****ed battery or more?

Basically, in my petrol '82 series 3, the last 2 days my ammeter has said ive been running on borrowed time (charge light said nothing though) which proved true as tonight i had to jump start it since there was not enough power for the starter motor to... well start. Bearing in mind it has a new alternator and theres no slack on the fan belt and I don't think the batterys that bad.

Any ideas guys as to why I'm running out of electricity?

I would say start with putting the voltmeter onto the positive terminal on the alternator and see what reading you get. Is the alternator a standard item?

I'll give it a try, it's a standard alternator, can't remember the ampage of it though but its been working fine for 2-3 months until now.

Yeah, alternator probably is OK....but it would be annoying to check for shorts, drains, earths, problems with battery, etc etc and then to find out you could have found out the problem in 30 seconds

Does the charge light come on when the ignition is on but engine not started?

Also, the ammeter (thats in the dash) does move a lot like normal under revving but never really going into the positive side very much. Its also started moving a lot into the minus side when i turn the headlights on. I'm not sure if jump starting someone elses car earlier today has something to do with it.
Hmmm.

The charge light comes on as normal and hasn't changed from normal operation. Also, I've just installed a stereo, but only a couple of 6x9s and 2 130w spots, both with live feeds coming off the +ve battery terminal, but it still has the lack of power when theyre turned off.

if yu are getting enuf volts to put out the warning light, but the ammeter always showsnegative, i wud suggest yo alternator isnt charging proper.

Hmm, strange, since the ammeter still moves a lot when I rev it. I think tomorrow I'll have to get a multimeter on the job and see whats what.

I wouldn't put too much faith in the charge light anyway...up until not very long ago I knew I had a problem with my charge system and the light would still behave like normal.

Ive not had a Series landie with an ammeter in the dash so wouldn't know how far to expect it to go into the positive side - anyone else got one?

rustyrhinos said:

Ive not had a Series landie with an ammeter in the dash so wouldn't know how far to expect it to go into the positive side - anyone else got one?

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Should go to about 15 amps after starting and gradually drop back to just above the middle on the poss side.

Yeah, that's what would have normally happened, but the last few days, when running with nothing else such as lights switched on, it would sit just into positive, but with lights on, it would be about -17amps, bearing in mind, before hand it was always within the positive side.

One more thing if it helps or not, tonight just after receiving a jump start, driving along, the engine struggled for few seconds, loosing all power, then jumping back to life with a bang (I'm assuming no spark, fuel still going in, then spark) to give an idea of lack of power.

yu do realise that -17Amps = 17*12 = 204watts! wot bulbs yu running?

it is possible that yu got a duff ammeter - but i dont reccon so.

A job for the ammeter for sure!

The Mad Hat Man said:

yu do realise that -17Amps = 17*12 = 204watts! wot bulbs yu running?

it is possible that yu got a duff ammeter - but i dont reccon so.

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biguns looking at that

I don't think that the ammeter should be giving a negative reading. I'd say that if the wiring is correct and the ammeter is working properly then you should never get a negative reading on the ameter. The regulator should stop any current flowing into the alternator from the battery and only allow current to flow from the alternator to the battery. Another possibility is that the wiring between the ammeter and the alternator is short circuiting somewhere or that some auxiliary has been wired directly to the alternator.

Sounds like possibly a bad earth to me.

fooked alternator? (diode pack)

id be going over every wire connector and earth cleaning them with wd40.
you would be surprised how much difference this will make.

I'm wiv Ian on this one.