I have a strange thing happening to a 89 Westfalia. The alternator is not charging the battery anymore so I assumed it to be a bad alternator. I put a new alternator in, started the camper with a new battery and while the engine is running disconnected the negative terminal from the battery and the engine instantly stops as if the alternator is bad. Knowing that the alternator is new I started looking around for some other electrical problem and noticed a brown/black substance comming out of the solenoid and dripping on the wires and engine shield under it. It feels like wax/grease combination and seems to be whatever the solenoid is filled with probably an insulation of some type. The solenoid is the cylinder mounted on the left side wall of the engine compartment and from it one wire goes to the distributor cap and several smaller wires go elsewhere. I just went ahead and replaced the solenoid and still no power from the alternator. I measured the voltage at the alternator terminal with the engine running and it is OK. No battery light comes on in the dash at any time not even when starting the engine Any suggestions where the problem is? Thanks for any advice. Sorin |
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