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Re: Are you sure?(car started - for 5 minutes! Need battery!)

To: <dresden@tiac.net>, "MG List" <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Are you sure?(car started - for 5 minutes! Need battery!)
From: Larry Macy <macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 09:18:26 -0400
>Those voltages don't sound possible for a battery that actually runs the
>engine, but I guess it must be (I'm assuming you had a good ground for the
>voltmeter...if not, it will read very low). Most 12V batteries have next to
>nothing for current somewhere around 9-10 volts. And if it died while it
>was going back to your place under its own power, it probably *is* a
>problem with the charging system (i.e. generator or associated wires).
>Here's what probably happened...you charged it enough so that it would
>start, and the battery was able to run the engine for a while, but ran down
>while on the way home...if your charging system is working properly, I'd
>expect the car to keep running as long as you don't shut it off...so don't
>chuck that battery yet.
This isn't exactly true. It might be if there were no other load on the 
electrical system. The car needs 6 volts to run. However there are gauges 
etc that also are electric (on the 79 anyway). If the battery falls below 
six volts and the car is running solely on the alternator, eventually the 
alternator will give up the ghost. Usually someplace between Gettysburg 
and Front Royal. At least that was my experience. 

Larry

Larry Macy
78 Midget

Keep your top down and your chin up

Larry B. Macy, Ph.D.
macy@bblmail.psycha.upenn.edu
System Administrator/Manager
Neuropsychiatry Section
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
3400 Spruce St. - 1015 Gates
Philadelphia, PA 19104


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