That all sounds to me like you have a bad connection somewhere. I still say check all your connections at the batteries and all your ground connections as well.

 

Thank you all very much! I really appreciate all the feedback!

There is an update to the whole thing.. I went out this morning and replaced the relay on the fender well, figuring since its a cheap part, might as well get that one done since I cant account for the condition. The truck fired right up under a jump start, but then died.

Pleggia was awesome and got on the phone with me.. he walked me through the ground issues that you all had stated. Each ground cable was covered, found some that were missing, put brand new ones in all together. Jumped it again, still had the gauge issue but it ran a little longer. It gave me enough time to run a volt test on the truck...

Running, Pass battery was at 10v along with driver batt. No difference. Alternator was also at 10v... dumb thing, the longer it ran, the volts decreased down to 8v along with the alternator.

I went out to autozone, got a new alternator (those things are expensive!). Put it on, jumped it. It ran, and on its own. Now its still dropping down to 10v, but its staying there consistantly. I will attempt to fire it up again later, but I think we may have cured that problem. As it was running, I went ahead and started a full truck physical scan, checking every wire I could. Found some ground wires under the dash on the passenger side that were loose. I snugged them up, the gauges came alive and operated correctly.

I want to see if I can throw some new bolts on the terminals later as well. The Positive cable are on there, but likely need to be really snug. The ground cables are brand new, along with the batteries.

Thanks everyone! I have my fingers crossed that its going to keep going! if there is anything I may be missing, let me know. (PS, i did check the solenoid to the starter, it works).

As for the running voltage, is it running at the right amount?

 

You may have a leak to ground Chris. Check you trailer wiring and brake controller if you have one. Just a thought.

 

Is anything wired directly to either battery!

 

A normal system should run right around 13.8 volts. 10 volts is definitely low. Trailer wiring would be a good place to start looking for issues. Glad to hear you are up and running. Good luck with your move. Look forward to hearing from you when you're in a new home.

 

Have you bench tested the alternator? Just a guess.

 

Absolutely.. And thank you very much for hanging in there with me! Makes a huge difference! I shouldnt be out of the loop for very long at all.. I wont have cell phone signal, but I do have internet signal, LOL!

The grounding was an issue, but surprisingly enough.. unrelated to the LOW volt issue! I have to give a huge thanks to Pleggia for spending sooooo much time on the phone helping me out.. come to find out, the wire or circuit for the low voltage indicator has an impact on the alternator working.. Wild!

 

Please somebody send rep points to Pleggia (Ian) because I couldnt

 

.......done ....

 

Wish I could again.. apparantly he will be getting christmas cards from me, and FTE says to slow down! LOL!

 

SAICARG

 

Done this morning!

 

Might as well put it here too.

 

Glad to help! Thanks for the reps!