electrical problems??
electrical problems??
I have a 89 240sx with a redtop conversion. Last week The dash stopped working(gauges and lights), the tail lights dont work, the brake lights dont work, the turn signals dont work, the radio doesnt work, the wipers dont work, the interior light doesnt work, and a few more things i cant think of. I've checked all the fuses, most of the wires and still cant figure out what is wrong. This has been driving me crazy for about a week and any help on this situation would be appreciated. Thanks.
i was thinking it was the alternator fuse because i think thats what happened a while back when that blew but its fine. I pulled it out and tried to start the car and it ran the exact same. i tested the fuse and its fine. Again i was still getting about 11.8-12.1 volts. I know when it was running right i was getting aout 13.5 volts. would a bad alternator cause all the symptoms?
The alternator should be fine because you are starting and running fine. It is likely reporting a low voltage level because none of the electricals in the car are on, so it doesn't need to output much. Look for a bad connection from the battery to the fuse box. You'll need to test to see if you are getting voltage at the fuse box, not just pull fuses out and look at them.
Ok I checked my fuse box and all the connections are secure and connected. I tested the fuse link for the alternator and it read about 12v I would have tested the rest but it started drizzling. I tried to test the voltage comming off the alternator and the multimeter didnt read any. Im not sure if it is supposed to read a voltage. I suppose I will just have to check the rest tomorrow. thanks.
I had the alternator tested and it isnt giving a charge at all. Would this be the problem or should I still continue looking in other places? The wires and connectors aren't corroded and look fine. I checked the voltages on the other fuse linkages and most read about .3v except the fuse linkages for power windows and anti-skid which I dont have either so i just assume they dont recieve any voltage. The linkage from the 30a fuse thats on the engine cont. reads about 1.2 . I cant remember off the top of my head what the others read but is there anywhere I can find a fsm that would tell me the voltage specs? Thanks guys for the input. Im just so frustrated *sigh* 
Did you test the alternator, or did someone else do it? An easy thing to check it is to check the voltage of the bater from terminal to terminal with the car off, then with the car running. With it running you should be a couple volts higher. If the alterator is bad you should still get a proper amount of voltage (12V or so), because the voltage will come from the battery.
Well I had it bench tested and it gave 0 voltage. I dont know when it happened but the alternator fuse blew within the last hour. Guess I'll just have to get a new alternator and fuse and see if that works. I cant see it being the cause of my problem. Do you think it could be elsewhere in the harness or definitely somewhere in that fusebox? thanks.
It could be just the altenator being the problem[circuit failure internally] once you get the altenator replaced go from there. Since it failed the bench test you know for sure it isnt any good. You gotta take care of the known problems before you even attempt to find another source for the problem.
Ok I finally got an alternator from a 93 fastback its a hitachi and it fit, i just had to clean out the threads in the upper bracket to fit my tensioner bolt. But as it turns out its not the problem. I've gone through the entire harness and have yet to find a broken link, broken wire, or grounded wire. Im lost. I guess I might take it to a nissan dealership and have them run a diagnostics. Would that be a wise idea or a waste of money?
they may not work on it. Once they open the hood theres a good possibility they will say hell with this sh**. Simply because it is a foriegn engine. We do not have access to any service manual info at the dealers for the JDM cars. I would take it in but I dont think any other dealer would ,I know for a fact none of the guys on my crew would be willing to work on it if I was off a day something like that came in. Hell they turned away a 98 Q45 on my day off.