BlueDemon

Hi guys and girls! I have a question about my altenater. I just put on some underdrive pulleys and I'm a little worried about how far my voltage goes down-- moreso at night than any other time. Just last night on my way home from work I noticed that my voltage was 1 line above the red zone and my inner dash lights would get dim. At this time I had my windshield wipers on,my headlights on and my blower motor was on for the heater. This of course only happened when I was at an stop sign or light. As soon as I started driving the volts would go up to normal. When I'm at idle I'm running at about 700 to 800 rpm. My altenater is brand new and I know its working correctly because I had it tested. Without having to go out and buy a more powerful altenator is there something I can do about this problem without having to take the underdrive pulleys off?? If I turned the idle up would that hamper my perfomance? Any advise is appreciated,Thankyou

Dbeck002

all that seems rather normal even for a regular stock pulley setup. running wipers, lights and A/C will do that. dont worry about it, and if i were you id get a blaster coil to beef up the ignition as a result of voltage drops.

BlueDemon

what do you mean by a "blaster" coil? I have an accell super coil already installed--is that the same thing?? Thankyou for your input!!

Dbeck002

thats fine, just as long as your ignition system doesnt suffer from such a large voltage drop. accel is ok. you should be in decent condition.

nemethjames1

while your idling i bet your alt is still puting out 13.5 witch is enough, who starts up there car and only idles it? your main charging is in higher rpm......

BlueDemon

When you say an accell coil is O.K. do you mean I could or should do better? Also are you saying I should'nt worry about my amps as long as they go up when I hit the gas? Thanxs again for the help!!

Dbeck002

well you COULD go better but doesnt mean you HAVE TO. dont worry about your voltage dude its not a problem unless it goes below like 8 volts, then youll have a problem. you are in good shape!!!

TAPOUT

Don't let the voltage drop below 12.66 volts. That is what the battery should be sitting at when off. If you are getting lower voltage than that, then you may have a bad cell in your battery. Each of the cells is good for 2.11 volts, 6 cells, you get the math. The underdrive pulleys usually only are about 10-15% smaller, and you get your power from weight reduction, not so much from size change. If you are burning out electronics, you need to find out why. Low voltage is a common problem. Most car electronics are designed to operate between 11-15 volts, those are the average tolerances capable of resistors, transistors, and other pieces that go into making products for the car. Any time your voltage is out of that range, you are risking damage to that piece. You wouldn't put 87 octane gas in your 13:1 compression engine, would you?

vfast

just go to a 140 amp alt. and with the pulley you double the life of the alt and maybe 1-2 hp gain

roundman

I used underdrive pulleys on my alternator when I still drove the car on the street and the only time it was a little low charging is when you are idling, which shouldn't be the majority of the time unless you're using it as a taxi! As long as the volts come up when you get to 1000 rpms, you'll be fine with what you have unless you have some big *** stereo system sucking up all the juice!