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I was referring to the Amazon link of the Mechman, it says it's a product of China. I too thought Mechman was made in the U.S. but that link says differently. I wonder what's the truth?
Edit- I just went to their website and it clearly says "made in the U.S. since 1978"! I wonder if they know that the Amazon ad is wrong? And I notice they give 10% Military discount, awesome!
If you look at Summit and other sites that carry a sell Mechman, they all have 100% made in USA stamp. I did not look on Amazon. In any case I emailed Tony let's see what it says. The story of the company that it was started from a garage in US.
If you look at Summit and other sites that carry a sell Mechman, they all have 100% made in USA stamp. I did not look on Amazon. In any case I emailed Tony let's see what it says. The story of the company that it was started from a garage in US.
A fully charged typical lead acid car battery on the shelf like at wal-mart or whatever lets say its 95% charged never used brand new will show 12.65v generally
No car electrical system will fully charge a car battery. There are all kinds of reasons why they do that way, I believe the main one is to prevent over-charging which could cause explosion.
When you drive the vehicle and the alternator is 'charging' it puts out anywhere from 13v to 14.4v sometimes they can peak 14.6 to 15v on some vehicles. Note that a charging voltage of around 13v will not fully charge a battery- it could maintain a battery around 40% charged for example, it takes more than 13.2v to fully charge a typical car battery. If you see 13.2v~ while driving on the battery it is likely the alternator is not keeping up with the demand.
There is a wave form due to rectifiers which means the voltage is never truly a flat DC current but rather a shape with peaks and valleys. Charging is adjusted based on 'feedback' either using the alternators internal regulator or in conjunction with the ECU's own control algorithm (programming).
Lets say your alternator is putting out 14.4v and is 'fully' charging a car battery while you drive (perhaps 90 to 95% charged?). When you immediately shut off the engine, the battery will check out at around 13.7 to 13.9v due to a 'surface charge' a phenomenon where ions dissolved in electrolytic solution act like a capacitor stationed around the acid solution near metal plates which contain the source/sink of ions for the solution. After about an hour or three the surface charge will dissipate (as capacitors do over time depending on size and density of charge etc...) and the battery will return to its native 12.65~v like they are on the shelves when new. Or however high it can be charged given the conditions of its internal plate 'cells'.
And so this is a difficult topic to discuss for what seems to be a relatively simple system on a vehicle in depth, like with many other things it seems simple at first but the deeper you go... yeah. Lets say the battery has been drained 50% but its been charging at 14.4v for a while. You shut off the engine and the 50% full battery can still present you with a 13.3 to 13.5v surface charge even though it’s pretty much half dead. Come back a few hours later and it’s12.2v or whatever. Not good. The surface charge obscures the true base charge of the electrolytic plates dissolving in acid solution. It is therefore necessary to determine the state of a battery's charge only once the surface charging wears off.
Now having it longer I made more observations. The last alternator only kept status quo. This one charges the battery 100 percent after driving in city traffic for 50 miles. Yesterday I left with 12.42 volts, after 50 mile drive it showed 12.77 with surface charge. Next morning 12.67. I definitely do not have to put it on a charger any more as long as I drive at least once a week for some distance which I always do anyways.
My take, for the lads that just have to run the A/C in stop and go traffic, the billet 170amp 6 pole is the way to go, since it puts out over 45amps at idle, while the stock 3 pole valeo puts out less than 15 amps at idle instead. Why is the amp at idle important, if AC is on, it makes the radiator fan come on, which is pulling about 18 amps on it own.
As for valeo unit, and these of us that don't use the A/C much to begin with, no reason to throw baby out with bath water, since rebuild kit is less than $30 dollars.
Hence new front and back bearings, new slip ring, and new brushes (that they throw in a extra sent, encase you need to replace the again down the road..
So new bearings, pop the seals and give them a touch more high temp grease so they will last to start with, and on the slip ring once replaced, nice to have a lathe handy, to surface the slip ring after it has been replaced, to get them to Zero run out in the end, so it not eating up bushings until is does wear true.
Mechman 170 installed today and I am a happy camper.
14.2 output in gear at idle with a full power load (AC on high, defogger on, all lights on, radio blasting, radiator fan on, windows being lowered, flashers on, wipers on high and power seat being moved).
14.7 output at cold start up (see pic) with no load.
The only downside is the shiny finish on the machined finish model.
01-13-2024, 04:14 PM
