Seems like the alternator is fine. You appear to have over 1 volt of loss
between the alternator & battery though. I'd beef up this connection. Add
some well-routed heavy-gauge wiring from the B+ Alt. terminal to the battery
+.
Even so, 13.2 is hardly a "dead" battery. If the voltage stays at 13.2
minimum, the vehicle should never fail to start. Assuming a good battery,
you could be dealing with a bad starter or the associated circuitry.
-Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: "chrislee51" <chrislee51@comcast.net>
To: <peugeot-L@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 8:39 PM
Subject: [Peugeot-L] 504D 79 Charging Problem
> Maybe I spoke a little too soon when I said "it works fine" regarding
> my new alternator.
>
> The car in question is my '79 504 Diesel, 4-sp. manual.
>
> The in-dash charging indicator drops down into the red whenever the
> engine idles with the headlights on, and if any accessories (heater
> fan, wipers, etc.) are on in addition to the headlights, the indicator
> drops into the red even with the car at cruising speed, on the freeway.
>
> I swapped in a known good battery from my other 504 and cleaned the
> battery terminal connections, but there was no improvement.
>
> I measured negligible or zero resistance between the alt body and
> engine block, alt body and batt -terminal, alt +terminal and batt
> +terminal, alt +terminal and starter solenoid +terminal, and starter
> solenoid +terminal and battery +terminal. With the engine at idle, no
> accessories on, I measured ~15V at alt and 14.7v at batt and the in-
> dash charging indicator read normal. With the engine at idle, all
> accessories on, I measured ~14.5V at alt and ~13.2V at batt and the in-
> dash charging indicator was into the red. With the engine at 1500rpm,
> all accessories on, I measured ~15.5V at alt and ~15V at batt, but the
> in-dash indicator was well into the red. During all these tests, the
> voltages measured between alt body & engine block, alt body & battery -
> terminal, and alt +terminal and batt +terminal were all negligible,
> well under 1V.
>
> It seems to me that the charging system is healthy, but the car was
> behaving this way when I bought it, and slowly got worse and worse
> until the alt would not charge the battery even at freeway speeds. I
> drove it from CA to WA like this. I had to roll-start the car one
> morning on that trip, because the battery didn't have the juice to
> turn the engine over. Thankfully, diesels only need electricity to
> keep the fuel solenoid open and, of course, for accessories and lights.
>
> Anyway, there is obviously something that I need to learn about
> charging systems. Could my voltage regulator be bad? Or is the in-
> dash thermal voltmeter being a liar? It seemed accurate on that first
> long trip, doing a good job of telling me that I was not charging my
> battery!
>
> Thanks for all your suggestions!
>
> Chris Lee
> Seattle, WA
> '78 504D
> '79 504D
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Feb 1 20:47:41 2006
