Loosing Volts

[pearl91chevy]

alright guys.. to start i have a 4 cylinder and have also done the big 3 upgrade with 2gauge wire. When i first did the upgrade everything worked great but lately im starting to loose volts when i turn my compressors on. And it was so bad last weekend i had to put the truck in neutral and give it gas to keep the truck running. Also a few times when it dropped so low all the gauges and cd deck reset as if i turned the truck off and then back on, but the truck is still running. i took a video of what its doing for now, you can also see the guage lights loose the brightness. Theres a stinger 80amp relay in the back.

[pearl91chevy]

bump anyone?

[xxannihilationx]

what kind of wire did you use? are the connections still tight? could be your alt. going bad possibly?

[pearl91chevy]

i used stinger, not that piece of shit wire from walmart. And yes when it all started acting up i checked all the conections and they were still tight. But when this started acting up i listened to the 80amp relay and noticed when it doesnt wanna work it humms as if it sticks and then it clicks on like it should which is when it works normally, it seems its maybe worn out? but could that be the problem to why its draining power so bad? the alternator is less then a year old to

[xxannihilationx]

well the easiest way to clear out the relay being the problem is hard wire the comps. to the battery without the relay or pressure switch. turn the truck on and hook the comps up and if the volts are still dropping then its not the relay

edit: im not sure if that could drain your volts that bad but its worth a shot to just hard wire them like i was saying

[pearl91chevy]

could i even put a volt meter to it? i didnt even think about that before

[xxannihilationx]

yea i guess you could. but the only thing i can think of that would make that relay do that is if the contactor is burnt and not making a correct connection. i just don't see it dropping your volts like that. when my relay when out it just kept clicking on and off it didnt drop my volts at all. thats what led me to say it was the alt.

[pearl91chevy]

alright ill check it in the morning and check back here. thanks for the help so far

[primereds10]

im having the same kind of problem also let me know what you find out

[pearl91chevy]

screw photobucket. can you guys still see the video?

[B_Rich]

Is your alternator stock? If it is then I would say that your alternator simply doesn't put out enough amperage to feed your compressor(s).

When your relay was "humming" when things weren't working, my guess is that it wasn't getting enough amperage to activate the relay. I'm not entirely sure on this one but that would be my guess.

[primereds10]

yea i could still see it

[pearl91chevy]

well im pretty sure i found the problem. I recently unbolted the neg. terminal on my battery and when i went to hook it back up i forgot the ground for the big3, so it was running stock ground instead of the one i hooked up. So i bolted it back up and so far it seems to be good. i havent drove the truck but ill let you guys know this weekend

[old_skool_noma]

i was going ot suggest checking the cable lugs on the big 3 with a multimeter checking for resistance from end to end, but i saw that your ground wasnt hooked up

[pearl91chevy]

ya, i first checked the compressor wiring on the relay and jumped it to make sure it wasnt the relay itself. it still had same effect when i jumped it so then i popped the hood and started checking stuff over again and seen the ground cable between the fender and battery, no wonder i didnt catch it first time

[CatDaddy52]

Quote: Originally Posted by pearl91chevy

ya, i first checked the compressor wiring on the relay and jumped it to make sure it wasnt the relay itself. it still had same effect when i jumped it so then i popped the hood and started checking stuff over again and seen the ground cable between the fender and battery, no wonder i didnt catch it first time

Did you add that?? OEM doesn't have a ground from batt to fender....makes me wonder.

[old_skool_noma]

Quote: Originally Posted by CatDaddy52

Did you add that?? OEM doesn't have a ground from batt to fender....makes me wonder.

yes he added it as part of the big 3 upgrade, and he was referring to where it was laying not what it was actually going to, the actual wire connects his battery to frame

but the stock ground does have a small wire that goes to the fender

[pearl91chevy]

^^ completley correct statement. I still have the stock power and grounds connected. i just added the big3 on top of that. I had plenty of power but not enough ground. sorry for the confusion

[pearl91chevy]

so the problem still remains. i went out cruising last night and had the compressors running quite a bit. i smelt something getting hott after my volts started dropping like they did in the video i showed above. I feel the alternator and its hot as hell, but not where smell was coming. I check the 100a fuse running from the battery to the 80amp relay and this is what i found.



It was still working the rest of the night but i left my compressors off till i got home. i bought a 300a fuse awhile back for this and i just stuck that in there now. Any idea why this happened?

[pearl91chevy]

bumpy bump