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Acid leaking from battery

8K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  Mo Cruze 
Battery test result: voltage 12.58 volt. Measured 811 CCA. Rated 730 CCA. Temperature 106 degrees Fahrenheit

Charging system test result: no load 15.17 volt 2.9 amp. loaded 14.59volt 1.9 amp. Ripple 44mv

Starter test results: voltage 11.51. Amps 132.2 ttime 2.26 seconds
At 106*F your no load charging voltage should be no greater than 14.2V, 15.17V is way too high, you are overcharging, sounds like your field transistor is partially shorted.

All I can say as about nine years ago, no longer made in the USA, made in China someplace.

They no longer replace the voltage regulator, just replace the entire alternator.

Looks like you have two problems, the alternator and the battery, like Robby said, should not be leaking at that terminal, does have vents. If you had caps, would learn the electrolyte is low.

China does not have to put up with the EPA, OSHA. ERA. the IRS, high property tax bills, and chipping in with high health insurance cost, so can outbid us buy a penny a unit. Also a 40 hour week with vacation and holiday days off. So another nice factory gathering dust. Consumer pays the price.
 
Only time I would see greater than 15 volts is when the ambient temperature was like -30*F, perfectly normal regulator is temperature compensated at -13.5 millivolts per degree Celsius. When the temperature goes down, that voltage goes up.

But may not be the alternator at all, it must be able to sense the battery terminal voltage. With mine, could not do this, both the positive and negative battery terminals were crimped on bare copper wire, copper oxide, ever here of a copper oxide rectifier? Was use for over 60 years before solid state came out.

I soldered those connections on mine, solved a bunch of problems just using a DVM checking for voltage drops when under load. Even the alternator mounting can be a problem, aluminum oxide, also a good insulator, wire brush cures this, and even some silicon grease to help retard corrosion.

Computers are a problem, require a good power on reset, program counter has to be set to zero to start reading code from the beginning or get all kinds of strange codes.

Ha, SAE Engineering had a series of articles on this subject, all common sense, should look into the food industry, can toss an aluminum pop can in a ditch, looks like new ten years later. Over 500 different alloys of aluminum, some are good, others are not so good.

First rule in getting good electrical connections is to never use dissimilar metals, causes electrolysis, ha, this rule is broken a zillion times.
 
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