355 How do you check the charging system?

With the battery buried in the front fender and the alternator all the way at the bottom, against the firewall, I can't see a place to see how many volts this car is putting out. How can I check the charging system?

I'm wondering if the alternator or battery are going down as each time I plug it into my battery tender it takes two full days to reach a "full" charge according to my CTEK. I would expect it to be closer to a couple of hours at most if everything was healthy as I always store it on a tender.

 

This:

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Alternatively, you can check the volts at the fuses in the frunk or in the passenger footwell. Some of the fuses have live battery power on them.

Frunk:
Headlight motor controller
RH Headlight motor
LH Headlight Motor
Radio
Hazard Warning lights

Passenger footwell:
Fuel injector power (Two fuses on Motronics 2.7 car, one on 5.2 car)
Secondary Air Pump
RH Electric Windows
LH Electric Windows
Roof Lights and Doorlocks

 

meter on battery. + to +, - to -. 12V with car off. more than 12V with car on ...usually 13.8 to 14.1.

 

I think "squid" was looking for a way to check the battery without having to pull the wheel off and the fender liner.

If you didn't want to pull your car to pieces, you could also check the volts at the engine compartment battery bus bar (on the right hand side)...

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Lift the flap with the red + sign on it and put your red voltmeter probe to any of the terminals... and your black voltmeter to probe to the big earth bolt next to the box with the red + sign on it.

Some owners attach their trickle chargers to this anyway.

Make sure your battery cutoff switch is not in cutoff.

 

Bingo, thank you. I can't believe I missed that!

 

yeah...don't listen to a 348 owner with a rear battery...LOL

sjd

 

14.64 volts, must just be my tender trying to top off a dying battery. Thanks all