larry818
Active member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2008
- Location
- Taipei, Taiwan
The alt in ILLINTENT's thread looks like one off a 1970 Chevy, and yours is entirely different. What's up?
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The alt in ILLINTENT's thread looks like one off a 1970 Chevy, and yours is entirely different. What's up?
whats the serial number on the alternator??
The alt in ILLINTENT's thread looks like one off a 1970 Chevy, and yours is entirely different. What's up?
A couple questions:
Are you measuring the voltage at the output stud on the back of the alternator, or at the battery? Are you using a handheld voltmeter? If so, where are you grounding the black lead of your voltmeter?
If you let the vehicle sit overnight, what is the resting voltage of the battery before you start the engine. This would need to be measured at the battery terminals with a handhold voltmeter.
Also, it is absolutely imperative that you run a dedicated 4 gauge positive and negative cable directly from the alternator to the terminals of the battery. The stock Volvo charge wire is too small to carry 175 amps without significant voltage drop. That unit can easily make 175 amps at full load, and could even overheat the stock charge cable.
The cold setpoint of that alternator is 15.1 volts as it was tested before it was shipped. If the highest you are seeing is 14.5 volts cold, it is likely that either a) the battery is partially discharged or in poor condition,
or b) the OEM charge and ground cables have resistance in them, and are causing a slight voltage drop. That being said, your current voltage results are still well within spec for a 12 volt system. Matt
That all sounds good, but 12.7 volts resting voltage on an optima is low. An AGM battery (such as optima) should rest at 13.1 volts when in good condition/fully charged. 12.7 volts resting overnight would be OK on a flooded style battery, but is low for an AGM. My fully charged XS power battery can sit for a couple days and still measure 13.1 or 13.2 volts. That could be the reason for slightly lower than expected voltage.
BTW, if all you want is a higher hot charging voltage, that can be manipulated by adding resistance to the sense lead of the adapter plug we sent you. You could easily increase the base charging voltage so that your hot voltage is also higher. The only drawback to this, is that higher charging voltages put more heat into the battery. The voltage drop that occurs with higher temperatures is intentional through regulator design. The assumption is made by most auto manufacturers that as alternator temp increases, so does battery temp. (because it is also under the hood, generally speaking)
Can't see the video on the phone, what is happening now that the belt is tightened?]