[T3] Question on my 73 T-3 Square back . Charging system.

William J catnine09 at dslextreme.com
Mon Jul 2 17:30:22 PDT 2018


 Bob :
All the lights are the same brightness . In 2012 I was hit by a red light 
runner . The green light just came on for me and I was barely moving and he 
caught my right front bumper guard . The body shp removed the right front 
fender , it was not damaged they did it to gain access to the right ft 
bumper braket mount to pull the front body to the right by a 1/2". I had the 
headlamp bucket out because they didn't bend the three tabs back that hold 
the bucket in place by three screws . I checked the grounds at the plug and 
had a good ground.

 I just find it odd that with just the park lamps on the VDO voltmeter reads 
so low even when the engine rpm is over 2000 . It's just tails lights , dash 
and front park and added to this are the 4 extra bulbs for the 4 gauges I 
added. I added the volt meter much later simply because I wanted to at least 
have some idea what the charging system was doing volt wise. I do know in 
2006 driving at night it didn't dive down to close to battery voltage @ 2000 
to 2500 rpm . If I have just the wipers on no lights it doesn't drop . I've 
cleaned the fuse box where the fuses contact . I cleaned the gen terminals 
and reg terminals the head light switch terms and 4 way . and changed the 
gen brushes a while back and the voltage didn't improve one bit. It's fine 
with no lights on and it used to be . In fact I don't recall the volt meter 
ever dropping down close to battery voltage at idle even though the idle was 
the same before as it is now.

 Here's the part that gets me . since the gen is 2.3 times the rpm of the 
engine idle speed and Bentley references this at 850 rpm engine the gen is 
turning 1950 rpm . My idle being an auto trans sits at around 1000 rpm then 
after the electic ARR closes say 950. Yet the AAR lately takes longer to 
close so most times on short trips in drive it's at closr to 1000 rpm. This 
relates to a gen speed of 2500 rpm , by all rights the gen should be 
charging yet they go by engine rpm . When I had the lights on the engine rpm 
did not drop.

 I know you said you never checked your voltage when you replaced a batt in 
your sons car . Before the autozone battery died in 2015 I never checked it 
either then when I got the interstate battery the first one was fine yet 
interstate told me it should be higher than 13.5 volts after surface charge 
was gone the so they gave me another that ended up leaking not the one in 
the car reads at best 12.7 most times it's 12.5 . I don't recall this issue 
until I put in this last battery and called interstates distributor who 
supplie the firestone dealer I got these from and was told 12.5 is what it 
should be . I can't say yet it seems like a 1.5 volt drop may present the 
issue I see now.

 I'm  just trying to make sense of all of this. Every battery I had in there 
was an interstate before the autozone and when a battery was going what I 
noticed at night was my radio would cut in and out at idle so I turned it 
off drove 7 miles from work to home stopped at McD's and in the drive 
through the engine quit. The big mistake I amke was buying into maint free 
as in never add water well now I check it that's how I found the one that 
leaked . When I didn't check I found the level below the plates so I killed 
the battery. Same thing happened with the autozone batt they told me not to 
check the covers don't come off. Well they do and the auto zone was well 
below the plates.

 Some where something is wrong . I get the same voltage at the fuse box 
where I have the voltmeter connected all the gauges are off a relay I added 
years ago . I used the # 9 fuse because on a 73 that is just the key warning 
buzzer and nothing else . I check there and it read the same as the battery 
no drop there . I never did check with the lights on so that's where I need 
to begin and go from there.

 William
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bobnotch" <bobsnotch at aol.com>
To: <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2018 10:38 AM
Subject: Re: [T3] Question on my 73 T-3 Square back . Charging system.


