charging problems

[Guest]

all the way from Europe!!! (denmark-scandinavia)

got a buick regal v8 301.

the generator is new 61 amp and the bat is new. the damn thing wont charge the bat enough - like when i use the wipers and stuff the [censored] gets drained then hittin the gas it charges a little again- whats wrong??

does anybody know if the 60 amp gen. the stock-size??

[Guest imported_NikeAjax]

It could be your battery; try a differnt kind/brand--really! I had a battery that was new (Exide brand)but wouldn't charge to save its life: if I used the lights, oh say, to drive home at night, and had to do something like, stop at a light in traffic for too long, it would almost kill the car; so pulling it out of gear and keeping the RPM's up was all I could do besides STRESS OUT! Then if I used my blinkers at any time during this period, I could watch things dim at the same rate the blinker was going.

Good luck,

Jay

[NTX5467]

Have you had a mechanic shop run a load check on the entire charging system? That will tell you what the alternator's doing in the car instead on an auto supply test bench. When you do that, you can check things right then and there to see where potential problem areas might be (i.e., poor or degraded connections).

Could be that even a new battery can have a flaky cell in it for some reason. If the new battery was on there with the old alternator, that might have caused something inside to flake out too. If the circuit through the battery has too much resistance for whatever reason, it can limit the alternator's effective output and also work the alternator hard enough for it to overheat and "die" too.

Those older Delco alternators are easy to rebuild. Many times, all it takes is a new regulator and diode trio to make them "new" again.

Also, as those alternators cool from the front to the back, make sure the rear air intake holes in the back casting are not obstructed in any way--especially with a heater hose close by. The regulator mounts back there and is the first thing to be cooled. If the regulator overheats or "cooks", then there goes the output! Even the highest quality alternator will have a short life if it can't keep cool--happened to me with must a mis-routed heat hose and to others where the cooling air intake duct on particular applications is missing.

Just some thoughts . . .

NTX5467