Alternator help?

[Jim Wright]

On 12/31/01 6:13 PM, "Mark Holden" <mark@vectorworld.com> wrote:

> 14.8v with the car running.

Are you measuring this at the battery itself?

> This seems good.  Obviously the alternator is now doing something.

Yup, I get about 14.4 on my Classic and my wife's Max, so I think your
voltage looks good.

> The car runs until the battery gets too low and then dies on me.  A quick jump
> start will get me a mile or so, a 10 minute jump will get me 5 or so miles
> (with the headlights on).

The car should not be dying like that because of power.  If the alternator
is putting out power, I'd think you 'should' be able to run with no battery
at all, the battery is there only to start the car, after that the
alternator is the main power source.

> Battery is brand new (2 days) and will take a charge just fine from a battery
> charger.

Are you seeing a voltage drop before it dies?  The only thing that makes
sense is that at some point the alternator isn't supplying power and you're
running from the battery again.  Does this happen while driving or also
idling?  I'd stick a meter on the battery and run it and see what happens,
might shed more light on the problem.