> I'm wondering if this could also be a grounding issue at the headlights 
> (which also feed the parking lights).
> When we were working on my son's t-3, we were having a grounding issue on 
> the left front fender. While the parking lights were good, the headlight 
> and side marker light were a little dim.
> Cleaned the ground connections, and everything returned to normal. We also 
> cleaned up the rear light grounds too, just to be thorough. His car does 
> need more electrical work done to it, but part of that is from the changes 
> we made last year, and never got around to finishing.
> In his case however, he's got a type 4 engine in it, with an alternator 
> which charges the battery at idle, which is nice. :-)
> Bob
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William J <catnine09 at dslextreme.com>
> To: type3 <type3 at vwtype3.org>
> Sent: Sun, Jul 1, 2018 9:25 pm
> Subject: Re: [T3] Question on my 73 T-3 Square back . Charging system.
>
>
> I don't have any of those issues . I did check the battery voltage today
> and it was 12.32 volts so I put it on the charger @ 2 amp charge setting 
> on
> the timer for a 3 hour charge . I have not charged it for some time. As an
> aside my voltage regulator is the Bosch electronic type and I read 14.3
> volts when @2000 rpm engine speed.
>
> I am going to hook up my DVOM at the battery once the Battery is near it's
> top end charge which seems to be 12.7 volts then run the engine and turn 
> on
> the lights and see what I've got at the battery . That should tell me if
> it's a voltage drop to the fuse box . If it reads low at the gauge as it
> did last night then I will add the lead from battery B+ to the relay as 
> you
> suggested . I may just run a wire over the carpet to the relay before I
> spend time on a permanet install just to see how it reacts. One other bit 
> I
> forgot to mention . I noticed when I just had the park lamps on engine
> running the gauge read the same as when I had the headlamps on at idle . 
> Not
> long ago I had the headlamp switch out as well as the 4 way and cleaned 
> all
> the terninals on both and checked for loose connections and after I didn't
> see any change as in it still read the same at the VDO volt meter. I also
> checked voltage drop ground side and the only place I saw any drop at the
> engine was the coil there I had a 1 volt drop . I checked both positive 
> and
> negative voltage drop and the coil were both 1 volt. I checked the battery
> posts and to the battery to reg red/white and all was fine.
>
> William
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Adney" <jadney at vwtype3.org>
> To: <type3 at vwtype3.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2018 3:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [T3] Question on my 73 T-3 Square back . Charging system.
>
>
>> On 1 Jul 2018 at 12:53, William J wrote:
>>
>>> So @ 2000 rpm engine speed no load voltage test connected as above Reg
>>> B+ voltage should read 13.5 -14.5 .
>>
>> Assuming we're working with a charged battery, under those conditions the
>> voltage should be 14.1 - 14.4 V. The variation reflects the calibration
>> and
>> wear of the voltage regulator.
>>
>> If this voltage is lower than 14.1 V, the voltage regulator is worn,
>> there's
>> something wrong with the generator, or the battery is discharged. If the
>> battery is discharged, continue the test to see if the voltage comes up 
>> as
>> the
>> battery gets charged.
>>
>> If this voltage is higher than 14.4 V, the voltage regulator is faulty
>> (out of
>> calibration) or the DF wire has a short to ground.
>>
>> --
>> *******************************
>> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
>> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
>> *******************************
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> VWType3.Org mailing list - type3 at vwtype3.org
>> To unsubscribe or change subscription options, visit:
>> http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
>> If you need more help, contact: gregm at vwtype3.org
>>
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> VWType3.Org mailing list - type3 at vwtype3.org
> To unsubscribe or change subscription options, visit:
> http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
> If you need more help, contact: gregm at vwtype3.org
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL: 
> <http://lists.vwtype3.org/pipermail/type3-vwtype3.org/attachments/20180702/859ef815/attachment.html>
> _______________________________________________
> VWType3.Org mailing list - type3 at vwtype3.org
> To unsubscribe or change subscription options, visit:
> http://lists.vwtype3.org/listinfo.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org
> If you need more help, contact: gregm at vwtype3.org
> 




More information about the type3-vwtype3.org mailing list