[Unknown User]

Thanks to all who made suggestions over the last few days on my '73 with coolant leaking into the combustion chambers, I don't have it fixed yet, but I'm going to tear it down again this weekend and check the head again, then if all's ok I'm going to very carefully put it back together. With my fingers crossed! I now have another problem, and if you Z people don't mind I'd like to ask advice even though it's not a Z. It's my daughter's '86 Suzuki Samurai. It is a VERY simple car, but I'm baffled. A week ago her battery went dead, it would not hold a charge for more than a day, so I put a new one in. After a couple of days the new one was dead. I then to be 100% safe replaced the alternator and battery cables...thats every thing in the charging system. After a day, the car died again. Right now I am at a loss. I suppose that the new (rebuilt) alternator could be bad, but I really don't think so. Any ideas?? The voltage regulator is in the alternator, even the Suzuki Factory repair manual has no other suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Unknown User]

> Thanks to all who made suggestions over the
> last few days on my '73 with coolant leaking
> into the combustion chambers, I don't have
> it fixed yet, but I'm going to tear it down
> again this weekend and check the head again,
> then if all's ok I'm going to very carefully
> put it back together. With my fingers
> crossed! I now have another problem, and if
> you Z people don't mind I'd like to ask
> advice even though it's not a Z. It's my
> daughter's '86 Suzuki Samurai. It is a VERY
> simple car, but I'm baffled. A week ago her
> battery went dead, it would not hold a
> charge for more than a day, so I put a new
> one in. After a couple of days the new one
> was dead. I then to be 100% safe replaced
> the alternator and battery cables...thats
> every thing in the charging system. After a
> day, the car died again. Right now I am at a
> loss. I suppose that the new (rebuilt)
> alternator could be bad, but I really don't
> think so. Any ideas?? The voltage regulator
> is in the alternator, even the Suzuki
> Factory repair manual has no other
> suggestions. Thanks!

I have personnaly owned two of these neat little 4x4's. They don't get the best gas mileage (even w/a 1.3l), ride real rough, and handle like a shopping cart. None the less, a fun alternative to the cookie cutter style cars that plague our streets. Anyway I went through many alternators, so what I ended up doing was replacing it with a toyota alternator I had lying around. It came out of a 1980 4x4 pickup, and bolted right up(with some washers as spacers). Cured all charging probs. It is also best because it has an external regulator, which makes it easier to troubleshoot if a prob. comes up.
Hope this helps
JN
ps Find a parts store that will test the charging system (bench tester or a rollaway unit), and make sure first.

 

[Unknown User]

Has she by any chance had any new electrical gadgets installed? A friend of mine had the same problem. After replaceing everything twice thinking he got a bad rebuilt one the battery still drained over night. It turned out that the so-called ecpert installers at the local electronics store had wired his new stereo, amp and security system wrong. Don't know if this helps but just some info to look at.