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Charlie, one more thing I forgot to mention: I can't even begin to tell you
how many batteries go bad during the summer. I just had to raplce Paige's in her
88 Eagle. The HEAT kills them, and then might have a dead cell.
Years ago we went to Las Vegas, and like dumbasses, went in end of July. I
have never seen a sign read 132 degrees, which it did at Hoover Dam while we
were ther. Oohhh, but it is a dry heat. Dry heat my ass, you can't breath with
8% humidity and damned hot dry wind blowing off those mountians. We would copme
out of the casino at 4:00am and it was STILL 101 degrees, I still have the
photos of that, was rather remarkable.
But something I remember is that most of the larger hotels there (we stayed
in the Golden Nugget off Premont street) have 'charger golf carts'. No, not
Mopar painted like Dukes of Hazzard, but a rolling fleet of golf carts with big
ass chargers to jump people in the parking lots. Our brand new rental car had to
be jumped twice int he mornings, all these guys do is drive around and give
their customers jumps, because the heat kills the batteries. Imagine it being
100 degrees all day and what it is under the hood with AC going, accessories
like radio, brakes lights, turns and such, that battery is taking a frigging
beating. After we got jumped, no problem car ran great and started again
everywhere we went.
But it could possibly be a dead cell,a gain, take it, along with alt, to a
Auto Zone or O'Reillys to have them put on the machine to double check
both.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 5:16 AM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] Battery
issues
Thanks Doc, and to everyone who responded to my plea. I ran this by my
dad last night, who is a retired electronics technician who worked for the
Army for 33 years. He shared much of the same that everyone here did. "Process
of elimination" he said. I am going to start with the regulator and
alternator. I noticed last night that the volt meter is reading only 12 volts
when the battery is clearly low. My sense is it ain't charging as it should. I
do not think I have a drain on the battery. I have been disconnecting the
battery too and putting a trickle charge on it so I don't destroy the battery.
Funny how this happens after all the talk about these crummy Motorola
alternators!
Charlie
In a message dated 6/23/2006 6:06:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
AMC74HORNET@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Charlie at night in the dark with the car shut off check to see if
the
Alt. light is slightly glowing. Since you say you have a Motorola
Alt
the diode trio might be going bad. The Alt. with this condition
will
still show it is charging properly on a meter. Had that problem with
my
orange Hornet before I swapped in a Delco. Also you need to have
the
battery tested with a meter that puts a load on it to make sure it
is
good. Without a load on the battery even a bad battery may show
12
volts. Next disconnect the clock and put an amp meter between
the
positive terminal on the battery and to the battery cable itself.
This
should tell you if there is a draw some where in the system. As
for
finding it good luck. I hate electrical problems. Having TSM with
the
wiring diagrams would also help. One last thing to check is if you
have
a glove box light. Make sure it does not stay on 24/7. My father
had
that problem with his bosses car back in the late 60's. After it sat
for
a week the battery was stone dead. On my Hornet before I changed
alt's I
would disconnect the battery when I parked it. More as a
theft
preventative I wired in the main wire off the starter solenoid a
fusible
link to a 35 amp toggle switch on the dash that kills the
electric to
the whole car when it is parked. Happy
hunting.
"Doc"
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