Help!

[Halladay]

ok so i was at goat today wheelin and my charge light flickered a couple times then went away. then after 8+ hours of wheelin i was drivin home in the dark and my truck just shut completely off... lights went out, stereo, motor!, everything then it turned back on by it self i was going about 50mph... scaryest thing ever!  then after that it drove fine.. what could this be? its a 1988 22re. any help will help cause i dont want it to happen again my steerin just went away and everything.. it could have ended up bad! please help guys! thanks 

[83 Crawler]

maybe a wire is shortin out 


but iv had that happin to its scary

[Halladay]

maybe a wire is shortin out 


but iv had that happin to its scary

real scary!

[GrenadedToy]

check your grounds, battery terminals, fuses?

[83 Crawler]

how long did it shut off for?

[Halladay]

it shut off for like a couple seconds but it felt like forever! it was pich black on spring water!

What about the alternator? the charge light was flickering so thats what i was thinkin...

[83 Crawler]

would a loose belt make it do that?

[Halladay]

would a loose belt make it do that?

no idea... anyone?

[GrenadedToy]

check the alternator plug and the belt tension. I dont think the belt would make it shut off but it wouldnt hurt. Sounds like a ground most likely..but i dont know

[83 Crawler]

check the alternator plug and the belt tension. I dont think the belt would make it shut off but it wouldnt hurt. Sounds like a ground most likely..but i dont know

x2

[Halladay]

check the alternator plug and the belt tension. I dont think the belt would make it shut off but it wouldnt hurt. Sounds like a ground most likely..but i dont know

ill check them out in the light 2marrow...

[89sastoyo]

Id say a ground for sure just getting good ground and then not like a bolt came loose or your belts loose like ryan said maybe even something inside the alternator thats getting a good conection and not. Did it sputter and and just like blaaaaah and just run out of poop? or like full on just died and everything went off?

[Halladay]

no spudder no nothing just flat out died like i turned the key off and shut everything off

[toyotanner]

bad ignition?

[89sastoyo]

well see thats strange because this is the reason why I could be something with the alternator or the ground. With an efi truck you need to keep a constant charge or it wont have the power to run the fuel pump and everything needed for it to run. So what it usually will do in that case is just slowly like dim the lights and sputter a whole ton and start like doind the run out of gas symtoms. and then if you turn stuff of it will like regain some power and so forth. I have had 2 alternators go out on me and thats what it does and matts truck did it to cause his belt was slippin reall bad. But I haven't ever seen one just full on all of the sudden dunzo. I would say a wire touched another that it wasn't supposed to or it just got an arc or something cause that doesnt sound normal. The charge light could just be on cause its a constant problem like its just not charging enough but if that was the normal cause it wouldn't have gotten all the way home.

[kneedownnate]

That's exactly what my 91 2wd was doing when my brushes were going out in my alternator, except it would flicker on and off.  I could usually get the charge light to go off by revving it up real quick, but it'd eventually come back on till it came on for good a couple hours from home. 

I caught it once pulling in the driveway, hooked up the load tester and it was sitting just below 12, rapped it up and it was charging over 13 volts - alternator not charging.

I got brushes from toyota (shouldn't cost but $10-20) and changed them pretty quickly.  Hardest part was pulling the alternator off the engine! 

[cederrowe]

Thats a ground issue or posative cable issue, If the altenater went out it would still run the battery down slowly untill the truck dies but the headlights would slowly dim not just quit. If its loosing instantly its a probally a ground, a shoted wire large enough to make the car loose all power would blow the main power block fuse. I would trace ground from battery alll the way to body ground and check the ground from motor to body. If and when these are clean start checking the posative from battery to starter and then your main to the fuse block for good connections.

[Halladay]

thanks for the help guys ima check all these out today and ill keep you posted on what it is

[vortectoy]

Check the plug near fuse box on driver side inner fender. Start engine wiggle plug see if it will die again.

[83yota]

my old bronco did this and I ended up having to add a ground wire to the frame with the one to the block. I dont think it is your alternator. like they said it would of dimmed and then been dead.

[mattlosch]

thats scary as !!

[83yota]

My wife just reminded me. Mine was doing that when I first got it and it was the main wire that ran from the battery that ran to the fuse box. the tab on the bottom was broken and making contact sometimes but not others

[Halladay]

i checked out my grounds today and couldnt find anything wrong.. i have 2 grounds off my battery.. one to the block and one to the driver side fender right next to the battery. none to the frame... maybe i need to add one to the frame and get rid of the one going to the inner fender

[toyotanner]

i checked out my grounds today and couldnt find anything wrong.. i have 2 grounds off my battery.. one to the block and one to the driver side fender right next to the battery. none to the frame... maybe i need to add one to the frame and get rid of the one going to the inner fender

just make a ground strap that goes from your block to your frame

[Halladay]

Oohhh Tay

[83yota]

the one from your battery to the fender is actually just like a grounding strap. do one from the block to the frame and you should be OOOOOOOOOO-TAY

[cederrowe]

if grounds are good and clean start checking posative cable especially at the fuse block.

[Halladay]

if grounds are good and clean start checking posative cable especially at the fuse block.

thats the plan for today befor i have to go to work...

[ROKTOY829]

check the 30amp and 40amp fuses in the fuse box they will be the big ones. also did you get any mud or water in the alt. that will cook a alt fast.

[Halladay]

check the 30amp and 40amp fuses in the fuse box they will be the big ones. also did you get any mud or water in the alt. that will cook a alt fast.

im sure i got mud and water in there lol we were snow wheelin haha