what an adventure! 225 miles with a dead charging system!

[iNeon]

The shlomo car had a terrible time last winter. dead battery every few days. tightening the belt worked, then we replaced it this summer.

hes at it again. the battery will hold a charge and is not too too old. the belt doesnt need tightening, i tried that(i paid 12 dollars for a chinese wrench at a fuel stop)

if you slow down or let the car idle, the lights and heat come back but as soon as youre going over 30, it all goes dim. the lights never actually turned off though.

regulator? alternator?

how long have youall driven with your benzes lights looking like those from a 6 volt beetle?

Regulator.

Was it leathermang that did the trip frol AK to the coni. USA?

Awesome.

[iNeon]

i thought that was it, but i figured id ask yall just in case

my mother was spooked. shes never owned a diesel and she thought fuel injection was all electric

Most GAS fuel injection is!

Even the bosch mechanical fuel injection relies upon the fuel pump to take care of buisness.

[R Leo]

Originally Posted by Brandon314159

Regulator.

Was it leathermang that did the trip frol AK to the coni. USA?

Awesome.

That was PEHaiges that did the return from AK. I once did Norman, OK to OKC, a week in OKC and then back to Austin w/o a functioning alternator. I little hot in the car w/o ac, but other than the temp, no big deal. Drove in the daylight tho...

[boneheaddoctor]

replace your regulator first......if that doesn't fix it then spring for another alternator (but keep the regulator you just bought for future use)

[JMan300sd]

I once drove my car for six months with a failing operator. Being in college I didnt have enough money to fix it and instead just used my guarantee at sears on my battery . I drove from tallahassee to Miami and back with a dying alternator with no problems as long as I could get the car started. I just had to avoid driving at night (lights).

[t walgamuth]

i was in college i once drove my 1960 simca for months probably at least six, with a dead generator. every night i plugged it in. i drove away with it under the hood one day and ended up splicing the wires when they got cut off. i once was driving to south bend from muncie at night for the family christmas with a dead gen. i spent more than an hour driving behind trucks with my parking lights only when it got too weak to make spark with the headlights on. made it to us 31 and the indiana toll road before it died. my brother in law and dad came to the rescue. i drove the last 20 miles with dad's battery sitting on the pass side floor and jumper cables running up out the window and to the battery under the hood.

chilly!

i finally spotted a dead simca in the spring in indianapolis and got the gen off it for about $10 i think.

those were the days!

tom w

[R Leo]

BTW, my '78 Deere's alternator has been dead for as long as I've owned it. When it starts to crank slow, I put it on the charger.

It does fine for around the farm but, I wouldn't try driving it to Austin from OKC. or from AK either

[Habanero]

When my wife was driving back from OKC to Ames, IA after an externship/interview the alternator on her 89 Chevy 1500 died going around the loop in Kansas City. She called and asked what she should do and I told her to shut everything off and come as far as she could while me and Dad got an alternator rounded up and would head south. She made it to Osceola, IA before it finally started to sputter (luckily right before an exit and a Total station parking lot). When we got there to change it, I looked at the a/c controls and found she had the a/c on! I wasn't a happy camper. Apparently she thought "everything" meant only the radio.

[Jim H]

Me too.

A diesel engine will run w/o electricity, but...

[Matt L]

I rode my '74 H-D (Shovelhead) several times with a dead regulator/rectifier assembly, which is a weak point on that engine.

In each case, the engine sputtered a bit while moving and ultimately quite while idling. Putting my hand in front of the headlight immediately showed the problem.

Turning the headlight off (a nice feature on an old bike) would allow me to kick-start the engine and ride home. Once, upon arriving, the battery measured four volts with no draw, yet the point-style ignition system was still working.

Type 3's and Type 2's will make it a long way without a working generator/belt but type 1's...sorry you are outta luck...no fan= no go.

(Aircooled VW's)

[iNeon]

so i went to all of our local mcParts and not one of them had the part in stock.

is the dealer going to pretend this part is made of gold? ive bought all my parts from the dealer apart from oil filters and oil and would prefer to keep it that way!

with our american cars, parts bought not from the dealer have always been of lesser quality. an example:

mothers intrepid was surging/stalling and we had it diagnosed at the local dealer-- do the work ourselves. we bought the parts at advance and that didnt fix it... so we spent 700 more dollars on parts.

after giving up, dad just said "take it in, theyll fix it." so we did--

the first part(MAF sensor?) we replaced needed replacement again. this time it 'took.'