phins

Yes the regulator is bad. I am seeing about 16.6 V at the battery isolator and the charge and brake lights flicker in unison which is apparently the result of two much voltage to the charge light overpowering a small diode that has been installed between the two lights. This is an indication of failed regulator. I bought my last alternator from NAPA and they are going to honor the warranty but before I install the new alternator I want to make sure that I don't have the same troubles. I read on a 22R site that if you put in a reman-ed alternator, jump the car and then let it charge the dead battery it can be overdraw and ruin the voltage regulator. I figure the same issue can occur when there is a short in the camper section. I put my DVM between the battery isolator and the aux battery, with the aux battery disconnected, and I found a current of almost exactly 0.5A. My question is, do you think that the over voltage from the alternator without a regulator is causing the this 'short' through a designed in current dump? I am worried that if I put in the new alternator it will blow the regulator again as soon as I hook up the camper electrical due to this short, if it is a short. Thanks for the consideration.

Thanks for reminding me to add year make model etc. 1986 Dolphin 22R EFI. Yes it does have a computer (maybe 2) at least one I'm aware of. As far as one system at a time I have gone through the home wiring from the battery compartment. I took the battery out and used the ohm meter to test the resistance between the leads. I got what seemed to me a pretty low resistance, I think it was on the order of 10kOhms, although I'm not sure what to expect and I'd have to recheck to be sure of that figure. Also I have some lack of faith in my ohm meter, even so I traced it back to the AC/DC converter for the shoreline which was also the routing area for the lights and tank meter. This is the point of a major divergence of wiring, so I haven't had the time/ambition to get past there. As for the exorcism, maybe I'll park the Dolphin in front of a church to see if that helps. Thanks for the response. I'm going to try disconnecting the auxiliary side of the battery isolator tomorrow while it is running to see if the idle shifts and voltage outputs at the aux pin continue to occur. This might help me to nail the problem down to Toyota or Dolphin issue.

I recently left my yotahome without turning it on for a week and came back to find the auxiliary battery nearly completely drained; the lights would barely glow (This is troubling enough on its own, but there is more). To find something in the dark I turned on the engine. This made the lights immediately bright. After about thirty seconds they when back to dim then flashed back and forth between the two states of dim (battery) and bright (alternator) for the rest of the time the engine was running. This was accompanied by a subtle but noticeable change in the idle the dim state being slightly rougher/heavy load. I thought this might be due to a loose wire establishing an intermittent short, but rocking the home back and forth had no correlation to the changes in the states of the lights. It should be noted, although I'm not sure the two are related, that I have some dash electrical problems in the spirit of full disclosure. The engine light comes on from time to time, the brake light is constantly on, the cruise control works sporadically, and the charge light blinks faintly sometimes at start up. All of this and the considerable amount of time I have spent looking for a short in the camper section are conspiring to make me figure I may be in for a visit to a professional. I know it can be something like writing a blank check to take a car in to a mechanic and say 'I think I might have a short'. Any ideas of what I can do to help isolate the problem to keep mechanic cost down? I am familiar with electrical engineering and I have a voltmeter, albeit a cheap one, so don't hold back. Thanks so much for reading and any suggestions.

Backup light switch wire (I think) goes to the back of the camper, paralleling the exhaust pipe. This came loose and melted to the exhaust pipe. Perfect ground. Thanks so much, I found the problem and we are in Minneapolis (our goal). Electrical problems are terrible thanks for the help, seems like the engineers could have split these systems to a couple of fuses, when the fuse blows the alternator no longer charges the battery and the EFI etc runs off the battery, you only get about a half hour before the battery dies. I guess I can put the dash back together now. Thanks again.

I have an issue with my 86 Dolphin where the charging light comes on. This also blows a fuse labeled "Engine" on the floor board fuse box. This results in no charging at the engine battery (Voltage is 12.4 instead of 14.1). I thought that the alternator was bad, but I replaced it and the engine battery and I am having the same problems. Replacing the fuse solves all of the problems, but it burns out again 5 or 10 minutes down the road. I am assuming there is some sort of short and I have pretty well ripped apart the dash to no avail (ie no obvious wires burned or shorting). Does anyone have a wiring diagram that indicates what is on the "Engine" fuse (middle bottom of the cab fuse board)? When the fuse goes I loose power to the gas and temp gauges and the blinkers (the actual blinking mechanism, not the lights) and the ability to turn on overdrive. Currently stuck in South Dakota until I figure this out. It is really hot here, please help.