Are electrical problem contagious?

[ckhd]

The '68 threw a belt. How long have any of you drove without a fan belt turning the water pump? Well, I guess that since I was driving at 75-ish, that the air going through the radiator turned the fan enough to pump water around and only raise the temp a little bit. Anyway, that's another story.

I basically drove for 60-ish miles without a belt turning my alternator. Had a couple of starts in there, etc. When the temp finally got too hot (it was already running hotter than normal - just thought my thermostat was acting up), and I pulled over I noticed no belt. I put a new one on and continued on my merry way. Well, the ammeter showed that it was charging pretty hard. It stayed that way for about 100 miles. Went to get in the next day and start it, and the battery is completely dead. No dome light, no nothing.

Jumped in the 'burb to jump it, and the 'burb's battery is too weak to start the engine!

After jumping both with the Dodge Cummins, I found out that the '68's alternator is shot (or maybe the regulator). Won't charge. Wrapped it up to about 2000rpm, and when I turned on the headlights, the engine coughed and sputtered and almost would't run.

Still not sure what happened to the 'burb. Ran it for 20 minutes or so to put a charge on it, and it still wouldn't start.

They were parked right next to each other, so I figure the 'burb caught something from the pickup! Some kind of socio-electric disease I guess!

[Longhorn Man]

You probably fried your alt trying to charge the unchargable. This is never a good idea, and when you replace it, you'll see that on the papers. May as well get a new battery while your at it. It sounds like a dead player to me.
You can pull the caps off, ensure that the water is up to the bottom of thew split cylinder, then charge it up with a battery charger. Chances are though, it'd be a waste of time.
My theory on dead batterys, (and I have never seen it in any book, this is my mind at work here ) Your battery can only be discharged so many times. Every time you kill it to the point of no power, you severly shorten it's life. We've all seen them last for 5,6, even the ocasional 10 years, but I'll bet they had never left there lights on or tried to crank the pee out of it when it was out of gas or something.
As for the water pump being disconnected too, check your coolan level. If it was running good when you parked it, you'r probably OK, but there is a chance that you have done some damage to it too.
the burb is something I can't even begin to try to tell you whats up....that makes no sence to me there. But if there were no sparks, (liike a crash course in arc welding type arc) then it shouldn't have 'cought' anything.
Good luck.

[busterwivell]

Yah, and you can get them thru a long distance phone call, too. A friend in Seattle called me about a month ago with starting problems with his late model Mercedes. I blindly helped him along as best I could (and got his car going again), then immediatley had trouble with the 71 Longhorn starting and then the Monte Carlo SS starting. 2 new batteries and some new cables solved all the problems in my case, though.

[ckhd]

I was actually just venting about having them right next to each other, both worked fine when I parked them, both wouldn't start the next time I tried.

I got a chance to look at the 'burb last night. It ended up being corrosion on the battery cable end.

I didn't get to look at the '68, but I charged up the battery, and this weekend I'll figure out if it's the alternator or the regulator. My bet is with the dode trio in the alternator. I don't know, it does have the original '68 regulator...

[ckhd]

Oh, and the '68 never got THAT hot. It normally runs about center of the temp guage, and with the busted belt it was running about 3/4 of the temp guage, and I had drove a little around town, and when I was headed out to the ranch, It started climbing. I actually shut it down when it hit the high end of the "normal" range.

I thought it was very interesting that the fan was able to spin the pump enough to keep me from overheating. It's nice to know that happens on the '68. Even in the AZ heat! I drove from one town to the other, back, and then half way to the other town again before it overheated.

Next time I get an unexplained raise in temp, I'll suspect my belt. Maybe I should go to a double belt system...

[racedvl]

This would be an awesome time to convert the 68 to an internal regulated alt. It's sooo easy, there is no reason not to.

[Blue_71]

and, you actually dont have to "jump" the wires on the external regulator.. ive got an internal and external hooked up on my truck, and its just got a couple more volts to the system is all

[oldyeller]

mmmm, ya might want to check that "couple of extra volts" some electronics get very pissed if they have access to "a couple of extra volts" to many. usually anything over about 15.5 volts is approching the oh sh!t limit, and could cause problems. just a word of warning, would hate to see one of our trucks dead along side the road.

oldyeller