At 06:50 PM 7/18/03 -0700, Roderick Keeler wrote:
>I'm having a problem with my charging system that I hope someone will be
>able to guide me through.....
>I figured my alternator was bad, so I took it out and went to replace it.
>They bench-tested it, and it was putting out 16.5 volts.
>
>Now I figure it has to be the regulator, so I replaced that. The situation
>still remains the same; 12 volts (sometimes less) at the battery and the
>alternator.
>If anyone could shed any light on this situation, I would be really
>grateful. I'm trying to get the car ready to take to the western meet this
>fall.
Sorry gang. I sent this out this morning and never saw it come back. Just
found out that I hadn't removed the lines at the bottom of the original
message so the mailing list program at it. For those that are interested
in the problem here is what I had to say:
Rod,
You don't say what year your car is.
Sounds like an interesting problem. If we assume that the battery,
alternator,
and regulator are all good, then it sounds like there is some sort of heavy
draw on the system. This could be a short in the wiring, or some switch that
is not turning off, or a bad ground connection.
Let's start with some basics:
1. Disconnect both the leads from your battery.
2. Check all the grounds and cable connections. You might want to disconnect
each one and clean them then retighten them:
a. Both battery terminal connectors.
b. The battery ground cable, connects to the frame under the car near the
battery box.
c. The main lead from the battery to the starter solenoid, side closest
to the firwall. The solenoid is located down by the frame on the
back (closest to the firewall) side of the pass. front fender well.
d. There are 2 main grounding points, one on each fender well. You'll
see several black wires connected to a bolt.
e. Check all the connections at the alternator.
f. Finally is the chassis to block strap. It is usually a flat piece of
bare braded wire, located on the pass. side between the frame and
to the block near the starter.
At this point reconnect the battery cables and test the voltage at the
battery with the eng. running. DO NOT DISCONNECT the battery from system
when the eng. is running, it can kill the ignition module.
3. If the above didn't fix the problem, disconnect the cables from the
battery again. Connect a multimeter - set to 0 ohms - between the
positive and negative cables - NOT THE BATTERY!. The meter should
bearly move showing very high resistance. If not, write down the
number.
a. Pull each fuse one at a time and see the meter reading changes.
If you find a bad circuit the meter reading (resistance) should
go way up.
If pulling the fuses, didn't make any difference, then the problem has to
be on a non fused circuit. There are only a couple if places that aren't
fused. This will get a little tough to check.
Check the connections to the amp meter gauge on the dash. All current,
except starting, goes through that meter.
You will have to test each wire from the alternator and the voltage
regulator to their other end. This will mean pulling the harness out
of the plastic loom and tracing the wires. You want to check them for
resistance. You will probably have to add some clipleads to the test
leads on your meter to the the leads long enough to reach both ends of
each of the wires you want to test. The wires all should have almost 0
ohms resistance. What you are looking for is a wire that has been cut
internally and can't handle the load.
Good luck and keep us posted.
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 (#0887) 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
65 Rambler Classic
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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