I'm about five minutes away from torching my truck for the insurance money, so somebody, please help!
My trucks in an 84 Fullsize Jimmy, with a recently-replaced 350.
The first problem I noticed is that my indicators no longer work. I swapped the flasher relays around, and the Hazard lights will work regardless of which flasher is in which slot. No turn signals either way.
The second problem is that the the alternator keeps burying the voltmeter needle on the 18V side, every few seconds. This started 3 days after the above. The battery checks out at a little over 12 volts, and the acid level is fine. The stereo cuts out when this happens. This just started today. I haven't had it out for a long drive yet, so it may be the P.O.S. brake controller (See below) was shorting out and killing the battery.
Third -- Power locks no longer work. Even with the truck off, they click or clunk every few seconds. The doors won't lock or unlock, even with the engine running. I've had to disconnect these under the dash.
Fourth -- Moron, who owned the truck before me, decided he needed an electric brake controller for his trailer. I'm not even going to go into the wiring job he did, but needless to say it didn't seem to like being run at the 18 volts that the alternator was trying to feed it. I was able to scrape most of the melted plastic off of my left shin. To complement the wiring job, he installed the thing with stripped and bent flathead screws. After an hour of swearing in the most humid weather I've seen so far this year, I gave up and hacksawed it out.
The truck has been running fine for the last month -- I replaced the original (dead) 305 with a junkyard 350 in early july.
I've seen a few posts where people who've had engines replaced have problems like mine, and it ends up being a ground strap or something. I've managed to find one of these -- on the passenger side attached to the firewall. Are there more?
Does anyone have a picture of what the fuse box layout is supposed to look like? I can't read a single word on the box....It's all a big white smear. I want to know which fuse controls what....Horn, headlights, dimmer, gauges etc.
Any help is appreciated. Otherwise, keep a close eye out for my fire sale!
-Al.