back to my solar on vehicles

alternator failure story:


It started with my having problems with my Escape battery draining over time and eventually requiring me to
charge it back up. I had a few shops look at it, and their initial reaction after seeing all my gear in the
truck was to blame that. But I pointed out the ChargeGuard and why it should be preventing that, and they
couldn't figure it out.

I suspected the alternator, but I had two shops specifically run tests on it and found nothing wrong, other
than a deeply discharged battery. (duh, that was the symptom) A new battery didn't help. I finally took it
to an "automotive electrical" shop to get a more expert diagnosis. They had it for a few days, ran a few of
their extended tests with a monitoring device over time, etc. Called me back and said there's nothing wrong,
come and get it. OK I'll be in on Monday. So I called them on Monday to see if I could get a ride in and
they said to wait, they had to recharge the battery because it was suddenly dead. OK that's good, you see the
problem, what's wrong? NO CLUE. Their only suggestion at that point was to instal a battery cutoff switch!
There's obviously an electrical problem, but we the electrical experts can't find it, come pay us for looking
at it and failing to do our job. Thanks.

Now at this point I had already installed one of my other spare panels on my Explorer, which spends most of its
time parked in my driveway. It had been an issue because it might sit for 3-5 months between uses, and then
sometimes its battery would be dead if I had forgotten to run it a bit. So the solar on the roof, with the
cheap controller, kept the battery topped. Oh, and I was also appreciating the extra charge in the Escape,
which got a nice strong crank in the morning even in winter.

Wait a minute, I have another spare flexible solar panel. So I cut a few 4ft strips of aluminum 1/2" c-channel
and used those as side guides to install a 100w panel on my roof. Plop in a cheap little PWM controller, and
that'll keep it charged. That worked for months, until a freak straight-line wind (in a parking lot!) ripped
the panel off my roof. (sheared a handful of wire ties) I didn't get around to fixing the damage to the panel
right away though, and by that point the battery was getting pretty low.

And as luck would have it, I was driving out to Best Buy when I heard a loud POP and suddenly the dash lights
and the headlights got dim. OK well there goes something - fuse-able link or alternator. I couldn't get it
started at Best Buy but I was just barely able to scrape up enough charge to start it and drive home by slaving
a spare battery I had brought with me just in case since the solar was out of action.

Turns out the alternator died, no big surprise. What WAS a surprise is the 8 HOURS of labor to replace it.
The geniuses at Ford installed the alternator on the very bottom of the serpentine belt, which is already very
low on the passenger side. Basically it's on the other side of the firewall from the passenger's right foot.
They have to remove the DRIVE SHAFT to get at the alternator.

Now by this point I had installed a volt-meter display on my 12v, and was used to seeing about 13.5 while
running, but now with the new alternator, regular running voltage is more like 14.3, so that's better.




last updated 07/26/2024 at 09:41:13 by make_www_index.command version 2024.07.09.A