In desperate need of help

[JimFixes]

I was expecting the next reply to be "truck burnt to the ground" when he said he removed the fuse.

 

[618 Syndicate]

I'm sorry but this thread has to be one of the worst as far as somebody needing help and giving absolutely 0 feedback or explanations on what is happening.

Now he turned his headlights on and the alternator started working but he put a piston threw the oil pan.....

use your words man!!!

And down to his last 10 bucks but it's getting a new motor?

 

[Hipster]

It runs perfectly fine without the 175 amp fuse the problem ended up headlights. When I turned my headlights on I started seeing 14 volts... the truck threw the cyl 1 piston out the bottom of the oil pan.

well, that didn't end well.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

And down to his last 10 bucks but it's getting a new motor?

Should we start a GoFundMe?

 

[RedneckWithPaychecks]

It runs perfectly fine without the 175 amp fuse the problem ended up headlights. When I turned my headlights on I started seeing 14 volts... the truck threw the cyl 1 piston out the bottom of the oil pan.

I'm no expert, I won't try to pretend to be one, but I'm about 99% sure that headlights don't overwork the alternator so much to the point that it throws a piston. Maybe if you're idling at 9500 RPM it'll do that (even still the headlights don't cause that!). I'm not sure that a over-tightened serpentine belt does that either, it'll just ruin the bearings if I'm not mistaken.

 

[JimFixes]

I'm no expert, I won't try to pretend to be one, but I'm about 99% sure that headlights don't overwork the alternator so much to the point that it throws a piston. Maybe if you're idling at 9500 RPM it'll do that (even still the headlights don't cause that!). I'm not sure that a over-tightened serpentine belt does that either, it'll just ruin the bearings if I'm not mistaken.

Pretty sure an overtightened serpentine will just kill the idler/tensioner pulley bearing before anything else. The water pump may be in danger before anything else.

But the tensioner is there for a reason, to keep the right tension, you would have to really **** it up to lose all travel in the tensioner and not be able to get a little bit of spring on it.

My only guess is that turning on the headlights when the fuse that was there to protect the truck was bypassed was the straw that broke the camel's back, normally that fuse would have popped, prevented an issue, and life would have been fine. Instead, the fuse was not there, and the ECM got that massive voltage spike, possibly from a hot alt, and the idle signal was saying "I am too low" so the ECM compensated, but the "low" reading did not change so it compensated constantly, this created a feedback loop and just revved to failure.

This is why you do not bypass safety features, even "for a minute just to get her home", cause ain't nothing more permanent than a temporary fix.

 

[RichLo]

If that's what actually happened that would be one heck of a underwear staining moment, lol.
I cant imagine what I would be thinking if I turned on the headlights and the engine went to 8,000 rpm.

 

[Schurkey]

I merely made the assumption that the piston suffering Sudden Terminal Disassembly was total coincidence, having nothing to do with the wiring/alternator/belt tension.

Beware STDs. They're a killer.

 

[JimFixes]

If that's what actually happened that would be one heck of a underwear staining moment, lol.
I cant imagine what I would be thinking if I turned on the headlights and the engine went to 8,000 rpm.

Once had a Dodge minivan cruise control module decide to go haywire while my wife was pulling into the driveway with the house right in front of her.
It went WOT and she stood on the brakes but it was not stopping, I hulked the shifter on the column into park, in the process that poor transmission grenaded, missed the house by about 6 inches.

Someone definitely **** my pants that day.

Ended up selling the van for more than I paid for it to a dude who was happy to buy it even after I told him clearly the transmission was toast and the engine might be too.

He said he did not care, it was to be used as a training vehicle for his high school students, so the more wrong with it the better.
The next day he had a flatbed and a wad of cash for me.

First time I ever made money destroying a transmission

 

[thinger2]

Once had a Dodge minivan cruise control module decide to go haywire while my wife was pulling into the driveway with the house right in front of her.
It went WOT and she stood on the brakes but it was not stopping, I hulked the shifter on the column into park, in the process that poor transmission grenaded, missed the house by about 6 inches.

Someone definitely **** my pants that day.

Ended up selling the van for more than I paid for it to a dude who was happy to buy it even after I told him clearly the transmission was toast and the engine might be too.

He said he did not care, it was to be used as a training vehicle for his high school students, so the more wrong with it the better.
The next day he had a flatbed and a wad of cash for me.

First time I ever made money destroying a transmission

Was that a 95 to 98 Dodge?
I used to be a Dodge salesman back in those days and what you describe happened a few times on fresh off of the truck units.
Dodge had some pretty bad quality control issues back then.
My first experiance with this was when a rookie salesman came up to me and said that a loaded 42k grand caravan had something wrong with it.
He had Mom, Dad, Grandma and the kids loaded is this thing ready for a test drive.
I didnt believe him I basically said step aside son and Ill show you how its done.
And took the drive myself.
Started layering car salesman ******** on these folks like I was frosting a cake.
And the windsheild wipers came on and the dash lights started fashing on and off and it revved way beyond 7 grand before the dash lit onfire and we came to a smoldering stop on the side of the highway and bailed out like we had just survived a plane crash.
It went full charcoal
They didnt buy a Dodge.
This was at one of the largest Dodge dealers in the country.
We had about 3500 vehicles on the lot.
And quality was so bad that we had a seperate lot about ten blocks away in the back corner of an industrial park where we hid the defects.
There were always 40 to 50 brand new vehicles in that lot that spanned the entire ramge of models.
That lot was known as "The Toaster"
As in, get that thing off of the lot and hide it in "The toaster"
The trucks and vans and neons had some serious issues.
But the Intrepid was like flipping a coin.
The first vehicle 100 percent designed in CAD.
All during the really bad Daimler/Chrysler merge.
The Intrepids problems extended throughout the platform.
The LHS, the 300m well into the early 2000s
And some was pretty serious and some of it is just dumb.
I am pretty sure that anyone who ever bought one of those cars when they were new had the door weatherstripping stick to the door and peel off when you opened the door.
If it hasnt happened to you that just means that it was glued back on before you got it.
How on earth as a long standing car manufacturer have you not figgured out how to glue on friggen door gaskets.
Some of the issues were much more serious.
Brake failure pretty well tops the list.
And overselling the Dakota RT without warning buyers about its limitations.
A late 90s Dakota RT is one hell of a truck.
If you find one, buy it.
We sold them based on the performance and the torque and all if that.
A dealer in California sold an RT based on if it would pull a 30 foot camper up into the mountains.
Which it will, it will pull that right the **** up that mountain.
It just cant stop it when you come back down.
And it is way too short of a truck.
The trailer "Trips" the truck and the trailer rolls right over the truck.
So the truck went upside down and landed on the road. He survived.
The trailer went over the truck and down the pass and killed his wife and his two kids.

Yes, he was an absolute moron .
But during the lawsuit it pretty much was established that he had been sold a product without any type of warning or education about that product.
And that is why when you buy a new truck you need to sign the "job rate" form.
It is a liabillty waiver based upon what you intend to do with the truck.
All from that poor dude who bought an RT and killed his family because nobody warned him.
Never assume that somebody is smart enough to avoid disaster.
Assume that they are not smart enough to avoid disaster