Ooops, guess I only sent this to Mark and not the entire list.
Roland
----- Original Message -----
The voltage regulator was only a one time issue. Prior to that I always had
the original stock '60s vintage Borg Warner regulator. The reason I replaced
it was that I had to have the alternator rebuilt. It's always been my
practice to replace the voltage regulator whenever I replaced an alternator,
since often a failed alternator is the result of a failed voltage regulator.
I suspect the original voltage regulator, which I still have, is probably
okay. I never had any of the previous batteries fail in a manner similar to
what I experienced with the one time Optima problem. They just had slow
deaths. Most commonly after a while they would no longer hold a charge. In
one case a battery developed and internal short and sprayed acid all over the
engine compartment. Took lots of baking soda to recover from that.
IMO, it was the batteries that were junk. Sears batteries, GM batteries, etc.
Roland
----- Original Message -----
From: CoolVT@aol.com
Roland,
Did you determine that over the years that the batteries you were buying
were junk or were all of the problems caused by the defective voltage
regulator?
Mark L
In a message dated 7/23/2010 9:28:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
csx2282@sonic.net writes:
Thought I'd pass along my battery tale.
Over the years I've purchased numerous new batteries for my car which
doesn't
get driven much. None
of them lasted more than two or three years so I kept trying different
brands
and finally purchased a Red
Top Optima at a Pep Boys' store. A few weeks after the purchase I turned
the
key to the start position, but no
cranking sound; in fact no sound at all. The battery connections were
all
snug and clean, so I measured
the voltage across the battery terminals- 1.5V. Had my multimeter died?
I
measured the voltage across
the terminals of one of my other cars- 12.6V. Sigh.
I eventually tracked the problem to a short in a solid state voltage
regulator
I had installed a year or
so earlier in place of the original electro-mechanical unit. Much to my
surprise, I found a Borg Warner
electro-mechanical regulator at Pep Boys which, except for the color of
the
cover, looked like the original.
So at least that problem was taken care of.
I asked around about the likelihood of the Optima being resurrected. The
general consensus was that it was
a total goner. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I connected an el cheapo
Midlands trickle charger to it that I
had bought at a Whitefront store in the '70s. After several days of
charging
it was up to about 11V.
Initially I was charging in stages because the charger got really hot
after
half hour or so. But at this point it
seemed to be maintaining a reasonable temperature so I left it connected
full
time. The good news was that
the charge was holding. Eventually it reached a high enough voltage that
I
felt it was worth a trying to crank
the engine. The car started right up and I let the alternator do the rest
of
the charging.
That was at least 5 years ago and the Optima still cranks the starter
faster
than any other battery I've ever had in
the car. I do use a Battery Tender Junior to maintain the charge between
drives.
I still see Optimas at Pep Boys stores and also some COSTCO stores.
Batteries
Plus sell Battery Tenders,
though they're probably a bit cheaper on-line.
Roland
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