Date:         Thu, 24 Jul 2014 17:32:22 -0700
Reply-To:     Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Subject:      Re: Help diagnosing a red battery light
In-Reply-To:  <CAB8jFUsqsA0q1y9EMP7tVjuX6iMoq1OC9h0B87hSXWhiijBRMg@mail.gmail.com>
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On the blue wire at the battery.


>On Friday, February 7, 2014 4:35:45 PM, Fuzzy :philippe <fuzzmeister@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
 
>Something similar happened before and it was the small blue wire that

>was disconnected on the alternator. 
 This is for an '82 Diesel Westy

So I had also mistakenly had the blue wire near the battery come off. Alt light was on. However surprisingly to me the alternator still charged. (This was even after stopping and waiting several days and starting again (before finding the problem))

I measured voltage on the alternator field coil terminal. With ignition key off I had 0.15V on it. Now when disconnecting the blue wire from the battery this voltage increased to 0.5V. Very puzzling to me. It stayed 0.5V regardless if ignition was on or off (with engine not running). So I thought maybe there is an accidental  connection from always on 12V to someplace in the alternator/fridge relay circuit.

Then I checked current from the battery with ignition off: 10mA. This seems reasonably low. What currents do others measure?

How is the field coil circuit supposed to function?

thanks,
Martin (and '82 Westy 1.9TD)