Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2009 02:56:50 -0800
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Mechanical Lesson Learned On the Road (Long)
In-Reply-To: <86476e250902062307m6109a78ew44c808b79efc2f00@mail.gmail.com>
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Inpiring tale of incident meets preparation. Excellent diagnosis and telling of the tale. One more thing to carry, of course, but just the part to have in this situation. The right angle screwdriver is already part of my kit (for trim/curtain screws on the kitchen side). Thanks.
Stephen
--- On Sat, 2/7/09, Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
From: Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Mechanical Lesson Learned On the Road (Long)
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 2:07 AM
This is one of two Vanagon mechanical related posts I'll be putting up based
on Things Learned on the Road during my last trip down to BBTB and beyond.
A week after leaving Lake Havasu I had ended up in a small RV park right in
town in Borrego Springs. I left in the morning to run to my brother in laws
place in Chula Vista, just outside of San Diego. I took the Hwy 78/79 route
up through Julian that connects to I-8, about 50 miles. I stopped at
Cuyamaca Lake for breakfast then back on the road. Finally hit I-8 and
headed down the hill to hit I-805 and then south to Chula Vista. About 10
miles down I-8 Starwagen died, dead, in the middle of the freeway. Because
I was headed down hill I was able to coast along and get to the right
shoulder. I have a volt meter that shows the voltage on both starting and
aux batteries, mounted on the front of the sink right behind the drivers
seat. I turned around and checked, starting battery at eight volts. After
having to move a bunch of stuff I got the jumper cables out and jumped the
aux battery to the starting battery. Started right up and drove to my
brother in laws. After saying out hellos and having a cup of coffee I dug
into the rig. Sure enough, the alternator was not charging.
A lesson reinforced here. I learned many years ago that 80% or more of
alternator failures are actually just worn brushes, the windings are still
fine. So I installed the spare regulator/brush pack that I carry and all was
well, charging just fine. I was ready to continue on the next day.
Now for the lessons learned. First, I don't know when the alternator quit
charging. I'd been on 110v AC at the RV park in Borrego Springs so both
batteries had been topped off by the three stage charger I have permanently
wired into the van. If I assume somewhere before Borrego Springs then I got
about 70 miles on the battery alone and that was running with the headlights
on (and they are 80 watts each). I did NOT get a red warning light. If one
of the brushes goes (and one of mine seemed to have disappeared, more on
that later) you wont' get the red warning light. If you loose a belt and
the alternator isn't turning, yes, you will get the light. I've
encountered
this in vehicles other than VWs over the years. BUT, and this is the first
lesson, WHEN I TURNED ON THE IGNITION SWITCH THE ALTERNATOR DASH LIGHT DID
NOT COME ON AS IT SHOULD WHEN EVERYTHING IS OKAY. I checked this before
replacing the regulator. But who actually pays any attention to the test
mode on those lights when starting anyway? Well, I think I will in the
future. Another lesson also learned. Part way over the windy, twisty, up
and down road my gas gauge was telling me I'd used nearly half a tank of
gas
in 55 miles. I knew I was bucking a hell of a headwind that day but it
never dawned on me that the gauge was reading wrong because of low voltage.
Second Lesson: DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THESE: http://tinyurl.com/bqrrj6
You should all recognize the regulator/brush pack. But the important item
is the little Phillips right angle screwdriver. Without it I doubt that
I'd
have been able to change the regulator without breaking the alternator
loose. I have several good screwdrivers in my kit but the angles were just
such that I couldn't get them properly on to the two screws that hold the
regulator in place. With the little angled screwdriver it was simple, total
of maybe 20 minutes including unpacking the back and digging out the tools.
And now, the rest of the story. Last fall I'd realized that the alternator
bearings were making a lot of noise. When Jason Newton put a new water pump
in for me he suggested that the alternator was going to need replacing soon.
But I put it off. I have to assume that the bad bearings may have
contributed to the failure of the brushes. When I removed the old regulator
one of the brushes had either disintegrated or jumped out and disappeared on
the ground somewhere. I figured the alternator with the new brushes would
probably get me home but instead of waiting when I got to Santa Cruz I
pulled into Van Cafe and Peter had me out of there with a new alternator
installed (with new belt and oil filter change to boot) in a little over an
hour. I had them swap the nearly new good regulator out and put the old,
bad one back in, I'll still have a good spare in the spares kit.
And now the last lesson from this and this is one that can't be learned
from
a few sentences here. Get to know and understand how your vehicle works. I
hate to say this but it was gut instinct based on many years of driving and
(in the past) working on all kinds of vehicles that screamed at me "DEAD
BATTERY' when the Starwagen died. I know that there are many on this list
that would have ended up being towed in the same situation. And having an
aux battery and jumper cables is what got me back on the road and to my
brother in laws place. And also knowing that brushes are the most likely
failure in the alternator is what got the Starwagen back on the trip, I
probably would have made it home without the new alternator.
One last footnote on this. My batteries are connected through a Shurepower
1315 isolator. The 1315 has a feature that allows you to install a small
switch that when thrown connects the aux battery directly to the starting
battery, a feature aimed at just the situation I found myself in. BUT,
because it requires beefing up the cable between the starting battery and
the 1315, which I haven't done, I have never installed the switch and that
feature wasn't available to me when I needed it. This would have
eliminated
the need to open up a bunch of stuff to get the jumper cables run between
the two batteries. Guess what project has been moved to the top of my 'To
Be Done' list?