Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 23:30:44 +0000
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: vwbus@netbiz.net
Subject: Voltage regulators and Battery mats
Well buttoned up the heat exchangers, and I'd adjusted the valves and
changed the oil with them off, about the only convenient time to do a
T4 engined valve adjustment, so I'm making a full tune up of it
putzing about the engine compartment with it running adjusting idle,
dwell, timing and I hear a bubbling hissing and poping. I look over at the
battery and it's boiling over, well shit. Now the '77 doesn't get
much (any) use so I figure damn a cell has croaked and the rest are
overcharging (I know I should buy a trickle charger thing). Well I
pull it out and the battery is covered with acid and I'm pissed this
is a gorgeous van after all. So I check the specific gravities, hmmn
all very overcharged. So I put it back in and pull out the
voltmeter, 13.55 ignition off (this is about .4 too high) and with it
running, the output is locked at 13.9 volts doesn't change. Well I
go and get the regulator out of the '78 swap em and voila, the
voltage dances nicely between 13.3 and 13.75 as it cycles. So I take
out the battery and hose it off, wash with baking soda hose it off,
then look at the tray. 2 years back when I bought it I'd touched up
the small wear spots and minor rust with a wire wheel and some good
primer. Never bothered to do more, when the engine finally needs
rebuilt I'll blast and paint it for real. But I'd put down one of
the "rust rugs" from RMMW. This thing gets the big thumbs up, I have
no idea how long the regulator has been kaput, maybe since I bought
it and quite some acid had come out, rug was quite damp. Took it out
and I got the soda solution out ready to be apalled, and funny thing, no
fizzing when I scrubbed out the tray!!! The acid and the stuff in
the rug had congealed a bit into some sort of fairly neutral jelly
coating and no further damage had occured to the tray. I finished
washing it out, then installed another rug I happened to have,
reinstalled the batter and everything as good as new. If you don't
have one of these down under your battery go buy one, the RMMW
version is jjust heavy chemical treated felt, I've also seen plastic
coated versions. The RMMW one worked nicely.
As to the regulator I pop it apart tomorrow, they are generally
repairable, typically you just need a points file to take to the
relay contacts and I think they have a little adjustment built in as
well, been a couple of years since I've played with one.
John
vwbus@netbiz.net
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