ferrariowner123 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Hello all, I have been on Hybrid for a little while for some newbie question while my dad owned a Z, but now that hes sick of how much work it needs, he went out and bought a Corvette, and i'm going to be buying the Z off him in about a week. I'm very excited, wanted this car since the day it showed up the house. IT's a 1977 280z with a couple of basic mods, but most importantly for me, is it euro bumpers, the diving boards ruin that car. At any rate, i'm having some electrical issues, that i would some assistance in solving. i'd like to think I've done alot of research on this, but there is a lot of contradicting information, specifically on what should be idling voltage at the battery. And im just looking for some more info on what i should do... But first, my problem! We have had this issue for quite a while, it appears that the alternator wasn't providing enough voltage to keep this battery charged. I found this out the hard when i tried to go on a three hour road trip to eastern Washington, and made it about a hour or so from my start point. What was in there was the battery the came with the car when we bought it, a POS o'rielly alternator (didn't know any better at the time), and some voltage regulator i bought to try and get the thing working from some brief research. Anyway, i managed to have a friend close by to where i broke down on my road trip, had the car towed there so i could work on it. I also had some parts ordered the next day from a local auto zone, where i also tested the O'Rielly alternator, it check out fine according to the,, so i bought the new regulator, and installed it. That morning however, i had stuck a 6 amp charger on it, and was on for probably a good six hours. After re-installing the alt and installing the regulator i finished my journey. The ride back is a different story, i tested the battery voltage at my uncles upon arriving in eastern Washington, it was reading around 13.8 ish voltage at the battery on idle. The gauge was reading in the range from what i could tell. However on my journey back it happened again, no power, no advance on the timing, began to back fire, and then it dies on the side of the road. Happily i was following my parents who turned around and we charged the battery using their car. We motored to another autozone, bought a new battery as the original tested Bad on the autozone battery testing thing. After the freshly charged battery went in, i made it all the way, probably another hour or so left in my journey. Drove it a couple of weeks later, same issue, not enough juice in the battery to keep in going. At this point i was getting really frustrated, and insisted to my dad that we buy a new, quality alternator after my other experience with another car, going through 3 o'rielly alt's in about 5 months. I also had him ask "Z-Man" who is somewhat local to my family in Washington, and he told a similar story with the awful quality of these alternators while they were chatting about some other Z related work he was doing for us. So my dad ordered a standard amperage remanufactured alt from Z man, Issue persisted. Z-Man had also hinted at the old fusible links being a common cause of electrical issues for the Z's. So i bought this and installed it in place of the old links. I had been trickle charging the battery when i decided to start working on this issues, so the battery had a good charge. After finishing the fusible link replacement, i started her up and with a volt meter on the battery, watched the voltage drop from 14.3 starting to about 13.81 in about 10 to 15 minutes of mainly idling and the occasional Rev to see if the alt would increase voltage, which it kinda did, at about 3k rpm's it went from 14.1 to 14.15. So this is kinda where i'm stuck. I have read that atleast one person ran a direct, thick gauge wire directed to the positive battery terminal with a high amp circuit breaker and have seen some improvement in voltage stability. But what would experts suggest i do at this point? I'm kinda wanting to drive the car while its nice out, but also wouldn't mind upgrading the alternator, after reading this article about the benefits of a high amp, idle stable alternator, i definitely want that. I also want to future proof this car as best as i can, as ill want to turbo it, at some point. So an alt that can handle a decent stereo, a stand alone ECU, and E-fans, is something i'm after. So yeah, that's my Z story, sorry for the big read. i try to include as much detail as i can so that maybe someone can identify any small thing i did or didn't do during my process. I'm sure i forgot something so please bare with me and ask question, i will provide as much detail as i can. Thanks in advance and looking forward to hearing from you guys! -Kyle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 You're assuming that this - " no power, no advance on the timing, began to back fire, and then it dies on the side of the road" - is caused by a dead or dying battery. Those aren't symptoms of a weak battery. You've probably been focusing on the wrong parts. 13.8 volts at idle and mid 14's above idle are typical for these systems. The numbers you posted look okay. Look elsewhere for your problem source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrariowner123 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Uhh, well is it related the the charging system? Because I'm even more confused now. Because it wouldn't turn over after each of these breakdowns, charge the battery up and poof the car works again, so your gonna have to spoon feed me this one if those symptoms are not caused by a low voltage battery. And maybe you miss read, because while I get that the numbers I posted are good, it's the fact they went from 14.1 to 13.8 in a matter minutes, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that means the battery is discharging, correct? -Kyle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 (edited) Surface charge. Misread - I'm not a woman and my last name's not Read. You didn't say that you waited and tried without charging the battery, and it didn't work. You assumed it was the battery and put it on charger. Not the same thing, you may have been charging a charged battery. In each case, the car sat and cooled off while you were focused on the battery and charging system. Word people would call the battery numbers a "red herring". You're fixing things that don't need fixing, while the real problem might be heat-related. Maybe. Reproduce the problem, let it cool without doing anything, see what happens. If you've already done that, write better. Could also be that you have a battery drain, which kills the battery after it sits for a while. This sentence doesn't make sense, but might be a clue - "Drove it a couple of weeks later, same issue, not enough juice in the battery to keep in going." Did you drive it, then a couple of weeks later it wouldn't start? Or did you drive it a couple of weeks later, then it wouldn't start. Uhh, well, good luck. Edited May 4, 2015 by NewZed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferrariowner123 Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Okay, really hope this isn't what I get to look forward on here, but I guess thanks for the help? I made the disclaimer that said I probably missed something, and you found it. I apologize for not including every single detail in my lengthy story. Did my best. At any rate. I am also leaning toward it being heat related but I can't imagine anything other than the voltage regulator causing strange miss charging issues. Am I at least going in the right direction? The battery drain, is plausible but not in the sense you hinted at, I drove maybe 5 miles (after sitting for a few weeks after the battery change, from the return trip from Eastern washington, or the last time it broke down), it sat for about 10-12 hours after successfully reaching my destination, tried to drive it home made it about 3.5, before it died from the originally mentioned symptoms (not advancing, back fire, dead on side of the road). Not as long of driving and in much cooler conditions from the original trip it broke down, maybe rules out heat issues? I'm unsure. Still looking for some direction I'll try and check the alt today, see what it's output is. -Kyle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 Okay, really hope this isn't what I get to look forward on here, but I guess thanks for the help? I made the disclaimer that said I probably missed something, and you found it. I apologize for not including every single detail in my lengthy story. Did my best. The battery drain, is plausible but not in the sense you hinted at, before it died from the originally mentioned symptoms (not advancing, back fire, dead on side of the road). Not as long of driving and in much cooler conditions from the original trip it broke down, maybe rules out heat issues? I'm unsure. Still looking for some direction I'll try and check the alt today, see what it's output is. You can feel right or be right. People waste tons of time trying to do the first. Like you're doing. If you get defensive and offend the people that offer direction, you'll end up handing the car over to somebody that makes you feel smart while you open your wallet so that they can fix it for you. How could you know that ignition timing is not advancing? You're passing along things that others told you. Let go of the attitude and try to learn something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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