Recharging car battery

[clare]

Only on SOME vehicles. Others require the battery in order for the alternator to charge, and others will damage the alternator and or regulator if run "open circuit".

[philoÂÂ]

On 07/02/2014 09:07 PM, micky wrote: X

BTW: for those who have older cars there actually *is* a safety feature that warns you if you have left the light switch in on "on" position.

If you look at the front of the car there are two bright warning lights to alert you! At the back of there car there are also two warning lights they are a bit smaller though.

[J Burns]

An ideal battery would stay at the same voltage. I guess the open-circuit voltage drops a little because the chemistry isn't as simple as the theory. The voltage under a load is likely to drop more because internal resistance is likely to increase as the charge decreases.

[J Burns]

A battery used around town in winter is likely to benefit from extra charging because a cold battery doesn't charge very fast, and on short trips with a generator that didn't work at an idle, the car might not charge the battery long at all. Charging all night would also keep the electrolyte stirred up and ready to go.

[J Burns]

I had the opposite experience with BMW motorcycles. My '62 worked fine with a generator. My '70 had an alternator. Magazine reviews talked about how powerful it was. I discovered it wouldn't charge below 50 mph. It was an automobile alternator mounted on the crankshaft. I think it was designed to run on a pulley, turning three times faster than an automobile crankshaft.

[micky]

I left out two words. convertible top motor.

Thanks. I'll have to check. .

The biggest problem is in the rain, in the daytime when the lights have to be on so the car will be seen by other drivers, but they're not bright enough to be noticed when leaving the car.

My Toyota, which I don't like, has headlights on, partially lit maybe, whenever the car is running and turns off all the exterior lights whenever it's not. Normally that's fine, but I keep forgetting how to a) run the engine with the headlights off (like when I'm spying on my girlfriend on a cold night) or b) not run the engine but keep the headlights on. I think to do the first, a, I just have to set the parking brake (logical but I would never have thought of it). As to b, I was told how to do it, but I've forgotten.

Also the car beeps loudly if I open the door with the engine off and the key in the ignition. And won't stop. I had to disconnect the key-in switch to stop it. A lot of people would have to pay someone to do that, or wouldn't think of it at all. Some cars had 3 door switches, one for each function, so I could have just disconnected the door-open switch that related to this beeping, but they're so "clever" they use only one switch, and that just makes it harder for me.

[micky]

Thanks. I'm going back to American cars next time, where the chances are higher they will work like how I thinik they do. Not that I've ever wanted to remove the battery and run without it. And not that I've ever wanted to drive around without stopping and turning off the engine. I can't imagine that.

[micky]

Too complicated now for me, but let me just go back to my real-life expericene

I've had batteries so dead the relay didn't even click, and 10 minutes on a 15 amp charger is enough to get the car started. Even a V-8 with

455 cid.

The biggest problem was that, knowing how quickly the car might be ready to start, I'd try after 4 minutes and maybe drain out everything I'd put in. Then I'd try again 6 minutes later, and maybe again, so I'd lengthen the time it took by 10 or 15 minutes. As I'm gettting later and later for work. But times when I could control myself for iirc 10 minutes in a row, the car woudl start. It couldn't have been fully charged so quickly and I guess if it were totally dead, the lead plates inside would be all dissooved.

[micky]

Yes, I should have thought of this. I just use each hand to hold one cable, but yours might be better. Doesn't take long to get a jump.

Even if the cables won't reach, HB can hold them and hope the car that stops will do what it takes to make them reach, maybe turn around and go hood to hood with the car if necessary. He might have longer cables.

I finally got tired of this and got 16' heavy gauge cables so that's no longer a problem.

Sometimes the car will crank fully and start immediately when getting a jump. Other times, especially with V-8's one might have to spend 5 minutes charging the dead car's battery .

