Jerad J. Heffner wrote:
>
> We have a '92 Dakota 4x4 3.9L V6. Our problem: the battery, a Sears Die
> Ray Heffner
One of two things is happening, the battery is being discharged perhaps
when you think every thing is off, or the battery is not being
suffeciently charged. If you have an ammeter, put it in seriees with one
of the batttery terminals, when you think everything is off. There
should be very little current flow, only for devices such as the clock,
keep alive memory for the radio etc. It certainly should be less than
one amp. Any cheap multimeter will do the trick. Do not turn on any high
current consumers such as headlights, starter, etc. while you have the
meter in series with one of the battery leads. You might try the dome
light just to be sure you are measureing things properly and you should
see one to two amps of current. Reverse the meter leads if it reads
backwards, not a problem with digital meter.
If all checks out then your battery no doubt is not being charged. If
your battery is working for a while and then dying, I suspect it is low
alternator output, caused by things such as loose alternator belt, bad
diode(s) in the alternator, defective regulator, high resistance
cable(s) or connections, etc. Easiest way to check is to put a
DC voltmeter across the battery with the engine running. With a load on
the battery, such as headlamps, heater blower, the voltage (remember to
switch to voltage mode on your multimeter please) at the battery
terminals should be between 13.5 and 14 volts. This is not a conclusive
test, and can be fooled by such things as high internal resistance in
the battery, but I think you have ruled that out. I also seriously doubt
that the starter was bad as long as the engine cranks OK with a good
battery.
Try these out and if no luck give me an e-mail with your results.
roger
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:28 EDT