Hi,
70 Challenger 383, I have a feeling that the charging system has been bad for years now, but wonder how it was possible to not really notice it. I try to make a long story short. First of all, I don't drive very much unfortunately, maybe 1000km a season, usually I charge the battery and it lasts until I take it out again late November. This year it was harder to charge somehow, so I had the battery on my watchlist. Still, went for a 300km drive recently, with couple of starts, stop and go, idling. Worked fine. The next week battery was dead. So I started investigating. I thought something drains the battery maybe, but no loads registered on the multimeter.
I remember measuring the battery voltage while motor running a couple of years ago, just around 12,5 volts, suspicious as I had expected around 14, but well... had no issues, uncommon car, maybe that's correct...? And I forgot about it.
Well ammeter is like frozen, so likely disconnected, I found the shunt wire from alternator main plug directly to battery.
I measured alternator, main plug = battery voltage, field 1 (blue) 0 when ign/off, around battery voltage with ign/on. Field 2 (green) 0 when ign/off and barely some voltage with ign/on. I bypassed VR by connecting field 2 directly to battery while running, still get 12,5 Volts at battery. -> So I suppose alternator is dead.
But also VR seems bad, it has ground on the screw, ign voltage, but measuring between both pins at 20kOhms I get no reading (either 0.00 or infinite, can't remember right now).
So everything points at bad alternator and VR, would you agree? But how on earth was I able to drive it for years without noticing anything? A few 100 km.
Another question: can I somehow identify the current alternators amperage, to get the correct spare part?
Thanks in advance for any help and your opinions...
70 Challenger 383, I have a feeling that the charging system has been bad for years now, but wonder how it was possible to not really notice it. I try to make a long story short. First of all, I don't drive very much unfortunately, maybe 1000km a season, usually I charge the battery and it lasts until I take it out again late November. This year it was harder to charge somehow, so I had the battery on my watchlist. Still, went for a 300km drive recently, with couple of starts, stop and go, idling. Worked fine. The next week battery was dead. So I started investigating. I thought something drains the battery maybe, but no loads registered on the multimeter.
I remember measuring the battery voltage while motor running a couple of years ago, just around 12,5 volts, suspicious as I had expected around 14, but well... had no issues, uncommon car, maybe that's correct...? And I forgot about it.
Well ammeter is like frozen, so likely disconnected, I found the shunt wire from alternator main plug directly to battery.
I measured alternator, main plug = battery voltage, field 1 (blue) 0 when ign/off, around battery voltage with ign/on. Field 2 (green) 0 when ign/off and barely some voltage with ign/on. I bypassed VR by connecting field 2 directly to battery while running, still get 12,5 Volts at battery. -> So I suppose alternator is dead.
But also VR seems bad, it has ground on the screw, ign voltage, but measuring between both pins at 20kOhms I get no reading (either 0.00 or infinite, can't remember right now).
So everything points at bad alternator and VR, would you agree? But how on earth was I able to drive it for years without noticing anything? A few 100 km.
Another question: can I somehow identify the current alternators amperage, to get the correct spare part?
Thanks in advance for any help and your opinions...
A dim light came on and got brighter. Took the mount off. Cleaned mount, bolts, bolt holes. Put it back together and never a problem since. It's been years.