IF HB is female, should be even easier to get a jump but once when I was a 50 year old man, a pretty black girl in her 20's gave me a jump. I was imprssed. So many women are scared like rabbits** or selfish, not sure which it is. . Is it my imagination that women don't wave their hand in thanks as often as men do when another car stops to leave room so their car can get out of a parking lot into a crowded street, or turn left through stopped traffic. Or are they too stupid too know the rules?, Or they know the rules and they're rude? Or is it my imagination or sample size to begin with?

**Even on a street with traffic and pedestrians. On a few occasions I've asked for food advice in the supermarket. Some women are happy to give advice, and then they move on. Others refuse to even answer, as if I'm about to rape them. On at least one occasion, she was so bad looking I wouldn't want her if she begged me, but even though she was dressed normally she wouldn't answer my questoin about a watermelon.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Some years ago I had a car with a weak battery. It would crank but not start. It did not have enough power do turn the starter motor and feed the coil for ignition. If you let go of the key at the right time, momentum gave you the last little crank and the ignition would fire a plug and the car would start.

[J Burns]

You start with a plate of lead and a plate of lead oxide and sulfuric acid between. If electricity is allowed to flow in a wire from the lead plate to the lead oxide plate, hydrogen ions will flow through the electrolyte from the lead plate to the lead oxide plate, and both plates will get coated with lead sulfate.

As the battery runs down, the acid gets more dilute, and the lead sulfate gets thicker. At some point, everything will get too slow to start a car. If it's badly run down, charging will be slow at first. When the acid gets stronger and the lead sulfate gets thinner, you can start your car.

[micky]

My webbrowser is bogged down today, so so far I haven't actually found a headlights-on buzzer for sale, but there are sure lots of instruction on how to install, and probably how to make or buy one.

This guy

suggests buying a buzzer from Radio Shack

Another guy says specifically (got mine at Ratshack for $10.99. Item #273-071)

and he or other pages show where to connect the thing. Only two wires. You don't need special ends, you can just stuff the copper strands in between a fuse and the fuse holder. But you need to know which fuse. where

He says red wire to parking lights, black wire to fuel pump connector. Because when the parking lights are on and the fuel pump is off, tht means the car's not running but the lights are on.

[philoÂÂ]

I sure hope you got the joke???

[clare]

Most north american cars will not run without the battery and are more complex than the Japs.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Forget the idea of running car w/o battery connected unless you want to blow all the electronics parts toasted. Air bag pops, alarm goes crazy, etc., etc. Or you have to drive very old car, like 40 year old. I never own a car more than 10 YO. When I was working, my company car was replaced every 3 years or so.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, My trailer tow truck had after market 150A alternator. it could charge on idle including the pair in the trailer. It had heavier stator winding in Y with triple diode packs. Racing guys often change pulley size.

[micky]

Yes, I did. My reply was a joke, too.

[micky]

I've seen that, where the car starts or at least almost starts just as one lets go of the key. You've explained it.

The tendency was to think, I stopped cranking just a moment too soon and if I'd cranked another second, it would have started, so of course people keep trying. But your explanation accounts for why that's not so.

It is, in slightly more detai, that the voltage goes up the moment the key is released, because the starter is not connected anymore, but the flywheel etc. are still turning and the higher voltage is enough to make a spark.

Great. Thanks.

[clare]

That used to be a common problem in the days of point fired (and early electronic ) ignition systems using ballast resistors, where the "crank bypass" failed. Inadequate spark voltage when cranking because you basically had a 7 volt coil running through a resistor, with a resistor bypass when cranking to give it cranking voltage (generally closer to 9 volts) when starting. If the bypass failed you had only 9 volts feeding the coil/resistor and closer to 5 across the coil itself

- not enough to fire. Releasing the starter allowed the full 12 volts to the coil/resistor - and 7 or 8 to the coil - lots of spark to fire the engine over.

Also not out of the ordinary when an ignition switch would start to fail - no connection to IGN when in STart position. - or if someone wired the ignition to the ACCessory position (which was shut off during crank to take heater and wiper and defrost loads off when cranking)

[J Burns]

I have bicycle mirrors mounted above my headlights. That way, if I leave them on, I'll see it before I even get out of the car. ;)