the hole engine with de greaser and washed it all down since this started happening so I dont think it would be the ice melter. But that is really wierd.

 

I would actually use wd-40 first wait a day then use belt conditioner. And yes, spray the pulleys belts and everything. I do it while it's running, just make sure to wear safety glasses. WD-40 and Belt dressing hurt like heck. Double Heck actually.

If it is in fact static electricity, you just need to reduce friction and it will stop. We'll it will never build to a point of creating an arc.

As far as the ice melter, really long shot. Not sure why I even thought about it to tell you the truth but that stuff is causing all kinds of problems. I would think that degreaser would have washed it off. Just trying to think outside the box I guess. Never heard of belts creating a static charge like that.

 

Haha well sometimes outside the box is just what is needed!

I'll spray it all down and see if it makes it stop. If not, Im just gonna replace the belt next. All the grounds seem in perfect shape and if spraying it and or a new belt doesnt do it, Ill just have to dig a little deeper.

Ill kepp yall posted. Thanks for all the brain storming guys, I really appreciate it!
Ian

 

A spark + wd40 may cause a fire....ya might want to have the water hose close by. If everything was grounded good this shouldn't be happening....right? Maybe you need one of those grounding straps dragging the ground from your back bumper......remember when everyone had those on their cars...especially caddys....lol!

 

Hahaha thatd be funny to see hangin down.
Hmm I didnt think about the fire pos.
I sprayed it a few times and it go away for a few, but be back the next day. Even with belt dress stuff it came back.

I ended up gettin tired of that and just replaced the belt today. It wasnt cracked or anything but thought itd be worth a try and so far, I havent seem or heard the arc since. Ive only had it runnin and looked twice but it really seems like that might've been the problem! Fingers crossed it was that easy!

 

A friend e-mailed me this link. He is a very good Diesel tech from Indiana. Seems like the poster of this thread is not alone. I could not believe what I saw. Like he said something new just when you thought you saw it all.

http://youtu.be/2GVrpe3qeGk

 

Check to make sure your engine to frame ground strap is in place and working. Easy to do with a ohm meter.