Took my '76 FJ 40 to a friends farm last weekend to do a little dove hunting. On my way up there I first noticed the a/c cut out, then the radio started fading out, and the gauges started acting wierd with the ammeter way to the left of center. Next the oil pressure gauge started dropping, but when I checked the oil it was full. When I went to restart the truck it wouldn't turn over so we charged the battery for about 4 hours and I was able to get home and charge it overnight. The battery's about 6 months old and the tester showed only "fair" after all that charging. I was able to drive it around town all weekend, but I'm kind of worried about getting stuck a hundred miles from home.
I'm pretty unknowledgable about electrical work so I had a guy that I really trust that knows cruisers check it out. He put a tester on it and said that it's not the alternator but that the voltages were some times over and some times under depending on what accessories were running and that I should redo all of the wiring which is what he said last time I had an electrical problem. Basically he wants to take the whole wiring harness and unwrap the tape, and then go through wire by wire to find any frayed wires and replace them. It would give me some peace of mind to fix these problems once and for all but I have some questions I'd like answered first.
1) I saw the post of 8/27 "Dead Battery" and I think that the previous owner of my truck put in kind of junky aftermarket parts. Would having an added a/c overly tax the alternator and/or voltage regulator, and does having an a/c require a heavy duty parts or at least OEM?
2) Can you get wiring the same colors and guages as the original wires so that when somebody in the future looks at a wiring diagram they can correlate it to the wires in my truck?
3) How likely am I to get stuck again if the battery's fully charged and I watch the meter like a hawk? I really want to go on my club's trail ride next weekend, but I'd have to drive out there and back by myself about 150 miles each way.
I'm pretty unknowledgable about electrical work so I had a guy that I really trust that knows cruisers check it out. He put a tester on it and said that it's not the alternator but that the voltages were some times over and some times under depending on what accessories were running and that I should redo all of the wiring which is what he said last time I had an electrical problem. Basically he wants to take the whole wiring harness and unwrap the tape, and then go through wire by wire to find any frayed wires and replace them. It would give me some peace of mind to fix these problems once and for all but I have some questions I'd like answered first.
1) I saw the post of 8/27 "Dead Battery" and I think that the previous owner of my truck put in kind of junky aftermarket parts. Would having an added a/c overly tax the alternator and/or voltage regulator, and does having an a/c require a heavy duty parts or at least OEM?
2) Can you get wiring the same colors and guages as the original wires so that when somebody in the future looks at a wiring diagram they can correlate it to the wires in my truck?
3) How likely am I to get stuck again if the battery's fully charged and I watch the meter like a hawk? I really want to go on my club's trail ride next weekend, but I'd have to drive out there and back by myself about 150 miles each way.