[T3] Endlesss Problems...another update...

[Jim Adney]

On 11 Dec 2010 at 16:54, J. Jonik wrote:

> Same ol'  72 engine, FI, Std. Sqbk--
> 
> Working on Charging System, Battery, Generator, Volt Regulator etc.
> 
> --  Battery voltage (hooked to charger) over 13.90 v charging at 10 amps.
> -- Put it on 2 amps (slow charge) for a day....reading 12.90 at start. After that day it was DOWN to 12.82.  What's that about?  

That's the nature of the beast. I gather you were expecting a simple 
answer with a single voltage. Sorry, but the answer is not so simple.

> - No matter. Put the battery into the car.. 
>  Across battery check at that upper 13.90 or so v.

You must have checked this either with the charger still connected, 
or very soon (well under an hour) after disconnecting the charger. 
That gives an abnormally high reading. A fully charged, resting 
battery will measure in the mid 12s.

> - Check at generator (D+ and ground) in the required range...and it
> went up when revved. 

Went up to what?

> - Check at fuse box...also in the over 12.00 range, and went UP when
> engine turned on and revved a bit...thus indicating that Charging
> System works...right? 

Yes, working to some extent. Went up to what voltage?

>   So....I'll keep a record of voltages to see if there's any changes. 
> If it gets lower day by day, that means ...what.... ?   Still, what
> did I "fix"? 

No point in keeping this record. How about following the step by step 
instructions I sent you and posting the results? That will give us 
all the info we need.

>  So....what did we find out?  What's been fixed, if anything?

We're pretty certain that your battery was badly discharged when you 
started this, but we don't know why. You need to finish the 
troubleshooting process I sent you if you want to figure out what the 
underlying problem is.

>  By the way, dist. rotor tip always seems to need brightening up. I
> put it in nice and golden, and a day later it's got dark film on it
> that comes off easily.

The rotor tip and the contacts inside the cap don't need to be clean. 
The spark has to jump about a 1 mm airgap there anyway and no amount 
of dirt will make that any harder. It probably makes it a little 
easier. Leave it alone. Every time you scrape the dirt off you're 
just removing a bit of metal and making the airgap wider.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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