Confusing Electrical Problems, Im Stranded on an island in AK

[ALLPOINTS]

I searched the forums and found a few marginally useful threads. Nothing dead on. Im in Ketchikan, AK and am stranded at the moment. I have missed two Ferries.

Initial problem:

Dead Batteries after two weeks without a start, Trickle charged both all is well.

Not starting, tracked it down to a bad starter solenoid and replaced.

Alternator will put out 14.2-14.5 V for about 15-20 minutes of run time then system will kick down to between 11.9-12.2

If I shut down for 10 to 15 minutes it still has held a charge of around 12.4-12.6 and starts fine. If I don't shut it down it eventually dies.

After 12 to 14 hours it wont start half the time without plugging into a jumper box.

I wasnt to worried about it. I figured the alternator was going bad. It is still under warranty but there wasn't one on this island and I was supposed to be gone by now. There seemed to be a short killing the alternator and making it hot.

That short has now moved into the ignition fuse.

Now starts up and runs and charges fine, holds a charge but after it gets warm 15-20 minutes the ignition, glow plug, fuel heater fuse blows and the van dies. If I change the fuse it starts right up. This happened three times in a day. Then it happened at the end of today and The fuse would blow as soon as I turned on the key. I let it cool for a couple of hours and it still blew on the first turn.

This is on a 98 van w/ a mechanical fuel pump.

Any Ideas? As I mentioned I'm trapped on an Island. I should have been in Brittish Columbia Sunday. Please help. Im pretty familiar with this engine and a pretty reasonable wrench. So fire from the hip any ideas would be great. Thanks

[Dave]

open up the fuel filter and take a look at the fuel bowl heater. If its shorted out it will blow the fuse every time. If it is shorted out unplug it. That should stop the fuse from blowing

[bigcountrysg]

Originally Posted by Dave

open up the fuel filter and take a look at the fuel bowl heater. If its shorted out it will blow the fuse every time. If it is shorted out unplug it. That should stop the fuse from blowing

I aggree with this. Other then that I can not think of anything else.

[outlawdiesel]

did you check all the grounds?

[ALLPOINTS]

Grounds are good. Just to be thorough I'm going to retrace my steps and continuity test everything I touched around the starter solenoid and the alternator. I hadn't even really thought of the fuel heater, think it is shorting or failing? Thanks Ill get an update on it in a couple hours.

[gtspowerstroke]

The alternators will run hot all the time anyway. To hot to touch even when they are operating as normal.

It sounds to me like you've got a couple of problems. One being bad batteries. If you let them sit for awhile and they were dead that is very hard on batteries.

The 2nd fues blowing problem seem to me that the most logical thing is the fuel heater as described above. Try unplugging it from the side of the fuel bowl and see if the fuse quits blowing.