charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagonDidn't mean the batt is new out of the box ..
it's at least a month or a few old running in a van , It just looks very new. 
 I can hydrometer the cells to see if any are very different than the other. I have seen a faulty new battery before ....not for a long time though. 

I'll think about that .'alternator is charging the batt so hard .....it's causing that voltage drop' ....
I suppose so. 
Electrons can do whatever they want sometimes.

who has heard of a generator equipped car ( not alternator ) changing it's polarity  ?

I saw a case of it once. A gorgeous 59 Corvette I took care of for a few years. 
The customer calls up and says a stereo installation shop said it was positive ground ..
i.e. backwards polarity.

by golly it was. 
and somehow that can happen in a generator car .. it was 12 volts neg grnd.
and I don't know if they had the battery dead or what..
but somehow , it turned into a pos grnd car. I was right near a battery shop a the time ..
they buy the parts and materials and build the batteries right there.  They said they had seen that a time or two. 
 They also told of a brand new 12 battery, not theirs, that had been built with reverse polarity somehow ..
and when installed in a toyota it zapped the ecu. 
what fun.

I'll consider the battery more.  Seems stout in every way though. 
thanks. 
Scott
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Hargrave 
  To: 'Scott Daniel - Turbovans' ; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 9:01 PM
  Subject: RE: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon

  Seems normal to me. A new battery is never fully charged out of the box and it's sucking all the current it can from the alternator, causing a 0.4 volt drop across the cable, engine, ground strap and body.

   

  Tom

   

  From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of Scott Daniel - Turbovans
  Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 10:38 PM
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
  Subject: charing voltage to battery - 85 vanagon

   

  what does the collected wisom recommend ..
  on an 85 vanagon ..
  when there is 13.8 volts of charging ooomph at the alternator main terminal
  ...

  and only 13.4 at the (  new  ) battery .

   I look for at least 13.8 volts at the battery.  13.4 is low in my opinion.
  ( I  like to see 14 something at the battery actually )
  alternator appears to be a fairly fresh Bosch rebuilt.
  The van's always started ..especially with the old somewhat worn 1.9.  (
  manual trans ) ...

  on my own 85 Adventurewagon I got at least a half volt more to the battery
  with redundant batt cables added.
  I don't want to do that to this van.

  the 85 Vanagon has the  last year of the 'small' battery to starter cable of
  course .  86 is considerably fatter.

  trans ground cale looks good ..though I didn't take it apart.

  I'll post another note regarding stater.
  thanks !
  S,. 

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