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V1 Josh's City Goblin - 10 XFE Donor

Desert Sasqwatch
Vibration from offroading, even mild dirt road stuff, can cause the plates/connections inside the battery to fracture and create the problem you are seeing. Been there, done that. A good wack on the side of the battery can get you started again, but the battery is a goner.
 
jirwin
First start achieved! 75lbs of oil pressure at idle. Seems like a lot lol. Going to bring it up to Temp varying the throttle for a while, them while it's cooling back down I'll do brakes, clutch, etc
 
jirwin
First drive happened tonight. Talk about sensory overload. Trying to watch 15 different things was stressful. Air bubbles ate all the coolant in the reservoir and I got up to 220F just before getting home. Breather was smoking as expected. New clutch work great. Oil pressure was good the whole drive. Battery was losing charge so I think the alternator is shot. It had a sticking point, so this isn't unexpected. Was hoping to save the $250 or whatever for a new alternator. Probably jot the worst idea to just get a new one under warranty as I'll be overspinning the piss out of it with a high redline (8k if it'll do it) and an overdrive damper.

In any case, the car and I made it home safely in working order. Can't complain
 
jirwin
Yep! Every time I've drained it that's been the case. @Ross 's suggestion to hold it at 4k for a few seconds got the bubbles out last time. I'll be doing that again probably
 
jirwin
Drive two, same as drive 1. Frshly charged battery, would hardly start by the time I got home. It kept stalling when coming down to idle. Probably has something to do with the lighter flywheel.

Regardless, fusebox post showed 12.5 (multimeter) before starting, then 14.4 after start. So the alternator seems to be working, no?
 
G
Alternator seems to be working some but might not be putting out enough amps, But how long was your drive? I’ve driven mine for about an hour one time with the alternator unplugged before mine died.
What was the battery voltage after the drive?
 
jirwin
Probably 10 minutes. Didnt measure it before, but after it was 12.25ish vua multimeter at the battery.

Just tested it again for giggles and it was reading 12.5V from the battery/rear post. It was dropping slowly as it idled. Previously that was 14.4V while running. Could it have something to do with the standoffs as a part of the ZZP kit? Alternator is relocated about 2" off the block, and I did paint the block. Idk if it grounds thru that or something
 
G
Yes the alternator has to have a ground and is typically just the alternator frame to mounts and block bare metal.
However a fully charged battery should be able to drive for 10 minutes and have no problem starting unless you something besides a normal load on it.
You can add a ground wire, same size as the + output wire, from a mounting point to the block and see if that fixes it.
 
G
Maybe the starter was getting too hot is another possibility. If the battery was 12.5 after without adding a charger, it might be a starter issue and not a charging or battery problem. Of it might be a combination of all three.
 
escapepilot
Could this be an issue of not enough ground? I had to run an additional ground strap from engine block to frame because the powder coating was preventing a good ground through the mounts. (Edit…I have no idea how good got autocorrected to boils. Didn’t have my readers on at the time)
 
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G
Any lack of ground between starter or alternator and the negative terminal of the battery can cause these problems. Doesn’t mean it has to be a ran through wire the entire route though.
 
A
Heavy is a QUAL word, wondering about the QUAN on that wire. I sure hope it is 4* or larger.(lower gauge #/ bigger wire) Was working on an old 70's Chevy. Some smarty pants(NOT) had "insulated" the end of the negative wire where it bolts onto the engine block!!! EEEEK!!!(They didn't think a WIRE from the battery should touch the iron of the engine block, so they insulated it with rubber gromets!) The car would crank but very slowly because the only ground path back to the battery was a "body ground" 10* wire from the Neg battery clamp to the fender. I guess the engine was grounding to the frame and body through the motor mounts? That little wire allowed the starter to crank over, but slowly, BUT as a PLUS, it got very HOT! It made an excellent branding iron across my fingers as I touched it! The insulation was virtually liquified by all those(Probably 300+) CCA's returning to the battery through a 10* wire bottleneck of resistance. (It was a little like grabbing the guts of a toaster!) *********** All "wire" is NOT equal! Stranded wire used in 110 Office/Industrial building applications, though "stranded", is using much larger strands that are high resistance in DC systems, like cars! Buy automotive wire at auto parts suppliers! If you find non automotive wire in your project's donor, repair/replace it before use! Solid copper house wire is even worse!(Yes, I've seen that too, very sad. Using "wire nuts" no less! This is how I got all this gray hair.)
 
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