Date:         Sat, 14 May 2011 19:32:51 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Voltage at alternator blue D+ lead?
Comments: To: Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
In-Reply-To:  <466178.30759.qm@web45314.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 07:01 PM 5/14/2011, Poppie Jagersand wrote:
>My alternator is not charging. After various tests I found that the
>voltage on the blue D+ wire to the alternator was 5V. I looked in
>the alternator trouble shooting section in the Bentley manual. It
>doesn't list the D+ voltage. Isn't it supposed to be 12V? Could
>something be loading it down? (I already disconnected the fridge
>relay which I believe also runs on this circuit.)

It won't be +12 until the alternator starts charging.  I can't get to
mine now to check the voltage but +5 seems not unreasonable.  Pending
someone coming up with an actual reading, if your ALT light is the
same brightness as usual then I think D+ is probably ok (when it does
come up to [charging voltage] the ALT light will go out; in the
meantime there's a resistor parallel to the light which is supplying
maybe 100 ma to that terminal to allow the alternator to begin charging).

Yrs,
d