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Date:         Wed, 6 Dec 1995 10:00:29 MST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Jacob Shaun Dustin" <DUSTINO@caedm.et.byu.edu>
Subject:      Help!  '71 Generator Light

I have a big problem. On the '71, the charging system is acting all screwy. For some reason, occasionally it works, and occasionally it doesn't.

The Problem:

I was driving out to the Targhee Nat. Forest in Idaho last week. It's about 40 miles from my parent's house in Idaho Falls to Pallisaides, and the trip out went just fine. It seems that on the return leg, however, after a little while, the alternator stopped putting out voltage to run the car. For some reason the idiot light didn't come on, but the engine started missing badly, and after climbing the mother of all grades out of Swan Valley, I pulled over to check things out. The engine wasn't hot, and the battery was very, very weak ( < 25% charge). I figured the missing, etc was caused by incomplete combustion (low voltage) which probably fouled the plugs; no problem there. We towed the bus back to my parent's house, a long, cold, scary (8' tow rope, lots of stop signs and country roads; glad I just replaced the rotors) ride. Many thanks to my brother in law, Brian Christiensen for keeping me company. When we got home, we replaced the alternator with a spare bosch (see below) I had on a Beetle engine, charged the battery, and installed an ammeter to take the place of the seemingly faulty Generator light. I thought that would take care of things, but my Dad called last night to say that he took it to work on Monday (he drove it all last week w/o incident). Apparently he went over a bump in the road, and the generator light came glaring on. He was able to limp in to work with a dead battery, and a cool engine. AAARRRGH. Back to square one.

Specs:

The alternator is a Bosch internaly regulated unit, six months old. The battery is an interstate with barely four months of use. I had thought the problem was my old alternator/regulator (Motorolla), and swapped it out for the new Bosch last week. The starter is new (like that has anything to do with anything).

My Thoughts/Queries:

1. Ground straps: Where are they; could they cause the problem?

2. Generator light spookiness: How could this figure in to things?

3. Could the alternator be messed up?

4. Could the ammeter wiring be affecting things? I used 12 ga wire (the heaviest stuff I could find at night in Idaho Falls).

I've checked Muir and Bently. This is more of an old wiring thing, I suspect, than anything that they would seem to have truck with.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Shaun


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