Flickering electrical

[Dre319]

My 98 k1500 has flickering lights all around. Headlights, dash and even the fuel pump sounds like it’s going in and out with the lights. It has a new battery and the alternator has not been checked. Electrical power is good. All connections are tight on the battery. Starts up just fine and runs just fine. Any reason as to why the lights are doing that?


TIA
David


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[kennythewelder]

Check the alt, and be sure the grounds are good too.

 

[df2x4]

X2 on the alternator. My Suburban has been doing the same thing for a year or so and I just discovered that my alternator is on it's way out. (Pulled the belt and spun it, it has a bad squeak and a weird feeling spot in the rotation) I haven't had a chance to replace it yet but I'm willing to bet that will solve the issue.

Definitely check your cables too, though.

 

[Eveready]

When I see lights acting oddly I tend to think "grounds" . The alternator may very well be on the way out but I suspect a ground may be an issue as well. Let us know what you find.

 

[Dre319]

Thx guys. Give me a few days and I’ll get back to y’all.


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[Erik the Awful]

I had tight connections on my Suburban, but it would randomly lose power and stall out. I finally cut the cable ends and put top-post terminals on the battery cables. Fixed it. When I started building my Stepside, that was the first mod I did.

 

[James69]

Check the connection at the start

 

[Dre319]

So I took the alternator off and had it tested. They said it was good. They even started to put it back on and test it on the truck. So I did. Well it shows good and wouldn’t you know it, there was no flickering of any kind.
I’m wondering if disconnecting the battery and the alternator did something. Like not too great of a connection.
Well I hope that took care of it and time will tell. Thanks everyone.


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[Erik the Awful]

If your alternator had a bad connection, your battery would hide it.

Side posts are the devil. Whatever GM engineer got a bonus for 'inventing' a new proprietary 'battery connection system' should have been taken out back and beaten. Whoever approved it as standard for all GM vehicles should have been fired. Whatever management let that travesty continue for twenty years should have been dropped on a deserted island. Probably the same people who drove GM to bailouts.