Resolved Electrical Issue 99 GSX

[bowlezp]

Hello everyone, I’m trying to get my 99’s eclipse gsx running after over a year of rebuilding it.

My issue right now is that my battery has to get jumped to be on but the battery has sat over a year charging. The alternator read no volts. Took the alternator off bc I got it the same time last year with the battery and it’s good. Took the battery in they checked it at like 11v.

But here’s where it gets weird, I put the alternator back on still read nothing and I have the ground and the connector on. Figured out that we had a bad fuse, replaced still nothing. I bought a new starter bc my other OEM one died the other day when we tried to start it.

Fixed the ISC problem since I have a 95’ talon ECU with ECM LINK V3 installed on it.

It’s like there’s a power drain somewhere. I had the battery on before, my windows went down, my lights were on the day before the engine and everything was hook up on it. It’s acting really weird, my radio doesn’t turn on, when I switch to put my lights on it dims it actually by each click going up to turn them on.

The battery drained itself since the alternator wasn’t working and we tried multiple scenarios as well to get it to run properly with the alternator and battery (oh yeah is a super start it just passed it’s warranty by 4 months and I only ran that battery for maybe 2k miles before the rebuild) I was going to get a new battery tomorrow like a diehard or maybe interstate, I heard is good from a guy at o’reilys, but please let me know your input thank you.

 

[steve]

But here’s where it gets weird, I put the alternator back on still read nothing and I have the ground and the connector on.

What ground? The alternator is grounded via the volts to the mount and from there to the block. The cable to the main stud on the alternator is called the B+ wire and it's the output from the alternator back to the alternator fuse and from there to the battery positive terminal. The other connector carries the sense and control wires.

If after connecting the ccable to the B+ you get 0 volts it would seem that you popped the 100A alternator fuse bolted in the fuse box.

 

[Michael Wucher]

What ground? The alternator is grounded via the volts to the mount and from there to the block. The cable to the main stud on the alternator is called the B+ wire and it's the output from the alternator back to the alternator fuse and from there to the battery positive terminal. The other connector carries the sense and control wires.

If after connecting the ccable to the B+ you get 0 volts it would seem that you popped the 100A alternator fuse bolted in the fuse box.

Hey Steve, please refer to the thread I'm about to post, I will be providing more info on his issue, as I was there attempting to help him resolve this.

 

[Michael Wucher]

I'm posting this thread for a buddy of mine who is currently having electrical problems in his freshly rebuilt 99 GSX. So yesterday, we finally got the car to run, and had to sort some things in order to go on the first break in drive. His windows were not rolling down so this is where the story starts. I knew the issue wasn't the window switch, as I had tested it in my car and it was functional. I checked all associated relays and fuses with no luck of finding anything out of the ordinary. I then broke out the trust ole power probe. I crawled under the dash and removed the power window relay and probed the connection for incoming power, no luck. Then I went to the engine bay compartment fuse box and probed the fuse for power window, yet again, no power. Here's where it gets interesting, the power probe is capable of outputting a 12v signal, so I probed the fuse connection in the engine bay fuse box and my buddy was able to roll up his windows. Is there something in between the power window fuse and relay that I'm missing?

Issue #2: Last night, my buddy was under the hood and I decided to be a dick and honk the horn, but when I did so, the horn wouldn't shut off so I had to pull the relay. Later that same day, I had turned on the headlights and flipped the switch back off, but the lights were still running, again, I had to pull the fuse.

Issue #3: Today, I finally got the car tuned to idle smoothly for speed density and we were going to go out for the break in drive. I tried to start the car and it made the classic sign of a battery with not enough juice to crank the car over. I had my buddy jump the car with a power pack, and it turned over. I let the car idle for about 10 min and noticed the dash lights slowly becoming more dim, I had ecmlink open and noticed the battery was sitting around 7v. The car died a few seconds later. I had him jump it again, and I went to the alternator with a multimeter and read from the output to ground and read nothing. I went into the fuse box and noticed the 100A fusible link was blown. My buddy decided to pull the alternator to go have it tested. The alternator tested fine, and we got a new 100A fuse. Re-installed the alternator and fuse. We had the battery sitting on the charger for a good while, while this was going on. Before putting the battery back in the car, I read it with the meter and got 12v. We hooked the battery up, and got the same result with ecmlink showing 7v. I told my buddy to try and replace the battery tomorrow to see if that helps. Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[luv2rallye]

Issue 1: The main reason the windows don't work is probably because you blew the 100A fuse which powers the 30A power windows fuse. You say the power probe is capable of outputting a 12v signal. Ok but isn't that only a 12v signal (tiny signal power only) - not a 12v power source (powers things). If it actually is a 12v power source then you might have activated the windows relay somehow (although the diagrams show you'd also need 0v on the relay's blue/yellow wire from ETACS-ECU to activate it - unless you jumpered the relay somehow).

Issue 3: Battery sounds weak. Battery no-load voltage should be 12.6v. But no-load voltage is meaningless - you must test voltage with a typical load like headlights being on and then it should be > 12.2v. With engine running you should get >= 14.4v from alt. Note the alt is grounded by it's mounting bracket - NOT by that insulted post. The insulated post is the alt output (large white wires) and goes through that 100A fuse to the battery (which if you have that alt output post grounded, may blow the 100A fuse (or others) upon battery connection or engine starting. If you did this, you may have also damaged other electrical devices like relays, fuses, ECU, etc.).

 

[AWD-Tony]

Make sure all the grounds are there. Battery to firewall, IM to firewall, harness by the thermostat has a ground to one of the starter bolts. Think there are two more, one behind each headlight.

 

[Michael Wucher]

Issue 3: Battery sounds weak. Battery no-load voltage should be 12.6v. But no-load voltage is meaningless - you must test voltage with a typical load like headlights being on and then it should be > 12.2v. With engine running you should get >= 14.4v from alt.

Note the alt is grounded by it's mounting bracket - NOT by that insulted post. The insulated post is the alt output (large white wires) and goes through that 100A fuse to the battery (which if you have that alt output post grounded, may blow the 100A fuse (or others) upon battery connection or engine starting. If you did this, you may have also damaged other electrical devices like relays, fuses, ECU, etc.).

My buddy resolved the issue today, the harness for alt was grounded out. thank you for the feedback though