Charging System Problems

[Joe A]

Driving along and the red light came on idicating a charging system problem.
By time I made it home my battery was just about dead. I replaced the regulator charged
the battery and everything seemed OK.
Drove the car fro about 20 min and was unable to restart without a jump. Got car home and ordered a new altenator from Pelican. Installed the altenator and new battery. But
the car is still not charging. The red light
is back and when I remove the battery cable
while the car is running it stalls. I am thinking that the 20 min drive with new regulator may have killed that regulator.
Any suggetions > I checked the Trnsmission ground starp and other connectionsand all look OK anyone know how to troubleshhot the charging system with a voltmeter.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Jim Thorusen has written a good alternator troubleshooting article. I'm not sure if it has made it over to the Pelican page yet, but it might. Just use Pelican's site search to look for his article.

If you can't find it, check in the Rennlist archives, at http://www.rennlist.org . You can "just visit" the 914 list archives, and search them for "troubleshoot". That should get you Jim's article.

Good lukc!

--DD

[DRACO A5OG]

Old Thread but I thought I would contribute:

Checking Alternator Output: With a DVM, place on appropriate terminals and maintain the idle at 1600RPMs, the voltage should be 14+ (ideally 14.1-14.5 volts), if not, the alternator may need to be replaced but before that, even though those terminal connectors look good try to inspect them closely for fracture/s.

I went through a recent charging problem, swapping everything to only discover I have a hairline fracture halfway up the positive terminal connector, just enough to start her if charged but loose enough not to charge . $5.00 FLAPS connector later, soldered ( use flux ) for extra measure, VOILA, No Start be gone, Charging Battery Fool :-), verified by my on board volt meter.

I also purchased a C-Tek 3300 battery tender to maintain the battery and reduce the sulfate build up which will eventually kill any battery.

Hope this helps,

Jim