no power

[southpaw]

hi, i bought a new battery for my e30 about 6 months ago,the car is off the road as i am repairing the bodywork,last time i had the engine running was week before xmas.went to start it up this weekend no power at all.got a battery charger on it for nearly 24 hours still nothing although the lights on the dashboard lit up as soon as i disconnected the battery charger nothing.but when you put a set of jump leads on it fires up straight away,then when you disconnect the jump leads the power in the engine drops off.this made me think that either the battery charger is not working or the battery has got no charge because the car is not being run regularly.i have now got a differant charger on to see if it makes a differance.anyone got any other thoughts to this problem please help cos its really pissing me off!

[billgatese30]

could be a dodgy alternator, this could be when you disconnect the jumpleads then there is no power getting to the ignetion to keep the engine ticking over. try an alternator from the scrapyards or try keeping the car running using jump leads and put a multimeter across the two terminals of the alternator and it sould read about 13 volts...oif not then its screwed.

[southpaw]

forgive my ignorance im new to these sites but what is oif mean.but thanks for the help anyway.

[billgatese30]

sorry, my mistake, should just say if.

...if not then its screwed.

sorry mate

[Simon]

Definteley sounds like an alternator problem, obvious question, but is the belt connected, or is it slipping?