Hello. I have a very strange problem with the starter/solenoid/alternator on my 1969 C10.
When cold, she turns over with plenty of cranking power, and starts and runs fine. After driving on a short trip (say 10 miles), and I turn the engine off and then try to start the truck, there is a problem. The starter barely turns over and acts as if the battery is almost dead. The engine will give a small attempt to turn over, then delay a second, and then makes another feeble attempt to turn over, and sometimes she fires up, and other times I have to roll start her.
Last time I left the engine running and put a voltmeter on the battery terminals. The alternator was charging the battery to 15 volts, and when I turned off the engine, the voltmeter showed the battery slowly dropping from 15 volts down to 14, to 13, and after some time it stayed around 12.75 volts. Is it normal for the alternator to charge the battery so high?
I also watched the ammmeter in the dash, and during the entire trip, it was showing it was "charging". Turning the headlights on did not seem to change the position of the needle on the ammeter gauge. In the past, I think the needle quickly went back to the middle position on the gauge when driving (especially during the day, and no electrical items being used).
When the truck fully cools down, there is once again plenty of cranking power and the starter spins over with authority.
Is it possible that the alternator is overcharging, and that the starter does not like getting 15 volts (after the truck has been running for awhile)?
Or, is this just a sympton of either:
1. A bad solenoid
2. A bad starter
3. A bad coil
Another tidbit of info. that may or may not be important: I think our fat cat must have crawled up into the engine bay and stepped on a plug wire.....which caused the plug to come off the #6 spark plug. And Murpheys Law applies, and the plug wire fell right on top of the starter solenoid, with the electrode facing the solenoid. So, I think that the solenoid was getting a good electrical jolt for several months before I took time to check into the problems (the engine was not running up to par, but sometimes with only one plug wire off, its easy to just think that maybe the points/condensor/plugs just need cleaning/replacing). I think the high current from the ground wire was just grounding out on the solenoid, and no damage was done.......but I thought I would mention this just in case. Dern Fat Cats!
So, thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Dwight
