Battery light issue

[bbtlr3]

I am trying to trouble shoot this long distance from Iraq for my wife. She was traveling on the freeway the other day and the battery light came on and the guages went haywire. It lasted for about 15-20 seconds then went back to normal. It sounds to me like a loose connection at the alternator but this is a new to us vehicle and the first Diesel that I have owned. I wasn't sure if anyone has experienced this or if there could possibly be something specific to the diesel that could cause this. Thanks for the help

Bill

[Bnave95]

Have your wife check both batterys +&- for tightness and being clean.
Check as may grounds as she can see under the hood for the same.
The Alt. runs the Tach, so see if the Tach was going crazy around the same time.
Flakey dash wires,grounds causing dash lights to act up and under hood elec. OK
A good ideal would be to pull fues and clean.
Most issues are caused by the grounds on our years truck.

[bbtlr3]

She did say that the tach and the speedo both went haywire.

[Bnave95]

Is there a Auto Zone around? They will test it.
Was this like a fluke and all is working now?
Don't lose the pulley on the Alt that is now on the truck. There has been times the replacement Alt. wont have the right size pulley,this will than cause the Tach. to not read the true RPM's of the Eng.
Change if needed.

[JohnC]

The ignition switches on these vehicles are problematic, also. Does the trans ever stick in second?

[65TD]

Transmission not shifting to third when cold was addressed with a chip upgrade on the 95 model.

[bbtlr3]

I'd love to answer some of these questions but she just bought it for me last week. And this problem happened on the way home form Salt Lake. She said it happened twice both times for about 20-30 seconds. Battery light came on guages went crazy and then after a few it went back to normal. I was thinking maybe a loose connection at the alt or a loose ground, but we'll see. I am going to have her take it to a shop that some guys from here on the page reccomended and see if they can take care of it. If not I'm comming home in March for some R&R so I'll fix it then.