Thanksgiving drive:
Late night I note the headlights flickering. The under dash spade socket from which I have been running power to the voltmeter has gotten loose, so it is easy to lose the volt meter. I can't check the voltage to insure the alternator is charging, but joining the coach batteries to the engine batteries makes the lights much brighter. I pull over in Fruita and find that the battery charging post on the alternator is missing! I remove the air intake, then the alternator. Apparently the wire going to the battery shed its insulation near the ring terminal, and arc'd to the metal body of the alternator causing a short circuit.
The replacement alternator that I had on hand in the back of the coach has but a single pulley, so I have to swap out the old double. It is tough to get the old one off, requiring PB Blaster and body english with my giant pliers. The new alternator has an allen wrench socket that the old one didn't, which takes me a long few moments to sort out. Lastly the new alt apparently has a metric threaded receptacle for tightening to the bracket, as the old bolt that has worked in every prior alt now is just a bit loose. I sub in a 1/4" dia bolt and nut combo. Success! We're back on the road.
Salt Lake City: I note the driver's side front turn signal bulb has fallen out of its socket. It is a LED aftermarket bulb. I decide to replace the other one too, which was still incandescent. The LED bulbs seem to have the identical base as the old bulbs, but they must be just a hair smaller. They don't want to stay in the socket with near the stickiness of the old models. So I add a bit of silicone. But, now the blinkers don't work! I check fuses, and finally decide to put the old incandescent bulbs back in. Now the blinkers work fine! Discussion with mechanic brother in law at the dinner table suggests that the blinker mechanism is a on off solenoid that changes between off and on upon detecting current flow (or resistance). The LEDs have such low current that they don't activate the blinker mechanism.
The reverse lights also don't work. I check power to the neutral safety switch, and it is there. Jumping the terminals turns the reverse lights on. My first thought is that the young mechanics at the recently visited transmission shop who were getting born when the C6 was last in production just didn't know how to put the neutral safety switch back on properly. I take it off and re-attach it, making sure the clock it. But no go. So I splice the to and from wires of the reverse light circuit and run a dual wire single sheath up to a rocker switch I attach on the dash. Now I can manually turn on the rear lights whenever I want to.
) after that i vowed it wouldnt happen again... now there is a D60 under the front of my truck haha
