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Re: How long run if car not charging at all?

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: How long run if car not charging at all?
From: Dave1massey@cs.com
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:57:11 EDT
Steve Newel wrote:
> >Kid stuff! I once drove home from Broomfield, CO to Littleton, CO -- 
> >about an hour -- with a failed alternator and completely dead battery. 
> >The car was a 1976 ... any guesses?
> 

A friend with a TR6 had his Alternator go out one a marathon drive.  He drove 
it an hour and a half to the hotel, started it up to go to dinner, started it 
up again to go back to the hotel and started it up in the morning and drive 
three hours home (with at least two more starts on the way back.  All on the 
charge in the battery.

Do the math.  On an old TR with the heater off, lights out the only load is 
the ignition (1 amp) and maybe the overdrive (another amp).  Most batteries are 
40 Amp-Hours.  That means it would take 20 hours to discharge a battery at 
that rate.  Driving 5 hours on a battery in one of these cars is no challenge.

If you have an electric fan, mega-stereo and electronic fuel injection you 
may not get that far.

Dave


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