Gen light on.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 405
Likes: 31
From: Houston, Texas
Gen light on.
My friend has a 77 El Camino that she just bought in spite of my warnings that old cars require plenty of work.
After she had the battery, starter, and alternator replaced she ended up with a battery drain. Two days and the battery was flat.
I spent some time with a test light in series on the positive post and the positive cable and found a drain on the clock, courtesy light fuse and after pulling all the fuses. There is still a small drain (test light is slightly lit) and the gen light is on. Pulling the alternater main wire did not turn off the light.
Alternator shows 14.5 vdc charging and the battery shows 12.5 vdc after a week or so.
How do I get the gen light off? The car runs fine and all systems seem to work well.
Thanks in advance to those who wil help me with a non-Corvette problem. She is a great friend and cooks a good meat loaf so I want to help her.
Thanks
After she had the battery, starter, and alternator replaced she ended up with a battery drain. Two days and the battery was flat.
I spent some time with a test light in series on the positive post and the positive cable and found a drain on the clock, courtesy light fuse and after pulling all the fuses. There is still a small drain (test light is slightly lit) and the gen light is on. Pulling the alternater main wire did not turn off the light.
Alternator shows 14.5 vdc charging and the battery shows 12.5 vdc after a week or so.
How do I get the gen light off? The car runs fine and all systems seem to work well.
Thanks in advance to those who wil help me with a non-Corvette problem. She is a great friend and cooks a good meat loaf so I want to help her.
Thanks
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 23,831
Likes: 10
From: Springfield MO
St. Jude Donor '07
Milest, I have the 77 Corvette electrical troubleshooting manual and the 77 all cars wiring diagram book. I'll see if they have anything useful.
Update: the most useful thing I've found says that the light goes out when you have approximately the same voltage on each side of the light. On the Corvette, the power that runs through the light circuit continues on to the parking brake light, the tach, the warning buzzers, the power windows, cruise control, and ultimately through the ignition switch to the pink wire that feeds the distributor. It sounds like you have a voltage drop somewhere along there.
I don't know if GM published a similar troubleshooting manual for the El Camino, but it might be worth looking into on eBay.
Update: the most useful thing I've found says that the light goes out when you have approximately the same voltage on each side of the light. On the Corvette, the power that runs through the light circuit continues on to the parking brake light, the tach, the warning buzzers, the power windows, cruise control, and ultimately through the ignition switch to the pink wire that feeds the distributor. It sounds like you have a voltage drop somewhere along there.
I don't know if GM published a similar troubleshooting manual for the El Camino, but it might be worth looking into on eBay.
Last edited by I'm Batman; Mar 14, 2006 at 02:44 AM.
