Airflite40

Great news Tim!

Has the idle dropped to a normal speed or is it still high??

SteveG

11.9V standing is not good. The 14V running is good, but you are going to get stranded. If this is on a new battery, you have a drain. There are many threads here re parasitic drain, battery cut off switch and trickle charger.

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

I think Steve was correct. With the alternator out you had a huge drain, the car. Now the battery although new, needs to be charged. The alternator will do this but a battery charger would be better and easier on the new alternator.
Good luck,

85fortheDrive

I know the battery is running at less than full charge because I was running on a dud alternator on the way home from Dave M's last weekend. I thought the alternator would charge the battery back up, but I'm hearing that a charger would be better. So I will try and charge the battery this evening so as to eliminate that remaining variable about starting voltage.

Thanks, Steve, for the idea here.
Dave, planning on seeing you Saturday afternoon with the boys in tow.

Peace,
Tim

Alan

I think the car is quite capable of charging this battery... seems like it has been doing so already (14v) so not much concern at this point. That the battery is at 11.9 v before starting is the concern (is it still after running a while & shutting down?). It should be at 12.6v-12.8v with no load. That is isn't suggests its very poorly charged, that a cell is dead/damaged (but the voltage is too high for that) or that there is in fact a load on it.

It can be charged pretty easily either on or off the car, if the 11.9v is still repeatable after charging it seems further investigation is needed.

Alan

85fortheDrive

Alan:

I commuted with the car today (about 60 miles) and just went out to check voltage at the post with no key in the ignition. It read 12.6V .

So I'm going to hope that this signifies a recharging of the battery (which is new) and that there is not a drain.

Thanks!
Tim