Can I test the amps from my alternator like this?

[Soundguy]

I agree.. 14.7 is a realistic max.. I have seen some specs that will say 15v and down.. but if it is putting out 15+ the battery will boil.. 14.4 would be ideal IMHO

soundguy

 

[rsmith02184]

ok....so if i test the voltage at the battery, it should be less than 14.5 or I should replace the VR.

Is it okay if I test the voltage at the battery rather than closer to the VR?

 

[Soundguy]

by all means, test at the battery. in modern automotive systems, there is so much harness, and some of the wire is small that there are v-drops.. thus systems incorporate a sense line to the vreg to charge at a higher V so the battery see's full charge V.

soundguy

 

[Transit]

ok....so if i test the voltage at the battery, it should be less than 14.5 or I should replace the VR.

Is it okay if I test the voltage at the battery rather than closer to the VR?

Testing across the battery terminals is the most accurate; it is what the battery sees. Testing at the VR and the voltage will be a few 1/10 s higher due to voltage drops in the wiring.
If you see 15+v at the VR output and 14.5 at the battery, look for more bad connections and small gauge wire.

 

[jinman]

Your battery may be a bit weak and need charging. Before you write an obituary for your VR, let it charge the battery at 15v for awhile and see if it drops down. I have a battery charger that routinely puts out 15 volts on the low current scale. Also, make all your readings at your battery as everyone else has said.

 

[rsmith02184]

thank you to everyone for helping with this problem. your help was key to solving this problem.

i can't say for sure whether or not the problem is completely solved as I haven't had any time to get out to the garage to test the tractor again. so i am sure i will post again to update you.

thanks again

 

[Steve_Miller]

It's been an interesting thread and helpful one for a lot of people. Looking back, when you first noticed the wire warm or hot, did you take notice how far down the wire the heat went or did it go the whole length of the wire? Hind sight is always 20/20 but for future reference, if the loose connection was your problem most of the heat you were feeling was probably being generated at that point and traveling down the wire, so you may have been able to trace it back to that connection right off. Yes, it led to other problems as well but the signs were there, we just didn't pick up on them, as I said hindsight is always 20/20. Just another tidbit of information to store in memory. I had one of these moments at work this morning trying to troubleshoot a screen heater, I was on the wrong track right off the bat and circled back to the problem eventually.

Steve

 

[Soundguy]

, we just didn't pick up on them, Steve

um.. not really... as far back as post 21, and many times thereafter people mentioned checking for bad wires / bad connections.

in post 120 I specificvally mentioned bad wire connectors, crimp connectors and bad connections hidden or otherwise..

soundguy

 

[rsmith02184]

i only noticed the heat at the VR coming in from the alternator wires but i never felt them up by the alternator. like i said, this may have been part of the problem but it also may have become loose the many times i disconnected it to take readings at the alternator. so, sad to say, this could not turn out to be the real problem. we'll have to see.

i did definitely see that post about loose or bad connections but i didn't know how to test for that. i did a continuity test and a ground test and both came back as fine.

thanks again everyone

 

[Soundguy]

that reply wasn't specifically directed at you.. it was just going over the fact that lots of possibilities were pointed out along the way while we were trying to diagnose the issue.. just nothing stood out as a glaring cause of the problem. It's not like some facet of the diagnostics were entirely skipped or blindly ignored by anybody.. you or anybody else. every now and then you just run into problems that are hard to pin down... compound problems ar ethe trickiest.. as this one may or may not turn out to be.

all we know so far is that the loose wire was either the problem, or a part of the problem.

soundguy