now and again,our lite ace struggles to start,seams like a flat battery but if you leave it for a few minutes she will fire up no problem,last time it happened,my wife went to a garage and had the battery tested,the guy said the battery was fine,but there was a alternator ripple.what does that mean ?.it only happens now and again,i could drive around all day,then try to start up a little later and it sounds very sluggish to turn over the engine,we have only had to jump start it twice so its not doin it all the time.any ideas anyone.cheers dave

- (#8195) dave, 29 Jan 04 16:16

Take a look in the archives, this problem is well documented in there, link above, the cure is relatively simple.

Regards Rob.

- (#8195) Rob Drinkwater, 29 Jan 04 16:27

dave,

you could have one of many problems when dealing with the charging system,

the best way to go on this is for you to test your electrical system at 2000rpm,if you put a volt meter across your battery terminals (set meter dial on 20 dc volt range and put red lead on + and black to -) if you can get someone to hold engine revs at 2000 this will allow voltage regulator to kick in and you are looking for a reading around 14.2volts i am installing
a volt meter in my ace so it will indicate the stat of charge every time i start up.

If you are getting 14volts dc then I would question the battery condition or the battery connections,try cleaning the battery terminals with abit of wire wool also clean or renew battery terminal clamps just to make sure that the resistance between battery terminal and battery clamp is as low as possible.

the above this the best first step to locating the problem,it will allow you to start looking at the cheapist way (you donot want to buy a alternator and find out it was a bad connection)

dennis

- (#8195) dennis, 30 Jan 04 11:02