electrical question

[73gmc454]

not sure how to explain this or if its in the right spot but I'll try , I'm using air soleniods to operate my air ride and horns ,these are producing stray voltage that is making the led lights on my dash flash when you hit the switch to turn the solenoids on or off, after some research I have found I may need a metal oxide varistor or mov , has anybody ever had any problems like this or fixes ?

[old Rusty C10]

im going to move this to electrical for a better response.. if that doesnt work let me know and we can try suspension....you could also shoot a PM to N2Trux as i think hes fluent in this kind of stuff

[73gmc454]

Cool thanks, I've been going crazy trying to figure this out ,

[fixit-p]

Do you have a diagram of how this is wired? Your description is kinda vague, what are the led lights you refer to, are they on already, what controls the led's? Collapsing coils can create a voltage spike but in the circuit you describe if wired correctly wont be a problem because when the coils are collapsing the switch state is open which would isolate other circuits.
You can use diodes across the coils but again in this simple circuit it really shouldn't be needed.

[73gmc454]

Thanks for the reply and the help, I'll try to explain more , its a 77 gmc ,as for the dash lights , I removed the the gage cluster and and made my own, I wired the turn signals, bright lights and low brake light wires in the leds as they were hooked in the cluster from the factory grounds and all , the circuit for the solenoids is on it own wired to the battery fused with a 30 amp circuit breaker, the 2 solenoids that run the air ride have a positive hooked up to a 50amp switch which runs to the solenoid and they are grounded to the frame near the solenoids ,
The horn is hooked up to the factory button on the steering wheel that grounds when you push the button ,so I ran that as a trigger wire to a relay that get its power from the same circuit as the other solenoids , I ran the power to the horn solenoids from the relay and ran the ground to the frame close by,
I get the lights to come on for a split second when I switch the air solenoids on or off and when the horn button is pushed, the key doesnt have to be on for this to happen since its on its on circuit I figured, I can understand the horn because it on with the factory circuit but not sure about the air ride solenoids , but if I just plug a 194 light socket with light into the air ride solenoid wires instead of the solenoid it does not flash the leds , but again if I do the same with the horn solenoids it still flashes the leds , I figure it must be because of the relay ? thanks again , Jamie

[fixit-p]

First thing I would do is verify and upgrade your grounds (more on this later), what I suspect is happening is that you have adequate power supply to the solenoids and the solenoids maybe grounded to the frame but the frame is not providing enough continuity back to the batteries negative terminal. If you have a 30 amp draw on the positive terminal, that 30 amps needs to get back to the negative terminal and when it can't it will seek out alternate ground paths, in this case I suspect from frame to cab to cluster to leds' to ground. Same thing with the horn, the horn relay has power through the coil and to the horn button when you press the horn button it is supposed to sink to ground but if the cab is not grounded then the cab will also have power present and it will seek a ground path through any circuit connected to it. To test the condition of your ground use a volt meter with the positive lead connected to the ground wire of the solenoids and the negative lead connected directly to the batteries negative terminal, actuate one of your air ride switches and any reading over .2 volts indicates a faulty ground. Never use a continuity test to test the condition of your grounds because the results will be misleading.

[fixit-p]

I just re-read your post #5 and your issue is definitely a poor ground, I would recommend installing ground straps from the frame to bed, cab, radiator support and engine then make sure the negative cable from the engine to the battery has clean connections. The bigger the ground straps the better, I can't really make a size recommendation w/o knowing the specs on your air solenoids also it may be a good idea to use relays for the air solenoids.

[73gmc454]

Thanks for the advice ,I'll get the meter from work and check all the grounds out , Does this make any cents ? last night before reading your advise on the grounds ,I got them to quit flashing by add a 194 socket/bulbs into the positive and ground wires to each of the solenoids at the solenoids and another wired into the horn button/relay trigger wire as a ground for the 194bulb and got power from the breaker that feeds the the air ride solenoids , I figured it would suck up the stray power with the bulbs ? all the solenoids activate like normal and all the 194 bulbs come on when the solenoids are activated

[73gmc454]

I was able to get the wiring guy from the shop over and we tested all the grounds, they are good , we have to figure it must be the coils in the solenoids making the stray power ,and the 194 lights are suckin it up ? The only thing we found bad was a right front turn signal socket was bad and conecting the marker and turn signal together ,after fixing that it had no effect on the other issues , the solenoids only use 11 watts they are very small with 1/4" ports ,