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MORE Electrical / Charging problems.......
#720998
06/11/10 12:13 AM
06/11/10 12:13 AM
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 18,493 Granite Bay CA
Kern Dog
OP
Striving for excellence
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OP
Striving for excellence
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 18,493
Granite Bay CA
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This has been the wierdest week! I have had 3 cars here develop charging problems. The Dart Sport was discharging. That turned out to be the Alt. field wires being flopped with one having frayed to less than half its thickness. The Frankenduster had a problem at the bulkhead. Now its the Camper 9000. This has been a great truck for hauling. It came to me "pre-scratched" so I dont have to worry about scuffing the paint when hauling rock, trash, metal to recycle or whatever. I swapped in a 440 last summer. It simply needed more torque than the worn out 360 could give. The alternator went bad after the swap, so I changed it out. The guage hasn't worked the whole time I have had the truck, so the only clues were slow cranking. Now it started doing it again. I tried another alternator, then several voltage regulators I had from my stash. Each time I tested their worth by starting the engine, then pulling the negative battery cable. EACH time the motor stalled and died. I have a fat 2 guage ground strap from the block to the frame rail as well as the one that goes from the neg cable to the core support. One regulator allowed the motor to run about 3 seconds after pulling the batt cable off, but it still died. Using a cheapie Harbor Freight tester, the NEW battery showed 12.60 volts at idle and the Alternator showed exactly the same! I repeated the test with the headlights on and got the same result. The instructions in the box with the regulator stated that " You should never remove the battery cables while the engine is running due to possible damage to the charging system. I have never heard of this, any opinions? I suspected the guage was causing some sort of resistance, so I pulled the cluster and tied the guage leads together. NO CHANGE. I had the Alternator tested. It was good. I bought a new regulator and put it on. I retested the voltage and they still match! I compared the voltage on another car and as I suspected, the output at the Alternator was higher than at the battery. My next plan is to put in another battery with a lower state of charge and see if the Alternator output drops to the same number.... Any suggestions on what to do? Finally... What is the ideal? My Duster test subject showed 13.50 at the alternator at a fast idle. Alt had the small 2 1/2" pulley. The battery was at 12.61.
Last edited by Frankenduster; 06/11/10 01:28 AM.
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Re: MORE Electrical / Charging problems.......
[Re: Kern Dog]
#721002
06/11/10 08:29 AM
06/11/10 08:29 AM
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 36,041 Lincoln Nebraska
RapidRobert
Circle Track
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Circle Track
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 36,041
Lincoln Nebraska
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(1) need switched 12V to the alt field lead w the blue wire and (2) to the (flat 70's & up) VR terminal that has the blue wire on it. (3) good connection between the alt field terminal w the green wire and the other VR terminal w the green wire. That is correct that a batt should not be disconnected from an running engine. Your alt tested (at the shop) good, I'm assuming a good VR, that only leaves the supporting wiring. when you solve it if you choose to keep the ammeter disabled, connect the batt (or starter relay) to the alt w an 8 gauge cable protected w a 12 ga fusible link (NAPA has them I believe)
live every 24 hour block of time like it's your last day on earth
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