Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
So, I was on my way to work this evening, had my heat on and blower motor on 3. The Power Loss light popped on a couple times, and the volt gauge was at maybe 15 volts. The car didn't run poorly and the gauge settled so I didn't think much of it.
About 20 miles later, I got hot so I turned my blower motor off. At this point, the gauge went up and down and up and down. The Power Loss light stayed on, and the car started popping and backfiring. The thing sounded like gun shots. I hit my 4 ways and call my coworker who was about a mile behind me. I kept chugging along and the gauge was going haywire and would swing up to 15-16volt and drop, and back up and down. I noticed that every time the 4 ways flashed, the engine would pop. I turned the blower motor back on to 3 and it ran fine the rest of the way to work.
Just for a wee bit of backround, in the hurricain, the rain came in and drenched my stage 2 LM. A pin broke off of the LM so I pulled the pin out of the connector, pulled out the broken pin and put a stock LM in. The pin that broke was the regulator signal wire on the LM. I doubt it had anything to do with it.
I haven't been able to pull codes yet as I'm at work, but to me its sounding like a power module. Does this sound right?
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
Could be. It could also be a short in one of the field terminal wires if it's going high voltage wise.
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
That's a good possibility. Not what I wanted to hear, but not too big of a deal to fix. May use an external regulator and eliminate the PM.
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
So I pulled codes, and I can't remember the numbers off hand, but I got "Charge voltage too low for too long" and "Charge voltage too high for too long" At this point, I'm going to assume that the power module has failed. I'm going to further investigate in the afternoon when I wake up, but hopefully I can either source a PM, or I can find a parts store that happens to have the external voltage regulator and pigtail before going to the track Saturday. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't work night shift and could more easily source parts.
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
It could be a crappy alternator. I had one like the one on your car that was a reman that barely lasted 3 months. It can't be that big a problem though, I think I saw you run 15.4 at 91mph, pretty good for no intercooler!
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tbird232ci
So I pulled codes, and I can't remember the numbers off hand, but I got "Charge voltage too low for too long" and "Charge voltage too high for too long" At this point, I'm going to assume that the power module has failed. I'm going to further investigate in the afternoon when I wake up, but hopefully I can either source a PM, or I can find a parts store that happens to have the external voltage regulator and pigtail before going to the track Saturday. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't work night shift and could more easily source parts.
There is a PM in the for sale section cheap enough for me to consider. If you don't have spares it's a must buy IMO. IIRC It's priced at around $25.
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ScottD
It could be a crappy alternator. I had one like the one on your car that was a reman that barely lasted 3 months. It can't be that big a problem though, I think I saw you run 15.4 at 91mph, pretty good for no intercooler!
I was disappointed with the 15.4, I had to pull out the stage 2 LM that was in it, turn the boost down from 14psi to 12psi, and still hit overboost at the top of 3rd and then through the traps. I guess all considering, it's not too bad.
Anyways, I drove home from the track, and I didn't have any issues with it. I asked Pat to bring a PM to the track, and I completely forgot about it before I left. I was going to swap it out but since it was running so well, I really didn't want to touch it. Around 4, I was just too damn tired, and the wait for them to get the track prepped had me drowsy, so I rolled out before I fell asleep.
I may still pick up a spare...or two or three.
Re: Overcharging, missfire and Power Loss light.
For a non-intercooled log car, I thought 15.4 at 91mph was pretty good. For reference, my log T1 auto Lebaron 4 door (a bit heavier) ran a 14.97 at 90mph with a roller cam, ud pulley, 12psi, drop in K&N, and open down pipe. With more practice launching you should be able to get your ET down. It just takes practice.
