How about your head lights. Do you know what wattage the are? I wouldn't think just the fans would be enough to overload the system. With the lights on and the fans turn on to dim the lights, is the tunes on or at least at a low level? Any other elec items that aren't stock?
CK5
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Good replacement battery?
- Thread starter nutt7
- Start date
you'll want an amp clamp that handles that load, think mine is a 600 amp iirc... you should be able to find something in the $50 to 100 range, not sure about a rental..
iirc, start up on the windstars is pretty high, like 60 or so amps... continuous is probably 20 to 25...
'
Now you're talking my language mister. Nothing like a 500 hp squirt gun!
20-25 amps. Is that for the pair or each?
I seem to remember the bigger of the 2 draws 20 to 25.. the smaller one is more like 15 to 20 iirc...
and those jets where in a 50' Whisperjet with a pair of 12 cylinder twin turbo Mann's...
and those jets where in a 50' Whisperjet with a pair of 12 cylinder twin turbo Mann's...
So both fans running could be 40 amps or so. Thats getting up there on load if he has bigger lights and thumpping the tunes.
OP, What belt are you running? V or serp? I had a bracket problem one time and couldn't get my belt tight enough. It seemed tight but when I'd turn on the lights the volt meter would drop to about 12 volts. That was with a v belt. It didn't squeel or anything so it was weird. Fixed the bracket, tightened up belt a little more and all was good.
OP, What belt are you running? V or serp? I had a bracket problem one time and couldn't get my belt tight enough. It seemed tight but when I'd turn on the lights the volt meter would drop to about 12 volts. That was with a v belt. It didn't squeel or anything so it was weird. Fixed the bracket, tightened up belt a little more and all was good.
My headlights are stock, and I have a serpentine. I can borrow my dad's induction meter...he just lives 40 minutes away. The dash lights seem to dim the same amount with headlights on or parklights on, no stereo blasting, but I can check later to get a better analysis. No other major electronics besides my shark's frickin' laser beam.
Even with no lights on just park lights it does it? Interesting. You said you have a DMM. I would "hot wire" the fan relay so they're on and start checking volts down the line also. I would think the alt is big enough to run park lights and the fans. Doesn't add up to me. Makes me wonder about a high resistance connection somewhere or alt not good or something. That just doesn't sound like a big enough load but maybe it is. Amp draw will tell you.
I took some voltage readings...
Voltages at: Battery Fuse Box Buss
Vehicle off: 12.37 12.37 12.37
key on: 12.19 12.19 12.17
running: 14.25 14.25 14.18
fans on: 13.96 13.94 13.86
park lights: 14.32 14.32 14.27
headlights: 14.20 14.18 14.12
All but AC: 13.88 13.86 13.77
AC (fans on):12.87! 12.87 12.85
All with AC: 12.47! 12.42 11.92
Yowzas! These were all taken at idle, I couldn't rev the engine and check voltages (no stereo at all either). But revving didn't seem to brighten the lights at all (not very scientific, I know). I have an ALDL scanner, I will take it out soon and see if the voltages rise when cruising.
Voltages at: Battery Fuse Box Buss
Vehicle off: 12.37 12.37 12.37
key on: 12.19 12.19 12.17
running: 14.25 14.25 14.18
fans on: 13.96 13.94 13.86
park lights: 14.32 14.32 14.27
headlights: 14.20 14.18 14.12
All but AC: 13.88 13.86 13.77
AC (fans on):12.87! 12.87 12.85
All with AC: 12.47! 12.42 11.92
Yowzas! These were all taken at idle, I couldn't rev the engine and check voltages (no stereo at all either). But revving didn't seem to brighten the lights at all (not very scientific, I know). I have an ALDL scanner, I will take it out soon and see if the voltages rise when cruising.
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Maybe one of the altenator diodes is failing,that will reduce output under heavy load,and also drain the battery down with the engine off ...if only one out of the three diodes go south,the charge light or volt meter may not show the loss of charge or light up the charge lamp....sometimes you can see the charge light glowing dim at night though,with all the accessories on..
I have had good luck so far with my Wal-Mart battery in the truck. I used to go for high CCA, but with an appropriate alternator and no extreme conditions (far below freezing, electric winching) I decided it wasn't worth the extra money...the batteries all seem to die of old age, not failures related to capacity.
Last battery I bought was the same price at wal-mart as it was at the small local chain auto parts store. The auto parts mega-chains (oreillys, autozone) were about $30 more. Stock battery only lasted 9 years. lol
As I understand it, CCA can be misleading, you need to look at the reserve capacity when determining if one battery is better than another.
I was always under the impression the more plates a battery has in it,the higher the reserve capacity...which in the real world is more important than cold cranking amps...if a battery with a 600 CCA rating only produces that much for say,20 seconds and then quickly fades,it isn't much good compared to one that will crank an engine twice that long ,which will make the difference between getting it to start,or looking for someone to give you a jump!..
