On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, Bill Marshall wrote: > Baloney. My ancient '85 alternator began charging right away, no revving > involved. Now that I had it rebuilt, it has to go to 1500rpm to start charging > and put the light out. What a crapper. Now, I punch it a little after I start > it to get it going. > > I wonder how many extra gallons of gas that will cost me over the next > 100,000 miles? You could do what I do...just let the silly light glow until I back out of my parking space and get up enough speed to reach the charging threshold. On a warm day that's only 10 or 15 seconds. On a cold day, I generally have to use a little throttle for the first few seconds to keep the engine running (it's a somewhat worn-out diesel), so the problem takes care of itself. I usually only blip the throttle to start the alternator charging if I know I'm going to let the van sit and idle for a long time. FWIW...the alternator on my '75 VW bus didn't need a throttle blip.
David Brodbeck, N8SRE '82 Diesel Westfalia '94 Honda Civic Si |
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