68 plymouth problems

[simon84]

So I'm posting in off topic cuz this is about my 68 plymouth fury.
I put in on the road recently to drive it around while we have summer here in Banff. That ended yesterday with a good rainstorm and some of the aspen trees are already starting to change colours (but that's another rant for another thread).
It was running alright until last night when driving it home from a hiking trip and when I was about 60km away it spluttered and stalled. I have had some issues with the battery and I had to boost it at first but it seemed to have charged up ok and been alright for the past week.
It seems that when running the car with lights, wipers and the heater fan on it was too much for the electrical system and that's why it stalled.
I got a boost and continued without the heater fan and wipers on low. I got about 15 minutes down the road and same thing happened.
I left it on the side of the highway overnight and went out today to rescue it.
I boosted it and drove most of the way home and then some more splutters and then BANG!!. Pulled over and reallized that sound was one of the mufflers exploding. I boosted it again and got home (running a little louder than before).
Any ideas on what's going on here?
Will a new battery be the fix? Is it a bad alternator? It's a new alternator from a few years ago but not many miles on it.
Any advice on how to diagnose this would be very welcomed.
I am assuming that the muffler blew due to some unburned fuel passing through and then it fired again and ignited it.
Thanks in advance for any wise insights and sage advice.
Cheers
Simon

[dlb]

simon, i'm glad you've returned to the dark side. how are the tercs?

it definitely sounds like the alternator to me. whenever i've had one go it's presented in the exact same manner. odd since the alt. in there is newer but hell, new stuff can break too. i find with a dead alternator the vehicle will slowly lose power while driving, while with a dead battery the vehicle will usually drive fine but will not start--that's my simplified rule of thumb, anyway. if it's one of those old batteries that you can remove the little caps to check the fluid level you can also take a look there, sometimes that problem can present similarly to a dead alt. if they're low they need to be topped up with distilled water, i believe.

there was a thread recently on fixing alternators, don't know if this might apply to yours but check it out just in case: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4040

i wouldn't know about the bang and the muffler exploding but what you suggest sounds plausible.

take care bud, HAPPY SHAMBHALA. omg.

[Petros]

a bad battery will not cause that since the car will run off the alternator if the alternator is working properly. These older cars almost always have a separate voltage regulator from the alternator. Do a quick test with either a volt meter, check voltage with engine off, and than with engine running, it should go up. Or you can turn on head lights with car off, and than start, head lights should get brighter, both means charging system is working. If not, I would check the voltage regulator as well as all of the connections between battery, ground and alternator. Most auto parts stores will check the alternator for free, but you have to remove it and take it to them.

Banff is an amazing place to live, I have been there a few times. I love it, but the summers are short (and not usually very warm at that).

[dlb]

back with my first tercel (an '89 coupe), i noticed the car got slightly slower on the first few cranks when starting it up. didn't think much of it at first, it continued to start like this for a few days. then i noticed it cranking even slower but still didn't worry since it seemed to drive fine. then one day my girlfriend at the time had borrowed the car to drive to work and just as she was turning left off of the highway, the car completely died and would not start. she was stuck in the oncoming traffic lane of the highway and was very lucky that someone noticed far enough away and was able to pull over and help push the car off the highway. it turned out that the battery had run dry and after filling it up, getting a jump, and letting the car run to charge the battery again, it worked fine. that's the only reason i mention the battery fluid level, although i imagine the alt. is the source of your problem simon.

banff is great once you systematically eradicate the 18-26 year old party animals that litter the streets and bars at night. did you know it's an STD capital of the world? true story!

[simon84]

The battery is toast.
Once I get a new one then I'll check the alternator.
Thanks for the tips.

[4wdchico]

Don't just check the alt. for charging, as an alt. w/ a single bad diode will often seem to charge ok. Then when you turn it off it will drain the charge in it battery.

Good resource here: http://www.aa1car.com/library/charging_checks.htm