Alternator and Battery Charging Issues

[wrp]

I went out two nights ago and noticed my sniper display said the battery charging voltage was downto 11.5. I turned to head back to the house but before I got there it had dropped to 6.5 and at 6.5 everything shut down. I had to push the damned car nearly a mile back to the house. Only time in the last 25 years I have not minded living in Texas. So I took the battery down to have it tested. It was an Optima from April 2016 (I highly expected it to be the problem). Battery was fine. I took the alternator down to have it tested. It was charging. That was puzzling until I looked at the power leads going into the alternator. They were charred and brittle (yes, I am stupid). There was a lot of corrosion on the alternator post. I cleaned that off and replaced the wires. Started the car up and it was charging 14.1-14.6. Cool. Let it sit 24 hours and started it, 14.1-14.6, cool. Then I decided to drive it. I looked away and when I looked back it was 13.1-13.6. I turned around and came home immediately. Checked the wires and the nut holding the wires to the alternator had become loose. The end connection was hot. Friend told me that when the connection becomes loose that allows sparking between the terminal and the wires leading to corrosion, heat and all the fun. So I recleaned the terminal post and reinstalled the wires using a second locking nut to hold everything in plance. Moral of the story is a slight looseness in the wire connection to the Alternator can lower the charging significantly. This is a major issue with the Holley EFI. When the computer ain't happy, nobody is happy. This is a repost from another thread, moved it here for those searchingout these issues



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[j33ptj]

Yes!! You have to make sure these connections are tight!! I had the same in my Jeep where the connection to the PDB was loose. During a stop I noticed a burned smell coming from the engine, eventually traced it to this connection (that the cover had melted helped fidning it!). Very close to loosing the Jeep to engine fire! (never told my wife how close it was!!!).

[Kamp]

I had the same experience with the cable loosening and arcing, fortunately not enough voltage drop to shut everything down before I caught it. I had to rebuild the alternator end of the cable, this time used a heavy duty "lug", lock washer and tried to leave enough slack in the cable to allow some movement.