Right. As I understand it, you can have a "good" cranking amp rating, but that doesn't indicate actual storage capacity of the battery. You don't see the internal construction of the battery, cheaping out on plate construction would affect capacity, not necessarily CCA.
The way things are going, outside of batteries like Optima's (not getting into that debate) or other high end "specialty" ones, all will end up being cheap pieces of junk made with little regard for longevity anyway.
The way things are going, outside of batteries like Optima's (not getting into that debate) or other high end "specialty" ones, all will end up being cheap pieces of junk made with little regard for longevity anyway.
it's a marketing scam.... "cranking" batteries use much less lead in the plates than a deep cycle due to the honeycomb construction.. thus, saving the bat companies a TON of money..... 
they get more CCA because you have more surface area due to the honeycomb's, but pretty much no reserve.... but as I've mentioned in here many a time... as long as you have enough amps for your start load, doesn't matter if you have 1000 CCA, or 750...
I prefer to have the 750 CCA deep cycle with 300 minutes of reserve, as opposed to 1000, and like 2 minutes of reserve...
plus the DC's can take full discharges, where a "start" battery has a MUCH more difficult time surviving that...
as Jim reminded me tho, most DD'er, soccer-mom apps don't need that reserve...
they get more CCA because you have more surface area due to the honeycomb's, but pretty much no reserve.... but as I've mentioned in here many a time... as long as you have enough amps for your start load, doesn't matter if you have 1000 CCA, or 750...
I prefer to have the 750 CCA deep cycle with 300 minutes of reserve, as opposed to 1000, and like 2 minutes of reserve...
plus the DC's can take full discharges, where a "start" battery has a MUCH more difficult time surviving that...
as Jim reminded me tho, most DD'er, soccer-mom apps don't need that reserve...
Exactly. Really depends on your usage. A cheap battery that has enough cranking amps for your application is all well and good in normal use. But if your truck dies and you need to check things that require prolonged cranking (like diagnosing a crank no-start problem in the woods) a very low reserve capacity battery (or old battery no matter what capacity) will cause issues very quickly.
For MY application, I just run the normal size battery, the cheapest easily found. In my boat with electric motor, as large a deep cycle as I can afford. But if you spend $150 (I made that number up) on an awesome battery for a rig, and never need it's capabilities, you've pretty much wasted that money IMO. A massive battery (that is never pushed hard) dying from old age in 7-10 years at $150 vs. a cheapy that does the same thing for the same time period at $88 is a no-brainer for me.
Most "good" batteries seem to last about 7-10 years from my experience. I'm not sure if the AGM or others are supposed to have a longer life span, if they are, then that would come into the cost consideration.
For MY application, I just run the normal size battery, the cheapest easily found. In my boat with electric motor, as large a deep cycle as I can afford. But if you spend $150 (I made that number up) on an awesome battery for a rig, and never need it's capabilities, you've pretty much wasted that money IMO. A massive battery (that is never pushed hard) dying from old age in 7-10 years at $150 vs. a cheapy that does the same thing for the same time period at $88 is a no-brainer for me.
Most "good" batteries seem to last about 7-10 years from my experience. I'm not sure if the AGM or others are supposed to have a longer life span, if they are, then that would come into the cost consideration.
Is the reserve data, #of plates etc usually available on the sticker? Or do I find this elsewhere?
From what I've seen lately, most batteries have it somewhere on the sticker, just like CCA.
If they don't list it, probably a reason.
If they don't list it, probably a reason.
not sure if they are listing reserve #'s on stickers..
I will tell you this, I'd be HIGHLY surprised if it's listed on ANY cranking battery.. not a number to be proud of, or advertise..
and.... if it's not listed as a deep cycle, or even dual purpose
, you can be rest assured the reserve capacity sucks...usually, a bat's stat's can be found online somewhere, usually the manny's website..
Think this will link directly to a battery http://www.interstatebatteries.com/cs_eStore/Content.aspx?dsNav=Arpp~12,A~Part+Number,N~21-2147384759-4294493475-4294493058-4294493459-2147384903,Nr~AND(P_unique_id%3aMTP-75%7cChevrolet_Blazer++Full+Size+%7c1985_Standard+Battery_V8%2f5.7L) I note that they AREN'T listing reserve capacity, instead how many plates are in it. Still doesn't give you a picture of how "good" the battery is.
fail... just brings up a blank interstate page...
like I said, I doubt you'll find reserve capacity listed by many manny's on cranking bats..
go to the deep cycle page and they show RC tho...
like I said, I doubt you'll find reserve capacity listed by many manny's on cranking bats..
go to the deep cycle page and they show RC tho...
So I am getting as low as 10.6 volts idling with lights, stereo, front/rear a/c. It's 12.5 cruising with all that on. I am thinking alternator is old and/or not up to the task. Napa has a 140a cs130 for $170ish... But they want $90 for some wires to go with it! I might head to the jy for a cs144 if I can find the adapter bracket on a car...any thoughts? I prefer something off the shelf.
