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Date:         Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:29:43 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon
Comments: To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
In-Reply-To:  <042701cbe203$f8b323a0$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 12:54 AM 3/14/2011, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote: >the amp meter sounds good .. >even if it does say current is low .. >'something' in the charging circuit is sleepy/lowish .. >I only see those two main avenues to peruse .. >alt/reg..........and connections and cables , assuming battery is good.

My point was that it's not likely that you're pushing much current with 13.4 volts at the battery, but you're still dropping 400 mv somewhere, so find out where. Don't guess, find out. That's why they invented voltmeters. It's normal to drop some in the wire, but you're going to find out that you're dropping some at connections, and that's not normal. So find them and fix them, because at higher currents they'll drop more, and they may also get hot. If the one in the wiring box gets hot it may melt something. And they don't all have to be on the hot side, could also be on the ground side. And don't forget the battery terminals themselves - when you're measuring battery voltage, you're doing it actually on the lead posts, right? And the alternator voltage you're measuring actually on the stud? 'Cause you need to be.

Once you get that cleaned up you've got two more decisions - is the wire big enough, and is the regulator voltage high enough. Or possibly do you have a leaky diode in the alternator and there's a lot of AC ripple on the line - your *digital* voltmeter will tell you that. Couple hundred mv probably normal, a volt is not. But assuming that's ok, and you're not simply dragging down the alternator with a huge drain, then a new regulator would be in order. And since by definition the 1.9l wire is too small, doubling it up or changing to a bigger one will get the juice to the battery better. So will adopting the 2.1l alternator wiring scheme, where a fat wire goes right to the starter and a skinny one over to the wiring box to power the harness.

Yours, d


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