Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:26:04 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon
In-Reply-To: <042b01cbe206$11e2f9c0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
A battery with a shorted cell will rarely rise above 11 volts and it will
suck a lot of current from the alternator in the process. I doubt if you
have a shorted cell.
Your wire from your alternator to battery is only half the circuit -
everyone forgets about the other half - the engine, ground strap, body and
battery ground cable.
I don't know about the early Vette, mine's a 1977, but some cars used to be
positive ground. I wonder if the 59 Vette is one is one of these? If so then
it's perfectly normal. All cars are negative ground today because the
negative charge on the body helps prevent corrosion.
Tom
www.towercooler.com
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 12:10 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon
charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagonDidn't mean the batt is new out of
the box ..
it's at least a month or a few old running in a van , It just looks very
new.
I can hydrometer the cells to see if any are very different than the other.
I have seen a faulty new battery before ....not for a long time though.
I'll think about that .'alternator is charging the batt so hard .....it's
causing that voltage drop' ....
I suppose so.
Electrons can do whatever they want sometimes.
who has heard of a generator equipped car ( not alternator ) changing it's
polarity ?
I saw a case of it once. A gorgeous 59 Corvette I took care of for a few
years.
The customer calls up and says a stereo installation shop said it was
positive ground ..
i.e. backwards polarity.
by golly it was.
and somehow that can happen in a generator car .. it was 12 volts neg grnd.
and I don't know if they had the battery dead or what..
but somehow , it turned into a pos grnd car. I was right near a battery shop
a the time ..
they buy the parts and materials and build the batteries right there. They
said they had seen that a time or two.
They also told of a brand new 12 battery, not theirs, that had been built
with reverse polarity somehow ..
and when installed in a toyota it zapped the ecu.
what fun.
I'll consider the battery more. Seems stout in every way though.
thanks.
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Hargrave
To: 'Scott Daniel - Turbovans' ; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 9:01 PM
Subject: RE: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon
Seems normal to me. A new battery is never fully charged out of the box
and it's sucking all the current it can from the alternator, causing a 0.4
volt drop across the cable, engine, ground strap and body.
Tom
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 10:38 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon
what does the collected wisom recommend ..
on an 85 vanagon ..
when there is 13.8 volts of charging ooomph at the alternator main
terminal
...
and only 13.4 at the ( new ) battery .
I look for at least 13.8 volts at the battery. 13.4 is low in my
opinion.
( I like to see 14 something at the battery actually )
alternator appears to be a fairly fresh Bosch rebuilt.
The van's always started ..especially with the old somewhat worn 1.9. (
manual trans ) ...
on my own 85 Adventurewagon I got at least a half volt more to the battery
with redundant batt cables added.
I don't want to do that to this van.
the 85 Vanagon has the last year of the 'small' battery to starter cable
of
course . 86 is considerably fatter.
trans ground cale looks good ..though I didn't take it apart.
I'll post another note regarding stater.
thanks !
S,.
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