Ok I think I need a new battery

[Howard]

You have to remember that over here the explorer is a rare vehicle and so not many people stock any parts for them (even ford). I expect landrover parts are like that in the states.

 

[SmokeGrinder]

section

section,
i will PM you

 

[mhn3773]

i have another question he said earlier that his car died and said it was the batt...when the car is running doesnt it technicly not even need a batt because its running off the alt so wouldnt that mean bad alt not battery because the car is running indipendent of the batt? im confused its late so im just being stupid....

 

[SmokeGrinder]

i dont think the car runs indipendent of the batt... does it? thats a new one on me if it does..

 

[X~FACTOR]

The way I understand it is this. The alternator gives power to the battery which gives it to the car to run. If the Alternator does not give enough juice to the battery, the car will run until the juice in the battery dies. If the Alternator does give enough juice to the battery but the battery will not hold the the power the car still runs until you shut it down.

I think I got it right...

 

[Mbrooks420]

The car runs off the battery. It uses it like a buffer and storage tank. Start your car and pull a battery cable. It will either stumble real hard and lope, Or it will all out stall. I'm alost 100% it would stall completely. I've been in cars with bad batteries. You can usually get them home, but its work. You have to put it in nuetral and rev it when you stop.

 

[SmokeGrinder]

Originally posted by Mbrooks420
The car runs off the battery. It uses it like a buffer and storage tank. Start your car and pull a battery cable. It will either stumble real hard and lope, Or it will all out stall. I'm alost 100% it would stall completely. I've been in cars with bad batteries. You can usually get them home, but its work. You have to put it in nuetral and rev it when you stop.

Yes, yes this is what i thought

 

[Kadarom Douhrek]

Originally posted by Mbrooks420
The car runs off the battery. It uses it like a buffer and storage tank. Start your car and pull a battery cable. It will either stumble real hard and lope, Or it will all out stall. I'm alost 100% it would stall completely. I've been in cars with bad batteries. You can usually get them home, but its work. You have to put it in nuetral and rev it when you stop.

In some cars maybe, in most that's completely wrong.
In order to charge the battery the alternators positive out is connected to the batterys positive.
When the alternator is supplying a higher voltage than the battery the battery charges and the rest continues on to the rest of the truck.
Once the battery is charged it just sits there.

The only reason you wouldn't want to disconnect it while the engine is running is because it would cause a voltage spike that can kill electronics.

The buffering you mentioned occurs because the alternator doesn't produce a flat voltage.
Internally it produces a three phase AC current that get's rectified into DC.
The actuall voltage it maintains varies slightly, just like you get from any AC to DC power source.
The battery adds a little to the troughs and takes a little from the peaks smoothing it out some.