Help ratsun community

[DailyDato]

Well i have a 77 620, ka24de swap, everything is great, except one thing, I have traced it down to one wire, the black, w/ white strip wire of my ignition switch, with no accessories on, the truck runs perfect, shuts off perfect,.....now, if i turn my head lights on, or just my park lights, and then attempt to shut my truck off with the key, it doesnt shut off, unless i turn off my headlamps, and or park lamps on, i ran the schematics, and here is my conclusion, with a test light hooked up, even my volt meter, after you turn the key off, the W/B ignition wire keeps slight voltage, with key on, no lights, i get 12.3V running, i get 13.9V, with lights off, and key off, 0V, key off with lights previously on, 3.3V as with just parklamps, the voltage will finally burn out in the test light, or some other simple draw, only if the lights are headlights are on, is there a short in the output side of my headlight realy, or is the W/B wire shorted to something else, or shorted together, any ideas anyone before i cut my entire harness down to find the issue? oh, and if you have the headlamps on, you can switch it to parklamps fast enough, it will still run, but after you turn the switch completley off, the voltage does not return with the key off, and you turn the lights back on, leads me to think its after my head lamp relay, but i got confused with the schematics, which wire comes out of my relay as the output from the relay?

[ggzilla]

attempt to shut my truck off with the key, it doesnt shut off, unless i turn off my headlamps, and or park lamps on

 

So the engine keeps running when you turn the key to OFF?

 

Hmmm, a riddle. The CHG lamp on the dash is connected to the ALT signal, so if the CHG bulb is shorted this problem might occur ???

 

Before you start the engine, when you put the key to ON/IGN, does the dash CHG light come on? It should, otherwise there is something wrong.

[Spades]

the headlights are kicking on the alternators regulator...and the alternator sending voltage through will keep the car running with the ignition switch off. check your alternator wiring...I have seen this happen many times when a customer self installs a newer alternator and has the sense and gauge/waring light wires hooked up wrong. the sense wire of an internally regulated alternator has to be hooked up to a keyed ignition source...if it is hooked straight to the battery you will get the car running on after the key is off.

 

if that is the cause, the alternator regulator is having issues, because if alternator is hooked straight to battery on the sense wire, it wont shut off regardless of lights being on or off. the voltages you mention are a little cryptic...but if you are describing 12.3 volts with the car running with no accessories on, then the alternator regulator is crapping out, and when you put load on it(like park or headlights), the regulator kicks in, and the alternator keeps up the 13.9 volts needed to keep the engine going even after you kill the ignition.

 

if that isn't what you are describing and the alternator wiring is correct, then you may have a improperly wired headlight relay or ignition switch.

[DailyDato]

Well I kept searching, and I removed some more items from under the hood, the culprit was a box, not known what its called, gonna guess with " Full transistor amp" but every diagram i have looked at claims that my truck was orginally california emission, but yet, I know it never was , but there was a box, I cut it off, and pulled out all the wiring, and its fixed, everything it great, i just now have a fuse in my fuse box, that controls absolutly nothing, which is the blue wire with a white stripe

[Boaty]

I've heard of people using relays that kick on with very minimal voltage. Something about a resistor or something in the relay that makes it an "Automotive" relay.

Works great unless you're in a car. I had my original electric fan set up with LED indicators to let me know when they kick on/off and such... the LED would slowly get dim and eventually die

when the blades on the fan finally stopped moving. Had me freakin' out the first time I noticed it.. going down the highway at night, led very dim.. then bright. Then died when I came to a stop.

 

Gremlins, they are.

 

Amazing how little things can cause such big problems.. like condensers on distributors... lol.

[banzai510(hainz)]

This is a old thread.

You have the old volt reg on there or have you jumpered the old volt reg connector and runnng a IR alternator??????

[DailyDato]

I have a ka swap, so IR alternator all the way, I solved the problem, but i am curious as to what the "box" i removed is, I am trying to find a picture of what it was/is, but am having no luck, its located straight down from the headlight relay, my schematics called it a " full transistor amp, but when i started chasing wires, they went no where except through the fuse box on one wire, not sure if it was back feed voltage, but its all good now with the wire cut on my fuse box. Thinking of building a one off harness, trying to pull too many amps through my dash harness, head lights slow my blower motor and lengthen turnsignal "blips"

[datzenmike]

KAs have a 90 amp output so the headlights shouldn't dim and the flasher slow down. Better check that it's charging the battery.

[Willdatsun]

Had a similar problem on a CA install once, turned out to be that it needed a diode in the CHG lamp wire, (which the donor vehicle had I later discovered!) as without this, there was enough power from the alternator going through the CHG bulb to keep the ignition relay clicked on.