Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 15:44:58 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Stutter and Low Batt
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Is your thinking that your charging and two-battery problem is related to
the stalling, or difficult idle ?
it could be I suppose.
to be sure, you could 'back up' to just the one battery ,undo the rest, and
see if that helps.
I suspect you could be having to separate problems, and battery charging is
not related to the idle issue.
and I'll tell you what I like ..
so there is No Doubt about what battery is getting charged how much etc...
is Full Manual Control.
I leave my starting battery fully stock.
I wire the aux battery in parallel with a simple heavy duty on/off switch.
nothing could be more reliable or simple.
Ya fire up the van, and when it's running and changing, you close the switch
to charge # 2 batt.
when you shut off the van, you open the switch ....isolating your aux
battery so as you draw from it you're not affecting the starting battery.
no electronic controls. Nothing fancy. About as simple and reliable as could
be.
for an embellishment....make the cable to the # 2 batt battery cable size,
and put a switch on the starting battery ..
then you can start of either battery, or even both at the same time.
every time you add 'automatic controls' .........you loose, you loose other
capabilities.
just like say ....car locks that lock automatically as soon as you drive.
Totally stupid. Causes people to get locked out of their car sometimes.
so the manual switch on the batteries is very low tech ..
but you have FULL control , plus more than one mode.
Ever notice that a basic Cessna single engine aircraft has full manual
controls on everything that's critical ?
Takes more brains to operate it properly, but you have Full control.
Something to be said for that.
nothing pops to mind about your idle thing ...
but it would be nice to make sure it's not somehow related to your idle
issue.
was that simple enough of a post ?
smiles, Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Sullivan" <sandwichhead@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: Stutter and Low Batt
> Karma is a b*&^%, I guess. I took it for another ride and it just seems it
> is not charging correctly and I have to rev it to get it to idle while I
> back out and put it in D. Once I drive a few blocks, it starts to idle,
> but
> letting it rest does not seem to help on start up. Concerned bcuz the alt
> s/b charging the main and overflow to the aux battery. Thinking along the
> lines of Jim Arnotts 2004(?) write up involving the 1315 and an extra HD
> wire to the alt. Got in-laws here so gotta get friendly, so I'm gonna put
> on a smiley face and think about it in the background.
> Michael in San Antonio
> 91GL Weekender AT 2.1L 'Gringo'
> 73 Beetle
>
>
> On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Robert Fisher
> <garciasghostvw@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Either the Honda salesman sabotaged it, or it's protesting your
>> unfaithfulness in dumping a bunch of money into another machine.
>>
>> Cya,
>> Robert
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
>> Of
>> Michael Sullivan
>> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:34 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Stutter and Low Batt
>>
>> Just left the stealership and bought the young'un a Honda Fit for
>> graduation. Still would not trade my van for a brand new Fit, tho. BUT,
>> on
>> access road, van died when I came to some traffic. Started right up, but
>> hard to get it to idle. Noticed that my main battery is reading 12.14
>> while
>> off and was as low as 12.08. The aux batt is at 13.36. Can someone get
>> me
>> on the right track to checking why the main battery is so low and why
>> stalling all of a sudden. I do have the SurePower 1315 and am monitoring
>> the charge on the VoltMinder.
>> I did replace my dizzy last year and eyeballed the timing at that time.
>> Van
>> usually idles around 1000. Was fine before the car place, but then... I
>> left
>> it parked at the grocery for 20 minutes, and still same problem.
>> Any and all advice is appreciated, but keep it simple to start, duuhhhh.
>> Thanks.
>> Michael in San Antonio
>> 91GL Weekender AT 2.1L 'Gringo'
>> 73 Beetle
>>
