well i was finally able to get out an assess the damage today. upon first inspection i noticed my buddy scabbed on some car battery terminals and had melted one of the posts of the brand new optima batteries he just dropped in. upon closer inspection i noticed that he had attached the batteries backwards. the negative of one was connected to the positive side wires going to the alternator and starter. the wire going to the starter had a large notch in it and some "rough" looking frayed up stuff goin on about 12 inches up from the terminal. there was no wire exposed more like a "kink" in the wired with some damage around it. the dogbone looked in good condition but the positive wires were scabbed onto car terminals too... after jimmy rigging the terminals with good connections and in the proper order, i noticed smoke coming from the alternator. i assume this was from damage previously done by my friend. i noticed the volt gauge was at about middle yellow before trying to crank it over. upon cranking it i assessed that it did not have the juice to crank the truck over. so we pull started it and it immediately jumped to life. the truck was smoking this entire time up until when we pull started it. after about 100 yards of driving it the smoke cleared and stopped completely. we were able to drive it the full 10 miles without any problems and it ran like a top. the volt gauge was right at the yellow/green line.... i figured one of the batts were bad. once we got it to the lot, we shut it down. and let it sit for a bit. it would not fire back up, it did not have the juice, so now im sure one if not both new batts are bad.
where would you guys go from here? I told my buddy we need to do the following: 1. take old batts in for testing 2. pull alternator and test it 3. replace whatever doesnt check out 4. replace battery terminals and wires with new ones, maybe even the dogbone.
after this fiasco I plan on getting a "service kit" from easternsurplus with all new belts and filters, and changing out all the fluids (engine oil, tranny, axles) I also plan on servicing the axle seals and vents, maybe go so far as new bearings too. I told my buddy all the money he would be spending to have a shop rape him, he could be buying tools for us to be doing this work ourselves. Can anyone offer any advice/tips? It would be greatly appreciated, I am new to deuces but im in love with it already! We really need this thing up and dependable as it will be the workhorse for our new mobile powdercoating business.
