Date:         Sun, 02 Apr 95 20:47:39 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: RED LIGHT!!!!

On Sun, 2 Apr 95 19:58:27 CDT you said:
>After treating my '71 Camper to a power wash and counrty cruise, I was
>rewarded with the generator light coming on while driving home. This light
>had been coming on before when I first started her up, but always went off
>after a coupla seconds....After I made it home I shut her off and tried it
>again--she started fine. Could I have gotten some wire wet?? What should I
>check first? The generator, I know, but how can I tell what's causing the
>problem?? It could be the gen., or the starter, or the volt. regulator,
>or...??? What??!! Help me out here; I'm not profesh, but I've got the Book,
>so give me some hints and then I'll hunker down to some J. Muir...

ok. calmly, calmly ... check the tightness of the belt (it will be ok), then
check the tightness of the pulley (it's in two pieces, and that big nut
holds them together, with some shims in between). the shims determine the
angle of the sides of the pulley, and how "high" the belt rides in the
"groove". my guess is that the pulley/nut will be ok as well.

so then you come to what happened to me: think back. did the light come on
after you hit a bump of some sort? like going over a bridge? :) or a pothole?
scared the hell outa me ... in the middle of a loooonnng bridge. luckily,
nobody else was on the bridge, so i stopped, ran around back to see if the
belt broke (nope), then drove off the bridge. couldn't figure it out. next
morning, everything was normal.

still worried, we drove off to the store. bump. light comes on. aha!!!
it's the generator brushes!!! :) el cheapo fix. what happens is that the
brushes wear down over the years, and after they get a certain shortness,
they'll get stuck a little bit sideways in their "slot" ... and they can't
touch the rotating part of the generator, so the light comes on: no contact.

shouldn't be more than about $3.00 for a set of brushes. be careful of the
screws and washers (that hold the braided wire part of the brush) .. they
are easy to lose!

joel