Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:04:39 -0700
Reply-To: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: Alternator output
In-Reply-To: <01cf01cb26bb$872108a0$956319e0$@net>
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Tom,
I just looked at old volt. reg. form my van, and it has 14 V written
on it, not 14.1 V that I wrote before.
where the heck did I get the 0.1 from :)
We discussed this a month or so ago, David B. talking about adjusting
alt. output. I mentioned at that time that I had tried an adjustable
reg some years ago. Worked fine for a while (could "dial up" voltage
output, I chose something like 14.4) then stopped working...
I may try one again. They can be bought online from a volvo parts
guy, http://www.davebarton.com/AdjustableVoltage.html
scroll down and you will see a reg. that has a teeny tiny screw on it...
cheers
alistair
On 18-Jul-10, at 1:55 PM, Tom Hargrave wrote:
Understood - I've owned over 40 cars and worked on at least twice as
many
more and could have my voltages crossed. But over half had Bosch
alternators
installed and I remember consistent voltages of around 14.5 over the
years.
But again many of these were Bosch alternators from the early 70s.
Thanks, Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On
Behalf Of
Alistair Bell
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 10:35 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Alternator output
whoa there Tom!
The bosch alternator in the vanagon never did put out 14.5 V.
I bet if you look closely at the voltage reg you will see 14.1 V
written on
it. And even when new, seemed to struggle to get to 14.1
Alfred, make sure all your connections from alternator to battery are
squeaky clean - shiny!- and tight.
PS disconnect battery before working on this problem - red wire at
alternator is "hot" all the time.
If you feel up to it, remove the voltage reg from alternator and
check brush
length. Specs and procedure in Bentley. (pmail me if you dont have
procedure).
Then when all is cleaned up and back together, try measuring voltage
again,
both at battery and at alternator. If all is well you should not see
more
than a 0.1 V diff. between the 2 measurements.
The previous low voltage condition was probably chronically
undercharging
your battery, so if you can, put the battery on a charger.
alistair
On 17-Jul-10, at 11:18 PM, Tom Hargrave wrote:
Alfred,
13.8 volts is considered minimum and the fact that you see 13.8 at the
alternator and 13 at the battery tells you have a very, very low
battery or
the alternator is in trouble.
I'd suggest you do a good job of cleaning & then re-attaching your
battery
terminals, charge the battery and test again.
Most charging systems will float up to 14.5+ or so, at least the Bosch
alternators on all the Mercedes I've owned would. I don't own a
Vanagon yet
but a charging system is a charging system. If you don't reach at
least 14.5
volts with a fully charged battery then I suggest you have a alternator
issue.
Tom
www.towercooler.com