Charging troubles

[SimonMaidenhead]

HELP!!!!!

Been having trouble with the battery holding charge and can only pressume that the alternator is not charging the battery. Car starts fine, and then after a run it's very reluctant to start again, as in not enough battery power to turn it over.
So far:-
Alternator off and checked...no problem

New alternator belt....thanks again Crazy for your help

New battery charger/conditioner

New battery (Red Top 60)...waste of money as after I charged the old one with the new charger, it was fine.

Found an earth lead unattached, found a suitable hole on the chassis, emery clothed the powder coating away and re-attached.

Voltmeter is showing 13v after a charge, but after a run it's down to 10v, which is touch and go whether the car will turn over quick enough for the engine to catch.

With the open day this weekend I need to get this sorted before I venture very far.

Any ideas??????????

[Steve_D]

SimonMaidenhead said:

....Alternator off and checked...no problem........

Who says? How was it tested.

Have you put a volt meter on the battery when the engine is running? With a good few revs on you should be seeing 14ish volts.

Steve

[SimonMaidenhead]

Steve_D said:

Who says? How was it tested.

Have you put a volt meter on the battery when the engine is running? With a good few revs on you should be seeing 14ish volts.

Steve

Took the alternator to a local company who bench tested it on one of their machines and said it was generating 14v.

Havn't put a volt meter on the battery, but will try.

Thanks

If it does read 14v ish, then what?
Same question if it doesn't

[Steve_D]

SimonMaidenhead said:

....If it does read 14v ish, then what?
Same question if it doesn't

If it is reading 14 at the battery then I have no answer other than there must be something wrong with the battery itself as in a dead or shorted cell.

If you don't get 14 at the battery then you're back to chasing bad connections. Don't forget the recent post about the spade terminal snapped off the alternator (or was that you).
If you have a multimeter you could try testing the lead from the alternator back to the battery for high resistance cause by poor connections. Same for other connections.

Steve

[Crazy of Cookham]

Simon Didn,t look as if it was getting enough charge. Is it better now my gauge show 14v on charge. Have you fully secured that earth lead. Maynot help but could help.

[SimonMaidenhead]

Crazy of Cookham said:

Simon Didn,t look as if it was getting enough charge. Is it better now my gauge show 14v on charge. Have you fully secured that earth lead. Maynot help but could help.

Brian, yes earth lead is fully secured, took your advice and emery clothed the chassis before securing it. I'll put the new battery on and see if that makes any difference, and then test it once I've got a volt meter. Thanks again

[Chewy]

You say that it is after a run that it's reluctant to restart.
Has the engine been rebuilt recently?
Does your engine run higher temperatures than you might wish?
How long have you left it before retrying?
Several owners have suffered the problem where following a good run the engine struggles to restart with the problem appearing to be a flat battery resulting in the engine not turning over fast enough.
It appeared to be some form of heat soak as if left for 30 mins to cool down the battery suddenly seemed to have recovered. Whether it was issues with the starter motor I'm not sure but I had problems with this when my engine was new but it seems to have diminished with time - my engine did feel tight when new and once run in the problem subsided. However I have also taken other measures to lower the under bonnet and engine temperatures so it may have been these that actually cured my problem
This problem usually appeared at the most awkward time such as when refuelling – a little embarrassing when you have to push it to one side for it to cool down before retrying.

[SimonMaidenhead]

Chewy said:

You say that it is after a run that it's reluctant to restart.
Has the engine been rebuilt recently?
Does your engine run higher temperatures than you might wish?
How long have you left it before retrying?
Several owners have suffered the problem where following a good run the engine struggles to restart with the problem appearing to be a flat battery resulting in the engine not turning over fast enough.

1. The car's only done 400 odd miles from new
2. I'm having the opposite problem with the temperature, even to the point where it's been suggested that I tape up the top part of the radiators to restrict the airflow and get the temp up.
3. Not that long to be honest, first time 3 or 4 mins, next time 10 mins or so. The first time it happened the battery was totally flat (just a "click" when I tried turning the ignition), and when called the AA said it was an alternator problem.

[Chewy]

It sounds like you are fortunate in that you don’t suffer the high temperatures issues that many of us have. It might still be worth a try if you get the chance to have a play out and give it a good blast or at least get it up to temperature and try to reproduce the problem. After the run if you have the problem you could test the battery voltage and then perhaps retry starting after half an hour.

[qwicksylva]

Do you have a charge light attached to the alternator? Maybe you should have or maybe the connection has come off. I had a problem on a landrover once where the charge light WASN'T connected and as such the alternator didn't charge the battery. As soon as I connected this, no problemo!

[GTR One]

Voltage alone means nothing without any current draw. Without going to my garage I think the varley RT's need about 14.4V charging voltage. I use a Varley RT 40 (new) and that turns the (also new) LS7 over almost quick enough to forget about the need for any petrol! I think they are pretty reliable batteries..even over time (so the leaflet says)

My Westfield (sorry folks) a few years ago had this problem (stalling (without easy hot restart) in the rush hour on a busy roads) and I put it down to thermal soak in the starter. Was going to put some thermal wrap from DT on it but I wrote the car off in a big way before I had the chance to prove my theory. Doh!

I'd string a voltmeter between the starter power terminal and the battery GND to determine whether it's an electrical or heat soak problem...