Date: Mon, 24 Feb 97 10:57:00 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Gregory M Daughtry <Gregory_M_Daughtry@ccm2.hf.intel.com>
Subject: Re: stupid, ignorant question
Hi Tonya,
I have a few suggestions, but please take with a grain of salt.
I haven't had to find my starter, yet, but if you need I can look it
up in Bently and fax you a photocopy of the pages.
Diagnosing voltage problems: Do you have a good multi-meter? Do you
know how to measure current with one?
Here's what you can try:
First, check your ground strap connection at the transmission, not the
ground post on your battery. Remove, clean and reconnect.
Now, if you disconnect the ground post of the battery and place your
meter in series with the ground post and your ground cable, you can
measure the current drawn from the battery. Careful to get the
polarity right. You may have short somewhre in your system. I am
sure there is a procedure in the archives and I believe in the Bentley
as well that illustrates how to find it. Basically it's kind of like
this, but please search for a more definitive procedure. With the
ignition on (engine not running) and ALL possible things turned off
(radio, etc) there should be no current measured. If there is, there
is a procedure of pulling fuses until the current goes away and you
have isolated the circuit witht the fault. It will narrow down the
choices. See bentley/archives.
There is also another thing to think about. As wires age, their
resistance goes up and there are greater power losses due to this
resistance. So you can get a voltage drop just because of the length
of wire current has to travel from the battery back to the engine
compartment. Two volts seems excessive, but I guess it may be
possible. There are also many threads about the marginal current
carrying capacity of the wiring from the battery back to the engine.
Search the archives for articles explaining replacing/upgrading the
wiring. A lot of the threads have to do with adding the secondary
battery with a voltage isolator, so you may want to add that to your
search criteria. I can dig the info up if you are having trouble
finding it.
Hope this helps, and let me know if I can do more.........
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: stupid, ignorant question
Author: vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu at SMTPGATE
Date: 2/22/97 3:45 PM
Yes I'm ignorant (at least about this ...)
Where is the starter on an 87 vanagon? It finally warmed up enough, and
wasn't raining, to where I could try to get my alternator working.
Connections at the alternator are okay (cleaned them all up anyway), but
someone told me that the connections at the starter may be causing the
trouble. So where IS the starter? And what does it look like?
Also, on a weird note, the battery has 11 volts across it when NOT
connected to the engine. When I connect the ground strap, it has 9 volts
across the terminals. Back at the alternator (with the key in the on
position, engine off), it reads 7 volts. This doesn't seem right. Any
ideas?
Brushers on alternator looked okay at quick glance, but wanted to check
all the connections before I passed judgement. I've got the battery out
of the van currently and hooked to a charger.
TIA everyone!
Tonya