mystery electronic device

[Bill]

I spent the day yesterday tracing all of the wiring for my batteries and charging system. Pretty interesteg. I found a small black plastic housing containing a copper coil with some type of spring-loaded contacts in the run between my battery switch and my T-Mac alternator control. Wires from this device run to two of the battery switch terminals ("2" and "both") and two wires run into the T-Mac. The entire unit is about 2" X 2". Also, the black plastic housing seems to have melted a little at some point in the past, so there may be some problem. Does anyone know what this is? Thanks -

 

[Ron]

my guess

Could it be some kind of a slow-blow fuse device ? Could you get a digital photo of it for us ?

 

[Richard4728]

Relay?

Bill,What you describe sounds like an electrical relay. If the battery is set to 2 it powers the relay and closes the contacts and supplies power to your alternator controller? I'm not familiar with the T-mac but it seems to me they only wanted power to the T-mac when the battery was switched to 2 ~ maybe just for starting and then switch to ALL for charging(or vis-versa)? Maybe you can get the manual for the controller and rewire. Melted relay doesn't sound good especially if it isn't fused.Good luck!

 

[ED CANNATA]

THE RELAY THAT YOU HAVE IS A VERY COMMON ITEM ON TRUCKS. IT IS AN ISO BASE RELAY SEE WWW.TRUCK-LITE.COM LOOK FOR ITEM # 192D .I HOPE THIS HELPS YOU W/YOUR SEARCH! ED CANNATA