WTF?? battery 30V ?

[grouchyandugly]

yesterday I took my 41 Mercury for a drive.... ha... some 2 miles and it shut down with no warning... lots of "motion lotion"... no "fire". got it pulled home. this A.M. I checked to see if I was getting juice to the ign switch..nothing… this is a 12V now. … so.. checked my battery!! HOLY SNOTSUCKERS!!! READS 30volts!! I have 2 spare 12V batteries so I checked them, and they were 13V & 14V. I have a one-wire alternator hooked up. some 6 months or so in use to this point. double checked, and the dumb meter still indicates 30V.
WTF??? I have not turned on my lights, etc., afraid of blowing them out again. any suggestions, comments, HELP, would be appreciated!!

[Bob C]

Bad voltage regulator is my guess.

[joe 1950]

50 plus years doing automotive repair on numerous vehicles never came across this kind of voltage on a 12 volt system possible battery shorted out ?? try a good known battery keep us posted

[Terry,OH]

Is your voltmeter digital or analog with a pointer? Did you check the 30V with the engine running? If you have 30V on the battery why is there no 30V on the ignition switch? Ford did not fuse the ignition switch. Has the car been rewired? previously did you burn out your headlights?

[deuce_roadster]

I don't think it is possible chemically for a 12 v battery to store 30volts. You must have made this measurement with it running and the alternator is messed up. 1 wire alternators are internally regulated.
Unhook battery cables and check the battery voltage again.

[grouchyandugly]

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well. here goes. this is a one-wire Alternator (does not go to the regulator). the voltmeter is digital; and the 2 spare batteries I checked checked okay. she shut off completely with no warning. will not start. starter works great. could not find voltage at the ignition switch (or maybe I am doing that incorrectly). car has not been rewired. BLEW out my headlights when I first hooked up my 12V alt. looked inside the battery fill hole, still liquid covering the lead. cannot get it running so I cannot check the output of the Alternator at this point in time. where/how could I hot-wire this up to the ignition switch?? (which is orig). have 12V gauges for Temp & Water Pressure.... those still work when their switch is turned on (they are lighted up when turned on also). so?? stay safe. thanks

[petehoovie]

Now that you " cannot get it running", what is the voltage measurement at the battery?...

[grouchyandugly]

30 Volts!! have rechecked and unbelievable, but it is what it is and I is in a duhhhhhh moment… hee hee. rechecked my other 2 12V batteries, reading is "normal".... stay safe thanks

[petehoovie]

Do you have an analog meter? If so, take a measurement with it...

[grouchyandugly]

whoa.... something SCREWY here (including me). checked again with my dumb dirtyword cotton-picking nose-sucking finger-licking multimeter... it has a 6V & 12V positions... but still read a mind-numbing 30Volts.... so... then... I reset my meter to 200V (different section of my multimeter, and it now comes out as 12.7Volts!! so. I find that more reasonable than 30V. my dumb dirtyword meter is not a "budget" model and just some months old. so, now I have to find out why i'm not getting juice to the ignition switch.... (question: can I run a hot wire to the ignition switch under the steering wheel? and which wire would be the "hot wire" ???). there are 3 wires on the ignition switch..... think I will buy another meter and use 2 so this "murphy" won't screw me up again. stay safe. thanks

[Alaska Jim]

wire from the hot side of the battery to the dist side of the coil to get spark to the plugs, and jump across the solenoid to get it to crank over, if the coil, points and condenser are good and you are getting fuel, it should start. yes you can just run a hot wire from the battery to the terminal on the ign. sw. that is normally the hot terminal when the sw. is off

[koates]

From your crazy worded description of the fault I think you may have a faulty connection or broken wire (open circuit) in the battery supply to the main wiring of the car. A bad connection at the starter solenoid, or ammeter if it has one ,or at the fusebox/circuit breaker under the dash. Where is the alternator battery wire connected into the main wiring harness ? Very carefully do a visual check of all those connections. Regards, Kevin.

[JSeery]

This is a Ford switch, but the Mercury should be similar.

[Hoop]

Are you guys sure you want this guy hot wiring anything??? Next thing he's going to want to do is install an electronic ignition because he's not getting any spark.

He's probably already done some damage. Set it on fire once.

He's received some bad advice along the way. Let's don't make it worse.

[petehoovie]

That's a BIG 10-4 on that last WTF,...Over...

[Art Newland]

Any chance the meter is showing millivolts and the battery flat.

[J Franklin]

Originally Posted by Art Newland

Any chance the meter is showing millivolts and the battery flat.

He is checking more than 1 battery and only reading high on one of them. I hope they are all being checked with the cables removed so everything is equal.

[grouchyandugly]

update. whoeee…. took Battery to Oreilly's, they said it was bad, but, but it registered 12.7VOLTS and not the 30V indicated on my dirtyword multimeter. (which will be used as a hammer later one). still no juice from ignition. buddy told me how to hot wire it.. did so, she fired up and I now have her back under protection. still have that ignition problem (wire, etc). I had spent $30 on the dumb (me actually) multimeter... think I will stick with analog meters hereafter. BIG RELIEF. thanks to all for support (and, ha, disbelief!!). stay safe. thanks

[philipswanson]

Originally Posted by grouchyandugly

update. think I will stick with analog meters hereafter.

Digital meters are much more accurate and seldom go bad if they are a quality meter.

[koates]

Digital multimeters tend to pick up interference from generators and high tension ignition circuits sometimes and can give erratic readouts. That's why analogue meters work better on vintage cars, especially if testing generators and voltage regulators. Regards, Kevin.