Car Alternator

Charge to fix what was originally broken, loose earth/wire : R0

Charge to fix all the sh#t the op has broken in the meantime : R####s

:crylaugh:

We must try keep the thread going though, op have you dropped the sump yet to check if the oil pickup is clear??
 
airborne said:
Charge to fix what was originally broken, loose earth/wire : R0

Charge to fix all the sh#t the op has broken in the meantime : R####s

:crylaugh:

We must try keep the thread going though, op have you dropped the sump yet to check if the oil pickup is clear??
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Absolutely true.
 
Trust|Nobody said:
The B+ terminal is the same as this B:
View attachment 513903

Therefore it cannot be the S connection.
Am I right?
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Wrong, check the diagram I posted earlier, the S terminal is connected to B+(battery) through a fuse. You can even forget about the missing S cable and do your own if you want, one end connected to the positive terminal, a fuse closer to the battery and the other end goes to the S terminal.
 
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chromedome said:
The bolt in your pic of the Bosch B+ is not ground, it goes to battery + the D+ goes to ign.

Edit: Wrt your original post, If I can recall correctly (senility is approaching fast),if you remove the regulator you will see a metal contact strip between regulator and alternator, this corrodes causing the light to stay on. Clean with some fine sand paper and it's good to go.

This was on an old 1992 citi golf I had, but could be you have the same problem ,easy enough to check.
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What if he's right?
What if I just need to sand down the old voltage regulator?

It could explain how I mysteriously acquired power on Thursday.

Trust|Nobody said:
That's true, I totally forgot to mention something.
The discharge warning light was on since Monday.
Friday the car battery was completely dead.

On Thursday evening on my way home in the evening, the instrumentation and headlights began fading before my eyes. I knew the battery was getting closer to death. Suddenly out of know where the instrumentation and headlights shot up to full power. And the discharge warning light went off for the first time since it started on Monday. I thought yippee, the problem is gone.

I arrived home about 20 minutes later. I parked my car and switched it off. I wanted to see if the discharge warning light would come back on and it did! (After I switched the engine off and restarted it) Damn I thought, back to square one.

What I want to point out is that just suddenly while on the N1 the power shot up and the discharge warning light went out.
What could have caused that?
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thechamp said:
That yellow cable should be your ignition wire which connects to IG on you alternator as well as one end of your charging lamp. You now have three, one to go, the L.
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Perhaps the Bosch was using the B+ for the S information.
Although the image you shared clearly said not to do that.
So what was the Bosch using for L?

This site as a nice explanation of the many terminal meanings on an alternator:
https://jasoceania.co.nz/articles/alternator-terminals-explained
 
thechamp said:
I'll be back a little later, we'll talk about the L.
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It seems the warning light L may be an inherent part of the system:

"When the ignition key is turned ON , current flows from the battery, through the charging system indicator light on the instrument panel, to the voltage regulator, and to the alternator. Since the alternator is not producing any current, the alternator warning light comes on. When the engine is started, the alternator begins to produce current and turns the alternator light off."

That's from:
https://www.autozone.com/repairinfo/repairguide/repairGuideMain.jsp?pageId=0900c15280215e89

So it may be that a separate cable for L is not necessary that's why the Bosch doesn't have one. And judging from the operation of my warning light this makes sense, it stays on only when there's low voltage in the system. For instance the warning light will come on when the ignition is in the ON position only if the battery voltage is low, once the engine starts and the alternator kicks in the warning light goes off. The past week was the first time the warning light did not go off once the engine started. This meant the alternator was not producing enough voltage.
 
I know you wanted to save yourself the hassle and buy new. But should you not just reconditioned your old alternator as it was design to fit your car. If you really want to go did. Years ago I actually found my car manual (haynes) at the local library.
 
Ok, so as far as testing it... Assuming we eventually reach this stage:

1) Set your multimeter to DC Volts. Either 20v or 200v setting should be fine.
2) Test the battery voltage with the car off. Red lead to positive terminal. Black lead to negative terminal. It should be about 12.5v after you charged it.
3) With the car running, increase the engine RPM to about 2000+ whilst measuring the battery voltage same as before. If the alternator is working, the battery voltage should now read higher than the original 12.5v, perhaps as high as 14 or 15v.
 
12.6 volts
Fully charged automotive batteries should measure at 12.6 volts or above. When the engine is running, this measurement should be 13.7 to 14.7 volts. If you don't have a multimeter to tell you the voltage of your battery, you can do a test of your electrical system by starting the car and turning on the headlights.
Source:https://www.google.co.za/search?q=c...droid-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
 
airborne said:
This is a very good charger, for such a deeply discharged battery a 4amp charger maynot be enough to wake it up properly :

https://www.midas.co.za/pebble.asp?relid=1739&t=75Yes, so the gas can escape without building up pressure inside the battery.

Even if you totally flatten a battery they often perk up again after a good charge, apparently you can flatten a battery twice before the battery gets properly hammered, each time it happens it does reduce the battery's life though.
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I find this hilarious! Buying off the internet, when the "specs" for the product amount to:

Material: Plastic
Color: Black
Origin: China
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Pathetic !
 
Freshy-ZN said:
Just be advised that a lot of batteries these days are sealed and you wont be able to remove the caps. If this is the case they have a valve to release gas build up so the advice to to it in an open environment holds true.

Reading the thread I cant help thinking that its not the alternators or batteries that are the problem but a dead short somewhere
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The first piece of really good advice in this thread!
 
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