Quote:
Originally Posted by benhogan
if the alternator is functioning properly, the voltage between the terminals with the motor running should be between 13 and 14 volts.
replace your alternator. your battery may have been OK to begin with.
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I doubt it. It was 6 years old.
Regarding the alternator:
Oh hell yes. Put in a new (rebuilt) alternator and it's reading 13.86 at idle, 12.61 when off. It's been so long since I've checked charging voltage I'd sorta forgot for certain. What was I thinking.
Purists might scoff, but I went with an O'Reilly's rebuild. My OEM parts guy is in Berkeley, 40 miles away (my former home) and I wanted it running tomorrow morning (whoops, this morning). And I have to ask myself if I should go with top dollar parts on a rig with 357 K (!?). Was about $90, had an odd feature - they used insulated bushings on the mounts (not sure why), I had to attach a ground wire to the post they specified, made a ground wire out of a connector made for the purpose on one end and one I made from some scrap alum for the other, as I needed something big enough to attach to the 8 mm bolt I found to attach it to the block.
I didn't really need the extra complexity but oh well. I wasn't sure how to attach the 12 ga. stranded wire to the alum but it worked out. Used a smallish nut and bolt, the strands wrapped around and tightened with a lockwasher - the strands were sorta bulging out so I torched them and soldered it into a solid mass. Now I'm wondering if it's thick enough wire. I mean it's some serious current involved in the alternator, right?
This site talks about checking for voltage drop on charging issues, not that I have one yet but it would be nice to forestall one. They mention the ground strap sometimes being needed at the bottom of the page:
Voltage Drop Testing
I think I'm in good shape - I'm getting a voltage drop reading of .017 volts, engine running of course. The article says if you're below .1, it's good enough. .4 or .5 or above is when it will be a problem.