Older 350B not charging battery (drawing down)

[JAY AND EBBEN]

My guess is that the details to trouble shoot this problem are somewhere on this site but I cannot seem to find them. Our story is a sad one... my father-in-law died last fall while hiking - he left his wife alone with a full working farm. Then my dad was killed a few weeks after. We are doing our best to keep moving forward. I am hoping someone can help with this problem. I know I can pull the alternator to have it checked but right now the bills are coming too fast and I want to know the less expensive route to fix this.

In an effort to do things right, and be sure the systems were all ok before we ran the machine much, my son and I put a digital meter on the battery while the dozer was running and it clearly showed it was discharging (from a previous full charge). When we turned off the ignition the battery slowly climbs back toward its state prior to it's running draw down. I am somewhat familiar with alternators/regulators but I am not sure about the simple field tests I can do to trouble shoot this. Any ideas? We would very much appreciate it! The crawler is a 350B - very early seventies in think.

Jay and Ebben

 

[JAY AND EBBEN]

The crawler is a diesel, if it makes any difference.

Can anybody point me to (or forward to us) a PDF schematic of the electrical system? I have looked for a while and came up with a page but I really can't read it, it is too blurry.

 

[jenkinsph]

Very sorry about your losses, I am sure both will be missed.


About the alternator, the cheapest thing to do is to pull it and have it checked at the parts store such as NAPA, this would be a free service. If it is bad then see what they want for a rebuilt one.

These 350B's were very simple electric systems the chances are very high the alternator or loose fan belt is the culprit.

 

[Zebrafive]

Worn brushes, dirty slip rings or bad diodes are most likely cause.