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On 8 Mar 2002, at 14:18, jason.smith@sarcom.com wrote: > How long would it take the alternator on my 72 to recharge a fairly dead > battery? The thing is I was messing with the radio the PO installed and > noticed that if hooked up, it drains the battery. I jumped my car to get it > started, then took a quick 10 min spin to recharge the battery. A few days > later the battery was dead. I jumped it again and it died going down the > street and now will not jump at all. I took the battery out and am getting > it charged. I know after I put it back in, checking the Gen. output will be > the first step. 10 minutes really won't do much for a battery which is totally dead. You're much better off just buying a really cheap charger and leaving it on overnight. A long slow charge is much easier on your battery, much more efficient, and much more thorough. If the battery has been discharged for a long time, you may want to set your charger for a trickle charge for a week. The easy way to test your charging system is to just measure the system voltage with the engine warm after a drive. If you get 14V or above at the battery at medium RPM (or a little more at the generator, or a little less at the fuse box) then your system is probably fine. BTW, your alternator is a generator. - ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- Search old messages on the Web! Visit http://www.vwtype3.org/list/