Uh oh! She just died. Options

[Amphicar770]

Per earlier post, picked up from shop today. Drove to work, running great. Driving home, running great although I notice volts reading less than 12v, temp gauge not working.

Almost home, a few blocks away. Going down hill. Huh, did engine cut out. Why, yes it has. Turn key. It cranks but no start. As if no spark or no fuel. Coil feels quite hot if that matters. By side of road now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[Amphicar770]

Hmm, may not be the coil after all.

When I picked it up from shop I noticed voltmeter gauge was only reading about 10.x Volts.

After it died it had plenty of juice to crank the starter but when I got home and hooked up charger it confirmed 10.x volts and showed about 10% charged. After charging, it is back up and car Meter reads 13+ until I turn on the lights. The charger has an option to show alternator percentage and that is only at 25%.

I'll have to check at battery with voltmeter. Will confirm belt did not break but I am thinking it could be voltage regulator whic is original. I did have alternator rebuilt by reputable local shop before I put engine back in. Alternator wire harness is new as are the battery cables and ground strap at tranny.

[pbanders]

Hmm, may not be the coil after all.

When I picked it up from shop I noticed voltmeter gauge was only reading about 10.x Volts.

After it died it had plenty of juice to crank the starter but when I got home and hooked up charger it confirmed 10.x volts and showed about 10% charged. After charging, it is back up and car Meter reads 13+ until I turn on the lights. The charger has an option to show alternator percentage and that is only at 25%.

I'll have to check at battery with voltmeter. Will confirm belt did not break but I am thinking it could be voltage regulator whic is original. I did have alternator rebuilt by reputable local shop before I put engine back in. Alternator wire harness is new as are the battery cables and ground strap at tranny.

I just scanned through this topic, and it reads like about a zillion "car died" or "won't start" thread. One observation (a possibly hot coil) gets turned into a whole explanation (despite his reading 12V or less before the car died), and it ends up probably being the charging system.

You have to be methodical when finding the cause of a stall or a no-start condition. You may think you know why, and you're wasting time checking mechanical, charging, fuel supply, ignition, and injection/carbs from a checklist, but it's the mechanic-proven way to diagnose and fix these problems.

There are a number of checklists you can find on Google, I'm working on one that's specific to our cars, that quickly verifies operation of each system so that you don't spend tons of time doing diagnostics. Hope to have it done in the next couple of weeks, we can review it here and make corrections/additions, and maybe we can make it a sticky that we can send people to when they have these kind of issues.