----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Hintopoulos" <hint@northnet.org>
To: "Military Vehicles List" <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] Alternator Problems
> At 03:40 PM 8/19/00 EDT, Sixshoot45@aol.com wrote:
> >Hello List,
> >I'm having a problem with my alternator on my CJ2A. It is a 12v Delco
Remy
> >one wire alternator. When I crank up the jeep and try to test to see how
> many
> >volts it is putting out, I can't get a reading on my meter, the numbers
> just
> >jumping up and down.
> >Any ideas of what to do?
> >Thanks,
> >Denny
> >'48 CJ2A
>
> Any chance that the ignition system is interfering with your meter?
> I've seen many digital meters jump all over the place when the engine is
> running.
> They simply do not like electrical noise. I finally found one that works
> well in that kind of enviroment.
>
This is entirely possible, low-end digital meters can and do get upset with
lots of noise about.
Also, the voltage on an alternator charging battery is not steady, the
alternator outputs rectified AC as a pulse for every stator winding, you
could have some 3V of ripple across a discharged battery as the volts are
jacked up with each stator output and fall again between the pulses, this is
the engine revs related whine sometimes to be heard on in-car entertainment
systems and two-way radios.
Richard
Southampton - England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:31 PDT