Van died at the gas pump!!

[Adam]

You're wasting your time.

Not so much waste as biding. We are getting our other car insured today, once that is done the pressure will be off the van and I can take it in. I was able to drive around all day yesterday with very little problem. Although I've taken to carrying the battery charger with me and I did have to plug in for one start

[jessef]

Hope it works out.

[FalcoColumbarius]

You know... the reason I got Globelites is because in my first Chevy I put in a Globelite. When that van died I put that Globelite into my second Chevy van. When that van died I put the battery into my first Plymouth Voyager ('85). When that van died the battery went into my second Voyager ('87). At this point the battery is ten years old and has out lived three vans and onto the fourth (why I insist on Globelite batteries for the Miss Lil' Bitchi). I had taken the '87 Voyager roughly an hour into the toolies somewhere near Kelowna, had a nice holiday and went to start the van to go home and it didn't start. Fortunately I had an "Eliminator" battery pack that I got from CT* and managed to get out of the bush and back to Vancouver. When I checked what had happened it turned out to be that the alternator brushes had worn down to basically nothing and in the warmer climate of Vancouver was enough to get a charge but in the cooler temperature of where I was the copper had contracted just enough to loose the connexion and not charge the battery, which in turn caused the battery to use up the water in it's cells. This drove the stake into the heart of the ten year old battery so I got a new one and replaced the brushes in the alternator ~ then I saw a Delica, noticed how solid it looked next to my '87 tin Voyager and the rest is history.

I hope this little story puts some perspective to your current situation.

Falco.

*The "Eliminator" is a battery pack that you can get from Canadian Tire for around $100 to $150, depending on the sales they are having. It comes with cables; a compressor; two a/c points; a pointable light; and a cigarette plug that you can not only recharge it while you are driving but can also run your stereo from the other side of the ignition without using you van's batteries by plugging it into one of the rear cigarette lighters!

[Manitoba Delica]

When I got my van, I couldn't even get a tiny light to go on. It arrived on the train in -28C and the Old JApanese battery was completely incompetent. You folks in BC can get away with old, decrepid batteries, but I wonder if your temps dropped recently and your batteries lost their cranking amps in the cooler temps. I would recommend replacing the Japanese batteries with high cold-cranking amp betteries here. I used a Canadian Tire special 875 cold cranking amps..... $108.... No problems since. Hopefullly the problem is as simple as that....

MAtthew

[Adam]

Hey Matthew,

Hope everything is going well with you and your family. The temp has actually increased here within the last week or two, so I don't think my electrical problems are due to weather.

I ran a home test on my alternator to see if it was charging the batteries and it passed. I finally got some time to pull the batteries clean them all down, used a battery terminal brush to really clean the connections and charged the batteries up completely, and checked the water level. Everything has been running fine for the last 2 days. The batteries are maintaining a 12.5V charge. I'm going to look at installing a voltage gauge to keep an eye on things. I am working my alternator a bit harder than normal with a VegTherm Mega install.

Thanks for everyones help.

[FalcoColumbarius]

It is typical when the weather changes (like when the nights get colder) that there is corrosion on the nodes, however I wouldn't expect that with the Delica as the batteries are pretty much inside the van. Cool about the volt meter but don't forget the amperage.

Falco.

[Adam]

It looks like some coolant from the reservoir spilt on the terminals and dried causing the connection issues. Everything is still looking good, voltage is constant at 12.4V.

[Schwa]

What is the voltage when the engine is running?