[Vwdiesel] Cont'd Electrical gremlins - bad ground?

[Harmon Seaver]

On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 10:47:45AM -0500, LBaird119 at aol.com wrote:
> VW charging systems do tend to run a little lower voltage than most other
> cars.  It's almost on the edge of what a lot of rookie test guys would call
> bad.  I was told my 914 (same difference) had a bad regulator and Sears
> wouldn't warranty my battery without proof of replacement.  Voltage only
> changed by a tenth or two.  It was the battery.  :P
>   Perhaps they do it, like mentioned, to keep boiling to a minimum.  Many
> of their batteries are tucked away to where a lot of charging gasses would
> stink up the car and corrode floor pans.  It may not be high but it's
> sufficient.
> That makes for a slight problem to be a problem though.
>      Loren


   I guess that 13.9v is the standard for VW's -- checked my '82 diesel vanagon
yesterday, couldn't get more than 14v and that only for a split second, then it
settled back down to 13.9v. And I can see the point especially for vanagons,
which most had batteries in a little box under the front seat. Which gave
horrendous long battery cables. I'm glad they changed that for the diesel
version, putting it back in engine stall where it belongs.
   I wonder if this was true of the older aircools tho -- I've had a bunch of
those, and never before realized that they were lower voltage. And no, Matt, I'm
not a youngster. My first VW was a '67 bus bought new. And I was already married
and had two kids at that point.



--
Harmon Seaver
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com

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