Alt. Good, Battery Good, Battery Dies, Not reading Volts

  

StrictlyCustom

I have a 1993 S-10 w/ a 4.3 TBI, I've never had problems with my truck until I dropped it off to get some work done on it, next thing I know the battery was dead. So I take the battery to get tested (Optima Red Top) all of the cells are good. I take the alternator to get tested and that tested good. The voltage gauge is not reading anything. What do you think it could be? Is it the wire from the alternator to the battery? When I put the charged battery in and let it run sometimes it idles high. Is that to compensate for the low voltage? Please help it's supposed to be nice tomorrow and I just got a bunch of stuff done

  

Diesel

Check all of your cables going from the battery to the starter, also check for lose grounds.

  

StrictlyCustom

I will have a check first thing tomorrow, my friends wife was gettin a lil upset with us out there making noise lol. What would make the voltage gauge not read? I haven't messed with anything to do with the gauges. I'm guessing the voltage gauge is picked up from the wire that runs alternator from to the battery?

  

Squeegee

lose connections. or does it not read when the truck obviously has power?

  

StrictlyCustom

When the truck is running it still reads nothing. The other day I jumped my truck with a friends and still had the 2 connected and it stalled out after 10mins. Is the revving due to the low/no voltage reading?

  

tlkolrod

your volt meter can be tied into any 12 volt circut. It does not work like an amp gauge which works off hot directly from the bat. I would check connections at the back side of the gauge and also all of your fuses. Is any thing else dead? If you can get a wireing diagram it will make things a bit easier for you. Just because your volt meter is not showing charge does not mean you are not charging. You said your alt checked ok and your bat checked ok. Only thing left is connections or shorts (drains)
Good luck
Toby