Dead BIRD or solonoid?

[gregd]

Originally Posted by dennis45

Back in my post #27 I attached manuals for the BIRD and battery disconnect. Suggest reviewing these and recheck your wiring.

Yep...thanks for the reminder. I just went through their troubleshooting and part of the problem was that I didn't realize that the light will not go off on the panel if you are plugged into shore power.

Once I unplugged from shore power and tested at the relay, it appears that the battery disconnect is working but I am still not getting the full 13.5 charge voltage from the IOTA chargers to show up at the battery terminals. I can follow it from the IOTA charger to the terminals on the wall in the electrical bay but then it goes into the wall and I cannot tell where it goes from there. The Newmar wiring diagrams that I have don't show the IOTA charger circuit wiring route.

[gregd]

First of all, thank you to everyone for all of the great advice. The long and the short of it is that I had a bad BIRD that was wired incorrectly (but still tested bad even after wired correctly) and an alternator that was going bad. With the age of my coach, I went ahead and replaced the BIRD, ISO solenoid, disconnect, and alternator and am happy to report full charging output on both battery groups on shore power and from the alternator. I have one last issue I am tracking now.

Even with my dash gage showing 14V, my ScangageD is showing anywhere from a low of 10.8 to 13.9. I did about 500 miles yesterday and the Scangage D showed 13.9 for the first 100 or so miles and then dropped down the 10.8 and then raised back up to 11.4/11.6 for the rest of the trip. The whole time the dash gage showed 14 and so did the chassis battery posts with my voltmeter.

This whole thing makes me think there are gremlins in my coach. :-)

[RKins]

Thanks for closing the loop with us.
ScangageD is out of my swim lane.

[YC1]

You have been patient and a good patient too. It is not uncommon to have multiple problems and often many of those are self inflicted wounds by good intentions.

I saw three problems on an RV the other day. It had come with a IRD, he changed to a BIRD, then he had a separate little charger in the fray, and to top it off, his BIRD/Trombetta relay was bad.


The great thing for you now is having proper voltages at the batteries.

The battery and charging systems are the real heartbeat of an rv.

You issue of the Scanguage reading differently could be dirty connections anywhere along the line it is getting its information from.

Good contact cleaner inside the pins might do the trick. But often in RV's of any age you can have bad grounds. Don't ask me where they are. These snow flakes often just need a good close up examination.

Actually after dark is sometimes a good time to get under the coach. Using a strong headlight and any other lights you can muster will allow you to see things much better. A 4 foot fluoresent shop light with a cord on the end really can light up the world. It is a bit bulky but the amazing amount of light they provide makes for a great drop light replacement.

[dennis45]

Originally Posted by gregd

First of all, thank you to everyone for all of the great advice. The long and the short of it is that I had a bad BIRD that was wired incorrectly (but still tested bad even after wired correctly) and an alternator that was going bad. With the age of my coach, I went ahead and replaced the BIRD, ISO solenoid, disconnect, and alternator and am happy to report full charging output on both battery groups on shore power and from the alternator. I have one last issue I am tracking now.

Even with my dash gage showing 14V, my ScangageD is showing anywhere from a low of 10.8 to 13.9. I did about 500 miles yesterday and the Scangage D showed 13.9 for the first 100 or so miles and then dropped down the 10.8 and then raised back up to 11.4/11.6 for the rest of the trip. The whole time the dash gage showed 14 and so did the chassis battery posts with my voltmeter.

This whole thing makes me think there are gremlins in my coach. :-)

Glad to hear you've made progress.
I assume you are checking chassis battery voltage with the engine running which tells you the alternator is doing its job.

Do you know the sensing point for the Scan D? My guess is it might be sensing voltage on chassis side of the BIRD solenoid and throws up a lower voltage when it is switched over to charge the house batteries. Once the house reaches full charge and it switches back to the chassis side, you see the 13.9 VDC.
Do you have a portable fridge or similar appliance operating on 12V while your traveling which would draw down the house voltage and cause the BIRD send charge current to the house batteries.
Or, there is a problem with the Scan D but I'm not familiar enough with that to comment.
In any case, if you keep an eye on the state of charge on both sets of batteries and don't see either dying, I wouldn't be too concerned.

[gregd]

Originally Posted by dennis45

Glad to hear you've made progress.
I assume you are checking chassis battery voltage with the engine running which tells you the alternator is doing its job.

Do you know the sensing point for the Scan D? My guess is it might be sensing voltage on chassis side of the BIRD solenoid and throws up a lower voltage when it is switched over to charge the house batteries. Once the house reaches full charge and it switches back to the chassis side, you see the 13.9 VDC.
Do you have a portable fridge or similar appliance operating on 12V while your traveling which would draw down the house voltage and cause the BIRD send charge current to the house batteries.
Or, there is a problem with the Scan D but I'm not familiar enough with that to comment.
In any case, if you keep an eye on the state of charge on both sets of batteries and don't see either dying, I wouldn't be too concerned.

Yep, engine running I get 13.9 at the posts and 14 on the dash gage so the alternator is working and the batts are staying charged while underway.

The ScangageD plugs into the diagnostics port under the dash so I assume the feed for its display is based on what the ECU is seeing. The interesting thing though is that if the ECU is seeing 10.8 or something that low I wonder why am I not getting a check engine light or other warning light on the dash?

[harleyjt]

Originally Posted by gregd

Yep, engine running I get 13.9 at the posts and 14 on the dash gage so the alternator is working and the batts are staying charged while underway.

The ScangageD plugs into the diagnostics port under the dash so I assume the feed for its display is based on what the ECU is seeing. The interesting thing though is that if the ECU is seeing 10.8 or something that low I wonder why am I not getting a check engine light or other warning light on the dash?

I was kinda wondering the same thing. Not sure where ScanD is picking up the signal, but I suspect as do you that its a data stream from the ECU. It would be interesting to backprobe the appropriate pin at the ECU and see whats really there. On the other hand can you get your hands on a pinout schematic of your Data Link connector? It may be a direct reading off one of the pins there. Have you checked voltage at all the DLC pins?
jt

[gregd]

Originally Posted by harleyjt

I was kinda wondering the same thing. Not sure where ScanD is picking up the signal, but I suspect as do you that its a data stream from the ECU. It would be interesting to backprobe the appropriate pin at the ECU and see whats really there. On the other hand can you get your hands on a pinout schematic of your Data Link connector? It may be a direct reading off one of the pins there. Have you checked voltage at all the DLC pins?
jt

If I am not mistaken, I think the ECU data link is strictly a digital signal.

My thought is that the dash gage (needle) is tied directly to the output of the alternator whereas the ECU gets its "voltage" input from a different circuit that must have corrosion on it somewhere. That "somewhere" is like a needle in a haystack. It may be time to call Spartan...

[Iron Man]

Not sure about 2000 but the 2007 K2 chassis voltage gauge comes from the ECU. Call Spartan and they can verify where both sources come from.

[RMFUN]

I may be having a similar issue as the original poster.

Where would I find the BIRD and Solenoid on a gas KS?

Thanks,
Russ

[RMFUN]

Originally Posted by RMFUN

I may be having a similar issue as the original poster.

Where would I find the BIRD and Solenoid on a gas KS?

Thanks,
Russ

Nevermind, I found in another post it is under the hood by the firewall.


Thanks!