alternator, battery ,or voltage regulator is dead...please help...im stuck!!!!!!!!!!!

[Llittle_Llama]

ok, so im on my way to drill and this ass has his high beams on so i hit mine and i lost all my power. the headlights were dark as shit and i had to pull over and wait till the sun came up some more. then i had to push start my truck on the side of the road cause the battery was dead. well, the other day this happened too...i was at the mailbox and had the truck off but the lights on for about 30 seconds adn it drained the battery and i had to get the battery charged adn it was good till this happened. well i got it charged again today and it's running alright, but a little funny. i had them test the alternator on the truck and they said it was bad, so i removed it and they tested it on the machine and they said it was good. well they say there is voltage regulator for the truck but it's 120 dollars. what the hell!?! and the alternator is like 70! what all do you recomend? the battery is only 6 months old.....

[ggzilla]

When they go off suddenly, it's almost for sure a bad wire... possibly a ground wire.

 

To solve this will take some detective work.

1. First, remove and clean the main battery terminals. Scrape both the battery terminal and cable ends until they are shiny metal. Then thinly coat the bare metal with grease (like wheel grease) and put back on.

2. Ensure the battery ground wire is securely bolted to the engine block

3. Ensure there is a ground wire from battery ground to the body chassis.

4. Check your fusible link -- on a Datsun it should be on the positive battery cable

 

If any of the wire ends look corroded. Stop and fix it.

[datzenmike]

If you're driving the '79 it doesn't have a voltage regulator, well it does, but it's internal, inside the alternator. Tell them you'll walk before paying $120 for something worth $50.

[yello620]

Wouldn't have anything to do with you fucking with the wiring harness, would it?? Thinking that you were cleaning it up.:lol:

 

But i agree with ggzilla that you have a bad wire somewhere.

 

Jason

[Suspect]

When I first got my Datsun (77 Datsun 620), it started smoking under the hood. I thought it was catching on fire. It was a ground problem. It end up grounding the throttle cabel and smoked the casing. I just ran a wire from the engine block to the fire wall and that fixed that problem. I also had to replace the throttle cabel. I bought a new voltage regulator from autozone, it was $30.

[Llittle_Llama]

damn you carquest!!!! so basically i have a half ass ground...when i have just a little power going through im ok, but a ton, im effed right? the guy at carquest said there was no way it was internal.....asshat, lol. so whats the fuseable link do? mine is dirty.

[banzai510(hainz)]

the fusaable link is the wire that supplies power to the fuse box. YOu know the one round lug that connects to the starter post for the battery.

 

as for the gorund(heg battery) dont most people just use the hole by the head(lifting hole) or the Neg battery wire route it down by the starter

 

when I had my 510 the I hit the highs but I spliced a new lug. It wasnt good enough and I guess only a few strands of wires was connected and it fried when I hit the high beams.

 

PS do some research

under Rock auto.com or parts america and look up 1979 620 and see what you have as a alternator. IR type or a external reg type.

 

Buy a volt meter or Battery diode indication type checker. 6$ from Radio Shack. YOu can ck this yourself if its loading down,charging or whatever.

 

I know on my 510 there is a ground wire by the volt reg. But if you have a later 620 with IR just ck make sure everthin is nice and tite

[datzenmike]

the guy at carquest said there was no way it was internal.....asshat, lol. so whats the fuseable link do? mine is dirty.

 

The tool. The '78 and up were internally regulated. If you have the original, the tag will say IR on it somewhere.

 

Suspect... I've had that happen twice back in the '70s with my 521. The first was because I didn't have a proper ground to the body, and because it is insulated from the motor (rubber on the mounts, shocks, springs) The only way to motor ground was the throttle cable. Once the plastic cooled is was frozen stiffer than a wooden prick. The second time a few months latter because I didn't fix it the first time. Hard lesson.

[Llittle_Llama]

so basically i just need to go through all my grounds and make sure that they are all good right? on a side note i went back to the part store today and got a flasher for the hazards and they both work now....WOOT!!!!

[Llittle_Llama]

hate to bring this back from the dead, but i still have the same problem. do i need to keep the fuseable links? i read on here...shit i cant remember who it was that said the were bad and caught fire. anyway, im going to replace the positive and negative battery cables this week if i have the money adn would like to rid myself of these same time if i can. on a side note, reading my old post a lot of you (kiznook included) were very helpful and i just wanted to say thanks....dont believe me?!? look them up! kiz never said ONE mean thing to me.