Re: 49 touring sedan charging issue???

Posted by HH56 On 2014/2/6 23:34:06

The ammeter action depends a lot on the state of the battery and the speed of the engine. With a fully charged battery, after the starter is used and the car starts, at a steady over idle or cruising RPM typically you will see a fairly good charge rate for a few minutes until the battery is brought back up. Once that is done, as long as there is only a modest draw then the rate typically is just slightly to the charge side and is relatively steady. If there are a lot of high current accessories being used such as the headlights, heater or radio then the charge rate will be higher -- with all those on at the same time, it could be up to the maximum the generator will output. Generally the needle is still on the steady side -- possibly an occasional flicker if something is switched on.

The voltage dropping down so low when cranking is generally indicative of a battery or cable that is too small -- or a high resistance connection somewhere and even a cell failing in the battery. Dropping that low, I'm amazed the car will start at all. Generally if the voltage at the coil goes much below 4.5v the spark is so weak as to be almost non existent.

The important thing for those large engines is to have proper cables -- 0 or 00 gauge for 6volts -- and to get the largest CCA capacity battery you can fit in the holder. Some of us have even had to widen the holder slightly to fit todays available batteries. The long case batteries are not that plentiful but several have given the Exide 3EH with 850CCA available from Tractor Supply decent reviews. The Optima is recommended by others. Napa has a long case listing and some have used and recommend it. Personally, I think their 7205 at only 620CCA might be a bit on the marginal side. I don't know if they still carry any others that might be larger.