no charge! daily driver!

[Vodkaboy]

it all started 2 days ago... i was driving down to a friend's house, when my charge light turned on (meaning my battery isnt being charged). looking back on it, i also smelled something that was kinda funny on the way (kinda like a roasting belt)... got there, checked my belt, looked fine, figured i and my car was just being stupid, and moved on... on the way home, my parking brake light turned on... next day, starts fine, go to drop my sister off at gymnastics, drive off, go to store for food and to cash a check at the adjoining bank, leave to go pick my sister up from gymnastics. when i tried to leave the gymnastics place, my volt gague read just under 12 volts (its usually just over 12 volts), but it wouldnt start, or even turn over more than once... got a jump, went home... a few hours later i left with no problems for a friend's bbq, but when i was leaving to go home, i needed a jump again... got a jump, decided to take the car around to charge it up... a little while later, i noticed my idle was VERY rough, and i was aparently running on 8 volts... barely made it the rest of the way home...

any ideas as to what might be the problem? i dont think it is a direct result of my alt, voltage regulator, or battery, as all of those are only about 6 months old, give or take (although if you know of any good way to test these, i am open to ideas)...

[Vodkaboy]

update: decided to jump the car tonight... jumped and it started fine... but when i tried to turn on the lights, it died, which kinda sounds like a voltage regulator problem, am i correct?

[Alan Pugh]

There is no charge getting to the battery, so you need to check the whole charging system.

Loose or burnt connections first then delve deeper.

Alan.

[Vodkaboy]

Originally posted by Alan Pugh

There is no charge getting to the battery, so you need to check the whole charging system.

Loose or burnt connections first then delve deeper.

Alan.

aw crap...... loose and burnt connections are the worst to try and find....

oh well, off with my ghetto 70s style multimeter i go... if i find anything i'll post results

[meestapeta]

Check the cables that connect directly to the battery. I used to have problems because they would jiggle loose or cut out altogether. Does it ever read full voltage with the key in and then click when you try to start and then read much lower voltage?

[Vodkaboy]

Originally posted by meestapeta

Check the cables that connect directly to the battery. I used to have problems because they would jiggle loose or cut out altogether. Does it ever read full voltage with the key in and then click when you try to start and then read much lower voltage?

all the time actually... would that indicate that my terminal connections/wires are bad? come to think of it, the positive terminal looks very frayed and corroded... i might try striping the wires back to fresh wire, and puting new terminals on the ends of the wires...

[meestapeta]

That might be it. I always just take the cables off, sand the pickups or clean them with a wire brush, and then put them back on good and tight. If your wires look bad stripping them like that would probably be good, too. Also, if you don't have a battery bracket your battery could be slipping around and pulling the connections loose. That used to happen to me too, but I just bought a strap to put around the battery, not the expensive battery bracket getup, and its been doing fine.