Unforgiven
New member
- 675
- 18
- 0
- Location
- Las Vegas, NV
I need voltage help from anyone who can explain this.
Today I finally got the truck registered & decided to go for a drive on some dirt roads. I flipped the lights on so that I could have blinking turn signals.
Later at home, a neighbor stopped to tell me that my lights were on. I thought that was odd since I installed kill switches on the batteries. When I shut off the truck I turned the kill switches.
It turns out that my kill switches only kill 12v of the 24v batteries, leaving 12v going through the headlights (that I forgot to shut off)
For the life of me I can't figure out why the kill switches only cut the 24v down to 12v. It's driving me nuts.
Here is what I have :
One 1-wire 12V alternator
One 1-wire 24V alternator
Two 12V batteries wired in series for 24V
Two 12V batteries wired in parallel for 12V
All 4 batteries are connected to a common ground. The negative from all 4 run through the kill switch before going to the frame.
When the truck is running & the kill switches are on everything is fine. 24V is 24V. 12V is 12V. But when I turn the kill switch off the 12V goes to Zero, good. But the 24V only goes to 12V. There is still 12 V of potential difference from the 24V terminal to the truck frame.
Why? My thinking is not right on the batteries. Shouldn't killing a common ground kill the voltage for both the 12 & 24 volt systems?
Why is there still 12 volts to ground on the 24 volt system when the kill switch is off? And how in the world are the headlights forming a complete 12 volt circuit when the negatives of all 4 batteries are severed from the frame via the kill switch? The switches are fine, I tested them.
Am I going to have to rewire the kill switches to be on the + side of each of the 12 & 24 volts?
My original post is here:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/deuce-...off-switch-fuse-box-wiper-install-w-pics.html
Any help would be appreciated. I'm going bonkers trying to figure out why the headlights are seeing a completed 12 V circuit.
Today I finally got the truck registered & decided to go for a drive on some dirt roads. I flipped the lights on so that I could have blinking turn signals.
Later at home, a neighbor stopped to tell me that my lights were on. I thought that was odd since I installed kill switches on the batteries. When I shut off the truck I turned the kill switches.
It turns out that my kill switches only kill 12v of the 24v batteries, leaving 12v going through the headlights (that I forgot to shut off)
For the life of me I can't figure out why the kill switches only cut the 24v down to 12v. It's driving me nuts.
Here is what I have :
One 1-wire 12V alternator
One 1-wire 24V alternator
Two 12V batteries wired in series for 24V
Two 12V batteries wired in parallel for 12V
All 4 batteries are connected to a common ground. The negative from all 4 run through the kill switch before going to the frame.
When the truck is running & the kill switches are on everything is fine. 24V is 24V. 12V is 12V. But when I turn the kill switch off the 12V goes to Zero, good. But the 24V only goes to 12V. There is still 12 V of potential difference from the 24V terminal to the truck frame.
Why? My thinking is not right on the batteries. Shouldn't killing a common ground kill the voltage for both the 12 & 24 volt systems?
Why is there still 12 volts to ground on the 24 volt system when the kill switch is off? And how in the world are the headlights forming a complete 12 volt circuit when the negatives of all 4 batteries are severed from the frame via the kill switch? The switches are fine, I tested them.
Am I going to have to rewire the kill switches to be on the + side of each of the 12 & 24 volts?
My original post is here:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/deuce-...off-switch-fuse-box-wiper-install-w-pics.html
Any help would be appreciated. I'm going bonkers trying to figure out why the headlights are seeing a completed 12 V circuit.