quote:Ooh yeah that doesn't sound fun. As a co-worker says, the secret to electrical work is to try not to let the magic smoke out.
Not terribly exciting.
The way the previous owner of my jeep wired the fan pulled off the alternator for voltage I'm guessing for temp sensor to give a signal to turn on the fan. Well the previous owner also tried to wire in a switch on to that turn on wire that was unprotected. So it passed power back up to the alternator & into the voltage regulator in the PCM.
Well now the alternator won't charge the battery and I get a check engine light that reads vacuum pump failure as well as the check gauges light. All these signs point to a fried voltage regulator which is internal to the PCM. Luckily these go out frequently on Chrysler products as there's a kit to install an external regulator that mimics the internal one & provides a seperate unit for $75. This means you don't have to replace the $400 PCM.
Other than that, it'll run great with a fully charged battery. But that only lasts 20 minutes or so without the alternator working.
My Amazon order with the Diodes didn't show up like it was supposed to yesterday, so I'm kinda dead in the water on wrapping this install up.