I would shake my head if that turns out to be the case. The battery is only a year or two old, and it was the first thing I had checked out. O'Reillys tested it and they said it was good. I don't think it has been overcharged at all since.
I'll agree 100% Nick, but when Wun Fun Tung is in a hurry and eating his gulag rice while assembling these guys, some kernels are bound to fall in between the plates. I have a 1 year old AGM in my Harley. It held a charge all winter while in cold storage, then got it home and the next day no crankee. Charged it for 2 days and it cranked the 88 inch shovelhead at 300 rpm! Again yesterday... DOA! Do ya have another battery to swap for a try? You do realize the kid at the battery factory backed into a stack with the forklift right? ws
I just went through this with my 69. My battery was dying when it sat for awhile. I did a parasitic test and found that I had .2 ohms between the negative ground and battery. The first thing I did was to pull the fuse for the interior lights so I could have the door open. I ran long leads from the battery to my meter so I could have the meter with me in the car. I then started to pull fuses. I then pulled each fuse, one at a time until the meter showed 0...I could not find anything. My next step was to start tuning on and off every switch on the dash to see if any one of them was not closing. And I found it. I have a convertible, and the switch for the top was the culprit...I blew it out and now I have zero draw. The fuse for the accessory did not show me this. Drove me nuts. I also had a problem with the battery not charging. I did a test on the regulator by jumping the exciter wire on the plug. Still nothing. It made think that the alternator was futzed. So I ordered another. Then over night, my mind was buzzing about the problem. The wiring under my hood is a rats nest from the previous owner. I started tracing this mess and found the problem. Instead of replacing the bad regulator, he spliced the exciter wire together under the dash. I disconnected this wire at one point thinking it was a stereo wire (aftermarket stereo that did not work). These wires were just sticking out below the stereo. I guess when he parked the car, he would unhook these wires. They will draw your battery if kept hooked up....I put a toggle switch so I turn it off when I park the car until I get another regulator or swap over to a internal regulated alternator.... It now charges, but only when the engine revs past 1500 rpm...
orielly kid ain’t really a battery expert per se, I have had one say all good and then check again by using a load tester and it was bad.......This has been the case twice, there’s a reason the kid works at Oriellys......
Yep, voltage isn't amps. Voltage may run a light but it takes amps to turn that engine. I had a battery show 12.5V that would run all the lights but as soon as I touched the starter, they all went out and the battery showed barely 11V after an attempted crank.
Yes Sir that’s exactly how this game is played, bad Voltage Regulator soon equals bad Battery and all the hair pulling that goes along with it!
The battery has tested good for a second time, at a different parts store. They put a quick charge on it, then put a load on it. It put out 12V 800 amps. Off to the shop it goes
It now charges, but only when the engine revs past 1500 rpm... Thats how a lot of one wire units turn on. After a certain RPM the unit "self excites" or turn on and shuts off with the key. Some guys change pulley diameters to keep the speed up around town. I have two on my boat engines and one starts at about 900 RPM and stays on; the other needs about 2000 to start and then looses excitation at about 1200 RPM and I hafta give it a goose to turn on or keep it on high idle. Probably an internal regulator FM (******* mystery) or worn brushes? Its about 30 years old and converted to a one wire job. ws
It was weird. The guy took the battery out of the testing cabinet and he said there was a bad smell, though he wasn't sure if it was from my battery or the other one in there before it. Says it tested fine though, 12V 800 amps. Is it possible to have too big of a battery in these cars? It's rated at 800 CCA.
I thought you were saying the alternator was dishing out 800 amps; YIKES! 800 CCA means there's enough to crank it over. At -30F maybe not so good. ws
Nope, I took the battery out and brought it to the store so I can isolate just the battery from whatever weirdness their analyzer might spit back about the charging system.
I was finally able to figure out which was the field terminal by disconnecting the regulator plug and doing a continuity test from the blue wire at the reg plug to both wires on the disconnected alternator plug. When looking at the back of the alternator, with the plug at the top of the alternator, it's the one on the right. I plugged the regulator back in and left the alternator unplugged. I jumpered battery positive to the alternator field terminal. I started the car and brought the engine speed up a bit and the measured voltage at the battery did not go up at all. I have an appointment to bring it into the shop but that doesn't happen until mid September.
Last chance for gas next 300 miles! Going out on a limb, you mention an aftermarket voltmeter under the dash. That a simple wire in parallel unit. Try that for accuracy on a known good producer for accuracy with two pig tails and 2 alligator clips. The "biggy here" I seem to recall an issue with a burnt out dashboard idiot light. Does yours function/glow dim or bright etc? Something about needing that little bulb for resistance to commence charging. I went back and re-read the whole post but dont recall you ever saying that you went with a one wire alternator. Thats as simple as bolting it in, running a jumper from the big post to the battery, starting the engine and looking at the voltmeter. Thats gonna take the whole OEM charging system out of the equation. Its a 50.00 gamble. Feeling vicarious??? Added this for fun... ws
The alternator in it now is a new (probably remanufactured), three wire, externally regulated alternator. The idiot light has not worked in a very long time, long before this problem started. To restate where I'm at now, voltage as indicated by both an aftermarket volts gauge under the dash as well as the handheld programmer for the FiTech FI at idle is just over 11 volts. Both indicate it goes up at cruising speeds to high 13s or so. When measuring voltage at the battery with a multimeter, at idle, it's just over 12 volts. The battery has tested good twice, and I'm on my third new voltage regulator (I believe it's solid state)
The alternator belt tension seems to be fine. No AC in my car. I don't know what the stock alternator pulley diameter should be but by eyeball I'd say it's about 2.5".
I’ll say it again, ran thru this problem for 2 years on 2 GS cars, went to the Chinese $28 electronic Voltage reg and a new Battery and it solves the problem, the $78 solid state regulators were junk, had over-charged the Batteries and caused a dead cell in them ..... I have 3-4 I’ll let go for $20, Brand new USA made pieces of garage art, that’s how much I think of them!
It's possible that new regulator number three is bad. The first two regulators I tried were US made ones and cost about $55. I replaced those with a Chinese one that cost just under $30. At no point during this whole thing was there ever an overcharging condition. And as I've said twice already, the battery tested good twice, each time tested by a different parts store. Tell me your method to determine if a battery has a dead cell while testing as good. I don't want to throw more parts at it until someone better than me at electrical diagnostics looks it over.
Jump field to pos again but take a volt reading at the alt pos post. Then put pos meter on bat and neg meter lead to alt neg post. Let us know what reading you get.
