[TR] battery, alternator, or gremlin?

[DAVID MASSEY]

 Hello, Peter.  I had a similar experience.  My ammeter suddenly started something similar in the middle of a drive so when I got home I checked battery voltage both engine-off and engine-running and voltages were normal.  So I concluded the battery was starting to fail.  The battery shop checked it with their big, heavy, fancy tester and pronounced it good but I was not comfortable with that diagnosis so I bought a new one anyway.  It was a seven year old battery and I had a gift card so what the heck.  I installed the battery and all was back to normal.
I probably could have run that battery for a few more months before it failed altogether but that could have been on the middle of my trip to Dripping Springs.  ON a Sunday.  On I-35 in Dallas.

As Randall said, you need both a volt meter and an ammeter to diagnose a problem.  Basically, the voltmeter will indicate the health of the charging system and the ammeter will indicate the health of the battery - but only if the charging system is working properly.  A charging system malfunction can give you the same ammeter reading as a failing battery so the ammeter along is not enough.  And a pending battery failure will not necessarily show on the load tester.
Good luck.
 
Dave 

 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Arakelian <PeterAra at msn.com>
To: triumphs at autox.team.net <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Sat, Oct 12, 2019 1:57 pm
Subject: [TR] battery, alternator, or gremlin?

 1971 TR6.  Driving home last night I noticed my ammeter was at the + sign, half-way between neutral and full.  It is a 40 mile drive, stayed there the entire way.  I stopped to pick up a pizza.  the car cranked and started as usual after a 20 min stop.  Ammeter was now halfway between the neutral position and the + sign.  today I checked volage of battery from pole to pole: 12.60 volts.  Start the car today, cranked and started as usual, ammeter shows normal - slight charge at first then to neutral position.Battery, alternator, or Gremlin? Peter Arakelian** triumphs at autox.team.net **

Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/triumphs  http://www.team.net/archive

Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/dave1massey@cs.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/triumphs/attachments/20191013/bb89c172/attachment.htm>