Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth Menace
Okay, so this is correct and the alternator should function as designed, although not ideal.
My car has a hard time starting, but I am thinking that is due to the crap crap crap carb and a somewhat weak battery (I had it tested and it got about 500CCA), so winter starting sure wasn't ideal. That being said once the car starts, it does continue to run and doesn't die out like when the alternator is pooched. So I think (famous last words) my alternator is all good.
|
yes, a simple test on the alternator is to get a voltmeter, (can get cheap ones at Harbor Freight for like $3 during their non-stop sales). With the car running you should see about 14.5 volts. Nothing that you've described sounds like a bad alternator anyways so this test would just be piece of mind that it's charging correctly. I have no experience with one wire alts other than knowing your idiot light is cut out of the circuit and won't function. I also didn't know that they don't start charging until you blip the throttle to exceed 1200rpms. Here's a link to nice description of the differences between the 1 and 3 wire alts.
http://bob_skelly.home.comcast.net/~...ternator1.html