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need help! ECM??

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So, went camping with son this weekend and his 98.5 had some problems we're trying to figure out.

Went for a short drive and smelled smoke, turned off truck and looked under hood, alternator was smoking!

Alternator was hot as hell!

Fidled around a bit with the connector coming out of it and he thought they were possibly touching each other? One definitely was showing bare wire at connector.

Any how, after messing with those wires he turned truck back on and alternator seemed operate at least cool to touch , problem is now no WTS lamp and grid heater not working. We did get it started in morning but below freezing and it wasn't happy! Didn't think about it at the time but probably no fuel pump either. He has a mechanical belt driven one or probably would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere!

 We're back in town now trying to figure out, reading threw forums and what not, sounds like possible ecm issue? Bad ground somewhere? Alternator took out ecm?

Son just updating me:

 He states before trip something was draining his new batteries, Now say's he just unplugged ecm to inspect connector, plugged back in and reset apps, now WTS lamp coming on and grid heater works!? Say's WTS is a little delayed.

 Question, what all does the ecm operate? Since he does have the mechanical pump can he rig something up to manually turn on the grid heater if in fact the ecm is dying? Is there a way to actually test the ecm?, (We're both

electrically challenged)

 I did the wt ground mod on his a while ago but never checked ac noise before or after, not positive how to do that, need to check mine too!

I know, he needs to get on here and join forum too!

Sorry for the long post! Thanks for reading.

 

 Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!

Alternator? Grounds? Ecm going out? All the above??

         Thanks!

 

 

 

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  • Dieselfuture
    Dieselfuture

    Set it to vac, it needs to be 0.03 or less 0.05 is on the edge. Test it on the alternator stud red lead and body of alternator black lead. Pcm control alternator not ecm, sounds like you may have did

  • JAG1
    JAG1

    Mopar Man rules say: as long as it about beer it not hijacked.  

  • wil440
    wil440

    I just re read this and see that the batteries are new and have been discounted, more than likely they are good but from my experience nowadays just because something is new that doesn't automacticall

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  • Author

Well, just decided to put a new alternator in, (oem reman?)

Tests .03 now but still reaching 100*, will have to do.

  • Owner

Look in the articles for the voltage drop test in the general articles under electrical. You need to see if you have any bad cables between batteries and the alternator. Make sure where the alternator bolts to the block you have clean grounds. Look for electrical loads that are drawing hard on the system. You could pull a fuse and probe both contacts with a DVM on amps DC and you can total up all the circuits. Optimally you want it as low as possible.

I just re read this and see that the batteries are new and have been discounted, more than likely they are good but from my experience nowadays just because something is new that doesn't automactically mean it's ok and works as it should especially if made out of chinesium, quality control just isn't what it used to be and china is getting very clever in hiding where stuff is made

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    • Owner

    I had a gentleman call me about buying all USA parts. Seriously 99.9% of everything is produced in China to some extent. Even if the product is assembled here in USA the parts themselves might be manufactured in China so they can be shipped back to be assembled USA. Still the same crappy products stating Assembled in USA but the parts where create in China. I see a lot of this going on. 

    • Sad 1
    1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

    I had a gentleman call me about buying all USA parts. Seriously 99.9% of everything is produced in China to some extent. Even if the product is assembled here in USA the parts themselves might be manufactured in China so they can be shipped back to be assembled USA. Still the same crappy products stating Assembled in USA but the parts where create in China. I see a lot of this going on. 

    Same here too

    Slightly off topic here but 

    2 months or so ago I was looking for work sweatshirts with hoods the typical hoodie is suppose..... keeps neck warm out on site, anyway saw an advert for a company actually on the ebay home page, not listed on ebay but promoted by, company was called Blaroken and had some really good stuff a lot of it  military, checked it out and the Company says it's in Cornwall which is south west UK, all good so I ordered nearly £200, cargo work trousers, hoodies and boots.

    Didn't hear a thing for about a week but was given a tracking number, checked the number out  yup china, cancelled my order and made them refund ££ GGRRRR

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