on my way out to a friends tonight, my truck first lost the speedo, then the voltage gauge when strait down to 0 and the check gauge lamp illuminated. By the time I pulled over, the radio was gone and the lights were dimming. I shut it off until my buddies arrived with the float (god love em') and we boosted it, loaded it up and got it home. We again, boosted it to unload, and as i backed the truck off, all the gauges were back on at operational levels, and the truck sat and idled away happily for over 10 minutes, seemingly charging fine. My first thought was the alternator, but now i am unsure. Wiring has never been a skill i posses, so any input would be appreciated, i'm just not sure where to start testing/ checking things.

 

Clean all your battery connections! Then do a wiggle test start at the main harness and have someone watch the gauges

 

As dangerous said clean the connections. Your voltage is read from the drivers side battery but the alternator feeds the passenger side battery. Very common problem.

 

it's been fixed, thanks for the help guys!

 

Also, clean all of your ground connections, to the block, frame, anywhere there is a ground connection, large and small. There are several. Its a good idea to do this a part of your routine maintanance.

 

How did you fix this problem?

 

Turned out that the passenger side battery took a s**t, so i replaced both batteries, and the alternator as it had burned out trying to charge the bad battery. I also took off and cleaned every connection i could find/ think of to eliminate the chance of a grounding issue.

Just a little side note, but if you are willing to spend some time and put in some effort, i fit 2 batteries out of a spare dump truck into the stock trays! HELL of alot cheaper then 2 "replacements". Re route some wiring around the air-air, trim to trays and they slide right in! Definitely has some cranking amps for those cold Canadian mornings!