Alternator not charging house batteries Allegro V10 2004

[pyrosecur]

Hi all !
Although my house batteries charge fine when plugged in or running on the gen set but they do not charge from the alternator.
I have verified all the solenoids and latching relay and evertything appears to operate properly. However I have located and tested the battery isolation solenoid (between the batteries and the alternator) and it is not getting any power when I turn on the ignition. When I apply 12V positive to the solenoid it operates.
What should I do to get power here ?

Tiffin Allegro BA32 2004
Ford V10

Thank you
Gerry

[dougrainer]

BFL13 wrote:
OP has one wire on his but that connects to three. One of the three must be from the house. Could check if Emerg start works.

Besides the ignition wire block fuse that wire must go to that connector as one of the three. Check connection too?

What is the third wire?

His problem is, he thinks the Alternator and its wiring are involved. NOT SO. The Tiffin charge solenoids wires are Tiffin installed and have nothing to do with the Alt wires. There are 2 usually 4 or 6 gauge wires. 1 for each large post on the solenoid. Those go to the Pos of the chassis and Coach battery. The center post goes to the Ign controlled Tiffin added wire. Doug

[BFL13]

OP has one wire on his but that connects to three. One of the three must be from the house. Could check if Emerg start works.

Besides the ignition wire block fuse that wire must go to that connector as one of the three. Check connection too?

What is the third wire?

[dougrainer]

BFL13 wrote:
ISTR the dash emerg uses house batt power to operate the solenoid. Assumes engine batt dead. I don't have details of the various connections, but others here will know where to look.

ALL Emergency start switches/Solenoids use Coach power to energize. But some actually have 2 wires going to the small center post on the solenoid. 1 wire is from the Momentary Emergency start switch and the Other wire comes from the chassis Ignition side fuse block. Doug

[BFL13]

ISTR the dash emerg uses house batt power to operate the solenoid. Assumes engine batt dead. I don't have details of the various connections, but others here will know where to look.

[pyrosecur]

To activate the solenoid I ran 12v to the little post in the middle. Presently there is a small lead there which i believe come from a connecter with 3 small wires coming from the alternator. I unplugged the lead from the alternator and tested for voltage while the engine is running (there are 4 posts, i tried each individually) and have no voltage reading. I will start my search for a fuse from the ignition switch and test all the fuses in the block as Doug suggested.
And yes I have a dash emergency start switch, i will investigate this as well.

Gerry

[BFL13]

" When I apply 12V positive to the solenoid it operates.
What should I do to get power here ?"

Since his MH does start and run, I thought he meant applying 12v to the input side as from the engine battery. Others think he meant applying 12v to the solenoid in the middle where the ignition wire goes that opens and closes the solenoid.

Seems there is a fuse on that little wire that can blow but the rest of the run circuit still works if I got that right from above posts.

So if the latter case, another thing that came up before is if the MH has one of those three-position emergency start buttons on the dash. ISTR with those, the wire to open/close the solenoid comes from that instead of from the ignition run like on my MH that does not have the emerg start on dash feature.

And if that, there might be a different fuse for it or some fault in the emerg start wiring button set-up for the OP to look for?

[pyrosecur]

Thank you all for your inputs... I am going to be busy the next few days working on your leads and I will keep you posted !
Thanks Gerry

[dougrainer]

Tiffins supply power from the Ford Fuse block to that solenoid. What I do is, test ALL fuses in the fuse block under the dash by the firewall. You will find a fuse blown. It will NOT be over 20 amp. There is no schematic for which fuse. So, I just test ALL fuses until I find one blown. Also, It can drive you crazy IF someone REMOVED that fuse from the Ford Fuse block and there is NO FUSE to test. When I suspect this, I install a ATC 15 amp CB in any open fuse slots in the fuse block to see if power is restored. Also, the fuse that feeds that solenoid will only be active when key is ON. So, make sure your fuse test is done with Key ON. Doug

[pianotuna]

There is a 60 amp fuse on the driver's side fuse box under the hood. Check it and replace, as needed. After the 3rd fuse fell on its sword, I replaced it with a 50 amp auto reset circuit breaker.

[CA_Traveler]

It's very common for the soloniod contacts to become pitted and not making good contact. When you have AC does the engine battery charge and should it? You may have an electonic controller for the solenoid that doesn't active just because the key is on but rather battery voltage and activation delays say after starting.

Determine what your RV should do and any changes made by prior owners.

[Skibane]

The coil for your isolator solenoid should be connected to your ignition switch through a fuse.

So, find the fuse, and check to see that it's not blown.

[BFL13]

There should be a DC circuit breaker on the engine batt side of the isolator Jumper it as a check