Hold On

For some who remember, I had an alternator take a **** in El Paso, Texas back a few years ago on the way to OCIC in DFW. We changed it in a parking lot of a BBQ place in site of the border. It had managed to get stuck wide open voltage and cooked all the water out of the battery that filled the car with fumes that drove us out of it. We found an audi unit to swap in, and refilled the cooked battery with bottled water from the restuarant.

Yesterday going thru Flagstaff, AZ. (temp -6 degrees) that alternator finally stopped charging.My digital guage is droppin voltage. Now I`m 100 miles from home and running on the battery. I ran it ***** to the wall across the indian reservation trying to get as close to home as possible before it died. I got that car within 3 miles of my house before it stopped. Did get it home after swapping out another battery to limp it.

I put that Interstate Battery on my charger and charged it all day and overnight and it came right back up and loads just fine. Just wanted to say... that battery has been thru hell being cooked and drained and just doesn`t give up.

damm fine battery !!! lol. Now a new alternator....

Alan

You were lucky it was cold - no AC, fans not needed for cooling - saves you a lot of power.

Summertime with fans working hard would have been a different story - at night with AC on - much less still...

Do you have a shroud on the Alt? - given 2 dead in a few years I think it would be wise insurance (Arizona is pretty tough on alternators (between the heat and the dust....).

Alan

Leon Speed

Reminds me of one time we went off roading with a jeep, finally driving onto a desolated beach a few hours away from any residents to go for a swim. When we wanted to go there was silence as I turned the key. Uh-oh. Discovered the battery was not strapped down and had flipped over, leaking out all water. Luckily I had the brillant idea to melt the ice cubes in our cool box and use it to fill the battery. Waited 10 minutes and vrooom away we went.

c_span

OK that is some MacGyver thinking right there !

Hold On

Hey Alan, Your very right about fans and lights. No way i would have gotten that far. The one that crapped in Texas was the original and it did have the shroud all hooked up. This one was different and did not have shroud because it didn`t fit. I kept all that stuff and will be replacing it on the new one I purchase this week.