[Healeys] Electrical Question

[Curt/Nancy Arndt]

Listers,

Richard is absolutely correct.

I can't tell you how many time both my wife and I ran our Sprites with a
dead battery because as poor college/working stiffs we couldn't afford a
battery right away.

My wife ran her car for a week without a battery because it came down to
either paying for a new outfit on layaway or buying a new battery... the
outfit won.  She just parked on a slight incline and jump started her Sprite
to get to work and back.

Cheers,

Curt.

On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 12:47 PM, Richard Ewald <richard.ewald at gmail.com>wrote:

> This is backwards and incorrect.
> A car will run with a generator and a bad / no battery.  The old shade tree
> method to test a generator was to disconnect the battery out of the system
> to see if the car still ran, if it did the generator was good. (DO NOT DO
> THIS WITH AN ALTERNATOR EQUIPPED CAR!) I once had a battery stolen out of a
> generator equipped car, so I jumped the car and drove it to Sears for a new
> battery.  The look on the Sears guy's face was priceless.
> Alternators on the other hand have to have power in the circuit to excite
> them. That means there has to be voltage to excite them.
> No battery = no excitation
> Rick
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
> On Apr 5, 2010, at 10:33, I Erbs <eyera3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  A car will continue to run on an alternator with a bad battery, but not a
>> generator. If you use a fully charged battery, with a bad charging system
>> (generator/voltage regulator) it will run untill the battery depletes. If
>> battery is dead and other components good, it will no trun, because
>> battery
>> will not holsd a charge
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 9:35 PM, PG <britishcars at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>
>>  The car starts on jumpers from another vehicle..but, as soon as the
>>> jumpers
>>> are taken away, the car dies...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Even if the battery is bad, should the car not run on the generator?
>>> Unless
>>> of course, it is bad.   It reads about 12 volts but vascilates sometimes
>>> down to 4 or 5 volts then back up again...rapidly.   The Battery is old
>>> and
>>> is likely finished.  However, should the car not run regardless?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Paul
>>> _______________________________________________