Re: Battery care

[walter@quattro.corp.inmet.com (Walter Meares)]

[...good info on batteries deleted...]

> car when I bought it.  I have also noticed that the charging systems in
> the '83 TQC and '78 Fox do not keep the battery as fully topped up during 
> the winter time because the headlights are on a greater percentage of the 
> time and other electrical accessories like windshield wipers are used more 
> often.  The '88 5K does not seem to suffer from this though. 

I've noticed on my 4000sq that it's a) real sensitive to having a good, tight
alternator belt and b) that the design of the car is such that the belts and
pulleys are very exposed to water, ice, etc, so its easy to see a slipping
belt situation in bad weather.  I drove a couple blocks the other night with
the bar-graph voltmeter in the red, because the lights were on and the belt
was all wet from the weather.  I try to be pretty rigorous about tensioning
the belt, but I've wound up replacing it just about every 2 years anyway --
due to excessive slipping and squealing.  This even after cleaning the glaze
off the pulleys.

> 
> I would recommend using an electronically controlled trickle charger to 
> make those batteries last longer.

Good advice.  My first battery went about 4 years, and this one (a sears) is
about 4 years old, so will probably bite it this winter.

> 
> Steve Buchholz

Walter