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Old 12-01-2015, 01:05 AM   #15
68c10airstream
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Marquette michigan
Posts: 828
Re: 2000 suburban ground issues

Checking for a ohms reading with a circuit actively working won't be an accurate means of checking for poor connections. You need to do a voltage drop test on a live circuit.

The voltage drop test is basically taking a good multimeter and using it's leads in parallel in the dc voltage scale. Say you want to check the battery negative cable between the battery and frame. Scratch a shiny spot on the frame and a shiny spot on the battery negative terminal. Touch one lead on one shiny spot and the other lead on the other shiny spot. Now have someone crank it over (high amperage load) and take the reading. Ignore if the voltmeter shows a negative value, just remember the reading.

Rule of thumb is max allowable voltage drop per connection is .2 volts. The example test above should have a max reading of .4 volts (one terminal at the battery, and the other at the end of the cable at the frame.

In your prior posts you mention low idle. I suggest two things. If your engine is throttle by cable (no traction control) remove the idle air control (IAC) motor from the side of the throttle body (has a 4 wire plugin) and clean the pintle head and the bore that it sits in. The profile of the pintle head is specific for your application and needs to be clean.

The other item i suspect is a weak battery. If your meter is good quality and has glitch capture capabilities put it on the battery terminals and record min, max, and average during a start up of the engine. Look at the min value and if it drops below about 10.0 volts this needs to be corrected for a stable idle.

Here is the reasoning: The engine controller (pcm) basically does a reboot when battery voltage gets too low and the pcm looses the IAC counter reference number and has to start over. The idle relearn happens above 45 miles per hour as the pcm fully extends the pintle of the IAC to seat it in the bore (don't need idle circuit working at 45 mph) and when done it pulses the IAC the correct amount based on your application. Remember that the pcm can't see or read the IAC position because it's not equipped with a feedback positioner, so that is why it has to constantly recalibrate the IAC with every start up above 45 mph.

Also look at the ground located behind the driver's front tire at the body mount. The metal frame has a cup welded onto the outside of the frame and the body mount bolt goes up through it. Look on the backside of this cup and you will probably find 2-3 ground wires attached here, one i know is for abs. Fixed a few weird electrical issues cleaning up the eyelets and sanding the cup area shiny, once bolted back together then put grease over it and the threaded bolt sticking through the cup and forget that ever happening again because the grease prevent it from re-rusting again (prevents oxygen and salt from reaching it).

Been out of the field for many years but work on friends vehicles. Was an ASE mechanic for 30 years that spent my fair share of time fixing troublesome vehicles involving electrical and drivability issues
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