[Vwdiesel] Starting problem

[travis gottschalk]

My brother is having starting problems with his truck and I don't know how to help him (being 700 miles away). His truck will start and then with in seconds his volt meter goes from around 13 to about 14.5 and then it kills. When he starts it back up is runs fine then. It doesn't matter if lights, fans, etc are on or off and it just started to do this. It first started when the Alt light what a light glowing red (not full red). I said that maybe one if the two Alt wires were bad like mine was (a $100 learning experience) and to try bypassing his wires coming from the Alt. He did and then it worked fine. Then with in a few starts it started the problem above with the killing. I didn't know if it is a relay that is overloading and killing the truck (as it is gas truck converted to diesel) or if his alternator is in need of a rebuild because it is shorting the system. All power dies at the 14.5 volt spike and then it comes on and it is all good. Any help he would like as he just needs to get it to winter before he parks it for a the winter salting season and he doesn't want the expense of insuring another vehicle that only gets 15 instead of 50 mpg.
 
Thanks
Travis G
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