Battery light on

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Aug 10, 2009 | 07:47 PM

95psd

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From: Vancouver

Battery light on

The battery light on my dash is on but the amp gauge shows that it is charging. I had the alternator tested and they said it was putting out 14 volts. Any ideas on what is going on?

Aug 11, 2009 | 06:55 AM

95psd

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From: Vancouver

No one has any ideas on this? Anyone know how to test the harness??

Aug 11, 2009 | 07:17 AM

Brown Falcon

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From: Thomasville, GA

Check the voltage on both your batteries... and have them both load tested. You might just have one battery going bad, but if one is bad you should replace both.

Aug 11, 2009 | 08:00 AM

Cuda_jim

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From: MICHIGAN

That's a volt meter in your dash not an Amp meter, it indicates the health of the batteries...not the charge rate. When the red light is on you have a charging issue. The volt meter will slowly drop and eventually the engine will just quit.
Since you have 14V coming from the alternator I suspect the connector on the alternator is bad. It's a common problem becuse it gets crushed all the time from laying on it while working on other things.
Wiggle the connector with the engine running and have someone watch the red light. If it flickers, you found your problem. Sometimes just tweaking the pins and sockets on the alternator/connector will solve it.

Aug 11, 2009 | 07:39 PM

95psd

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From: Vancouver

I had it tested at a battery shop and they said they think a diode is going out.

Aug 11, 2009 | 09:41 PM

pjwoolw

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From: San Ramon Ca.

Any other issues other than the light being on?

Aug 11, 2009 | 10:05 PM

95psd

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From: Vancouver

I had an idler pulley seize and got shot out from under the hood while pulling my 5th wheel, luckily I was not on a down hill. Not sure if that had anything to do with the alternator goofing up but it got fairly hot before I could get off the road. I the alternator off and had it tested on the machine and it was putting out ok volts but the diode for the lamp was bad and it sounded like it was starting to make a little noise. Put a new one on and that took care of it. Thanks for your help and suggestions.