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Regarding 1981 242 4-cylinder non-Turbo: I have a glowing alternator light that shows up pretty bright at night. I was down at the Interstate Battery shop disposing of an old battery today and asked the man if he could give my car a quick test of the charging system. He does this all the time for people. So he has me get in the car and start it. After it starts, while it's running, he disconnects the negative battery cable before I even know it. Having heard horror stories on the Brickboard about how you're never supposed to do this because you can do major damage to the electrical system, I about have a heart attack. The guy acts like he knows what he's doing, takes a couple of measurements with a meter with the cable disconnected and the engine running, and says my alternator is charging, but not enough. About 20 seconds have gone by I turn off the engine.
What am I missing here? Or what is the guy missing? I drove the car home, about three miles, and it runs just like before. There's no apparent damage. Is it possible something was weakened or damaged by this guy doing this? I checked in Bentley and it says in the battery section "Do not disconnect the battery cables while the engine is running. The alternator will be damaged." Plus I've read many times on the Brickboard about how you're not supposed to do this. I was surprised when he disconnected the negative cable with the engine running. I asked him about this and he says he does it on all cars. Did he toast anything on my car? What's the deal?
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Thanks everyone for all the information and advice, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, stock, B21F (non-Turbo), M46; 86 244, B230, 140k , auto.
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