i really need help reading the voltage gauge in the car..is it normal for the voltage to drop below 13 volts at idle with everything on? i was driving back home last night with the headlights and radio on. the car has a digital ignition box and electric cooling fan added. when i'm cruising the gauge reads 13.5-14 volts....then at a stoplight it drops to 13 volts and sometimes less....but it pops right up after i feed it gas....is this normal or do i have an alternator propblem?

 

That is perfectly normal. A generator can only supply so much current at idle, it only reaches its max capacity around approx 2000 rpm. Plus the gauge is not neccessarily perfectly accurate, and measures the voltage inside the car, which includes some drop in the wiring.

 

thanks fullsize.....must be cold now in norway! when the voltage drops to below 13 volts; does this mean that the car is now running on the battery? are there a lot of chevys in norway?

 

You're welcome, glad if I can be of help..
Actually it's unusually warm all over the country here this year, I guess it's the global warming starting to take effect.. It's rainy and between 6 and 11 celsius here in Oslo now, whereas it should have been frosty.. I hate rain but snow even more so it's ok with me..
Yes, below 13V at idle the battery supplies the difference between supplied and consumed current. If for instance the generator is only able to supply 20A at idle, and 24A is consumed by ignition, fan, and lights, then the battery supplies the missing 4A. So it's not like running without an alternator altogether.
Yes, there's quite a bit of chevys and other american cars here, but most are old ones since the government with their progressive curb weight, cu.in., and hp tax scheme effectively blocks the import of anything safe, useful, or performance-like unless it falls in the 30 year old veteran category.. You rarely see anything '90ish or newer, only a few of the wealthy ones chooses american.. A drive around the city only yields something like 1 american sighting per hour.. Boring.. You have to go to meetings and such..
Check out our national organisation magazine and internet site www.amcar.no
It has an english language option.

 

wow! very impressive site...do you ever checkout streetfire.net? i always see some crazy scandanivian videos! do you guys have very heavy emissions requirements for your cars? i know most of europe uses diesel power and not gasoline, but are your emissions requirements as tough as the american ones? testing every year?

 

Yes, our guys there has actually managed to influence some of the car related politics, they're good.. Never saw streetfire.net before but it seems to contain hours of fun.. I wouldn't be surprised, there are often burnouts at some of the more informal meetings, and we have drag racing events too.. We do have about the same emmission requirements, but with testing every other year, and you can ditch the CAT on the '80s models since we got our requirements later than America. Yes, there's too much diesel here already and it's getting worse since the government reduced taxes on many diesel cars. Their ozone and fine soot is not good for asthma and other respiratory diseases.. But the current focus is only on CO2 so... Exept that they have put taxes on studded winter tires and reduced speed limits in the city because they claim it produces harmful dust... Go figure.. But some politician actually admitted that its all about getting the bottom line tax money, nothing else, so they do "horse-trading" for the "gallery"..