Spiders and Low Voltage

["Jon Inge" <joninge@domain.elided>]

Ray Manners, looking for help with what sounds like a short in the a/c
wiring on is '87 Spider, mentions that:

<<At idle- A/C off- voltmeter is normal- about 12.3V>>

IS this in fact normal for Spiders?  It certainly matches the reading on my
'86, even with a brand new battery, but I've been assuming (ah, the
A-word...) that either the voltmeter or the alternator/regulator had a
problem.  Using a digital voltmeter across its terminals, the battery checks
out at 12.8-13.0v after a run long enough and fast enough that things should
have been thoroughly re-charged (the driver as well as the battery), which
seems low.  So I was looking at having the alternator rebuilt (not knowing
how to test it otherwise), but nevertheless the car's own voltmeter is still
reading lower than the actual battery level.  Is this just voltage drop in
the cables down the length of the car?  On my late lamented 164 (which is
now more nearly a 123, being about a quarter shorter than it was), the
voltmeter always read a strong 14v, and that has a similar rear-battery
layout.

All this has nothing to do with Ray's problem, but I've heard from others
that Spider voltmeters seem to read low, and just wanted to get some more
input.

All the best

Jon Inge
Edmonds WA
86 Spider (much happier to be seeing daily use again, despite the appalling
weather)
91 123 (sigh...)

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