Lessons learned feedback
Turns out that the problem with the 2001 Blazer actually was my first guess,
the battery but in an odd ball way. This battery had top terminals and side
terminals. We pulled the side terminals off and looked at them and they were
corrosion free and looked perfect. Since it was difficult to get to the
negative side terminal, I then made all of my voltage reference measurements
off of the top terminals...bad move.
It turns out that when he had the battery put in the truck that the tech
over-tightened the negative terminal. It worked fine for a long time but was
under stress and eventually cracked and partially broke free causing a high
resistance connection on the ground side. From the voltages that we were
getting there were some other rather strange interactions going on, but it all
came down to the battery.
In my 32 years of working on vehicles I have not heard this one before though I
knew not to over tighten the terminals...thought they would just strip out, but
apparently this is a known problem relevant to any side terminal battery
application so maybe some of you guys have run across it before.
At least he was happy with the shop I recommended...the voltages confused them
as well so they pulled the battery to do a current test (and fortunately used
the side terminals) and found the problem then.
Mark Noakes
New Section: parts for sale (note: location = Knoxville, TN)
Personal, hobby, enthusiast vehicles, work/school, nature/travel/art
photography located at:
http://blog.mark.noakes.com/
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice
there is usually a difference."
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