i got a problem with my battery not charging its sitting at 9.15 and slowly drops if i pull the wire to the volt reg. it will go up to 9.4 still drops and ive replaced the battery with an optima i replaced the alt and it was the same so the alt is okay and replaced the volt reg. Has anyone had this problem before or got any ideas what this might be or know of any week spots in the wiring?

cheers, kurtis

 

A battery @ 9.15v is severely depleted. Charge it and check the alternator again. In the past I've gone through a few "quality" alternators before I found a good one.

 

+1 A chargedbattery should reaad around 12v

 

A good battery will have 12.5 volts or little below that. Make sure your hot wire is tight. And if you can check and see if you are getting voltage coming out of the alt.
Make sure you have clean post and terminals. It's a wonder that it runs with that little volts.

 

well the battery died before it didn't get charged but when the cars running shouldn't the battery read 12+ because the alt is running?

 

yah. a battery in running engine can show up to about 14V.
easiest test to see if the charging system is ok is to have the battery charged (in any way or borrow good known one from different car). start the engine, let run in idle
disconnect the minus cable directly at the battery. if the engine keeps running you're getting a charge. If the engine dies instantly you are not getting any charge.
If that's the case then you'll need to troubleshoot the alternator and the wiring.
Maybe you just have a groundstrap missing.
Lets sasy from battery- to chassis or to the engine block

if you're having 9V+ over battery while engine is running, then try as follows:
take a jump lead. connect BOTH cables to the battery- (will be awkward)
connect one end to a blank spot on chassis
connect te other end to blank spot on engine block. If it shows 12V then while idling you've found your problem.
(removing the cable again one by one)

Kalli

 

so you got positive negative on the battery and postive negtive on the chasis and engine? does this test for fualty ground?

 

I'm thinking maybe your regulator is bad. Check to see if you have power at the "i" terminal of the regulator. If you do measure voltage at the battery, take a small jumper wire and connect it from the "i" term to the "f" term and see if the voltage goes up. (car running) If the voltage goes up, the regulator is bad. Don't keep jumper on for too long as this causes your alter. to put out max power.

 

No. sorry misunderstanding
battery has a postive and a negative port.
the chassis must be grounded properly (connected to battery-)
the engine block must be grounded properly (connected to battery-)
don't connect battery+ to block or chassis. you'll fry
and yes. this tests for faulty ground

connect battery- to engine block
connect battery- to chassis

if you check there should already be straps doing that, but they might be dodgy/rust/whatever

kalli

 

I had a similar issue. I replaced the alternator, battery, and voltage regulator and still had problems. I finally broke down and rewired the alternator and regulator. When I did that everthing started working. My bet is you have a broken wire somewhere if you have already replace those three things. The battery should read 14.6v or so if everything is working right when the car is running. Get a wiring diagram of the alternator/regulator. Mine had 4 or 5 connectors. One ended up being broken which caused the alternator to not put out any voltage.