[landy]

Picked up a 90 amp 12v alternator for my Patrol.

Problem is that my charge light and glow lights stay on.
The alternator is charging without an issue it seems.

It is internally regulated, whereas the factory hitachi was externally regulated.

I need some help fixing up my wiring so I can get the charge light off and my glow light off.

Simonc3 said that the glow light runs of the ext regulator so I will need to bridge some wires - which wires?
Also, which wire goes to the warning light and what is the best way to wire it?

Any help would be appreciated on this one guys.

 

[neRok]

the white wire with red trace at the regulator looks as if it grounds out to turn the warning light on. unplug the regulator, doesnt seem to do anything else anyway. it has 2 wires from alterntor (no longer needed, you could just go straight to battery), earth, white-red mentioned, a brown supply from a fuse and it is hooked with white wire to battery, so doesnt do anything else as far as i can tell.
ps- i think you need to keep the globe in, im not sure how it works but the charge light is somehow tied in with the 'fuel filter warning light control unit' (as its call in my gregories).

no idea why the glow light is on, it is a yellow with green wire from the globe to the timer. the power to the globe comes off the same fuse as above (the brown wire), which is also the power to the regulator and a few other things. this fuse is powered from the white with black wire from the ignition barrel.

 

[Wish I Had Coils]

straight from my wiring, I have an internal reg, hope this helps. This is the plug the the external reg plugs to.

 

[Yendor]

How many small wire connections does the alternator have at the back? one or two? (not including the main battery connection).

There will be a least one and it will be marked with an "L".

Now going by neRok "the white wire with the red trace at the regulator" will need to be connected to the "L" at the alternator.

The second small wire connection at the alternator (if it has two) will be marked as "S" or "B", this is a battery sense and you would be best of running a wire from here straight to the positive of the battery.

This will help overcome any volt drop

 

[landy]

straight from my wiring, I have an internal reg, hope this helps. This is the plug the the external reg plugs to.[/IMG]

Thanks coils, I will bridge out the regulator plug.

Here are some images:
This is the plug that connects to the B post terminal on the alternator:

This is my factory loom that then goes to the batteries:

The thick wires with red insulation tape go to my batteries.
These are the wires that go into the back of the alternator via the oval plug:

And a new problem, no clearance between vacuum banjo and my turbo inlet

 

[OutbackMK]

Glow wire should not be connected in any way thru the regulator or alternator unless it is drawing power from the positive on the old external regulator to carry the current to the glow switch/relay and down to the plugs.
Mine has been stuffed around with a few times and probably no longer stock so no use taking photos.

Trace out the wires from the regulator with a multimeter or test light to see where they go. (sometimes the headlight pulls from a regulator also)

 

[landy]

Thanks coils, charge light is now off as is the glow light.
Alternator starts to charge once you give it a small rev.
Now to re ground my deck to see if I can get rid of the whining.

 

[Wish I Had Coils]

Always like to help where I can :victory: Thats one thing i found is the different alt is a pain in the a hole. I had to change to a different belt. went through 3 belts, 1 to big the other to small the 3rd is at the full extension of the adjuster so theres, no room for stretch. but it all works so I don't really care.

 

[landy]

Any ideas as to where I should start looking for a bad earth - ie; whirring noise through speakers, popping when turning lights on.
My batteries are in the back and i run 1 earth back to the engine. Should I run a new, shorter earth to directly below the batteries to the chassis?

 

[Wish I Had Coils]

My old escort, i had the batt in the boot and had and earth straigh to the chassis and the then in the engine bay from the chassis to the motor, Never had a problem there.

One thinkg to look at might be amp wires, I was always told to keep them seperate to stop noises coming through the stereo, Or you can get a filter that you wire to the back of the stereo.
Hope this helps.

 

[OutbackMK]

Hey Landy throw a suppressor on the alternator, (I suppose they still make them) the blinker click is a give away to RF.

 

[landy]

Thing is it never used to do it.

Only happened when I moved the batteries to the back.

My earth lead is too long perhaps?

 

[neRok]

earth everything to the body, and where you connect the wires make sure its got good contact, ie sand a little paint away. you dont want to run an earth wire from one end of car to the other.

 

[seehuusen]

I'd say that your earth lead is too long, same problem happens if you use a long earth lead on an amp in the boot (wiring the earth all the way to the front)

 

[Yendor]

I would try running an earth from the negative post of the battery to the body.

 

[landy]

Run a 20cm earth cable from the ground on the amp and bolted through the floor.
Ran another cable from the negative terminal on the auxilary battery to the same point.

This fixed the whining problem.

Another question - The 2 alternator wires that come out of the factory loom:

One of these is charge and one is powers the accessories.
My RedArc solenoid is wired in a way that the charging line is to the starting battery and teh accessories cable is to the auxilary battery.

After a long drive today, it seems as though the accessories cable does both, provides charge and also provides power to the accessories.

It seems that the cable i thought was for charging is just to supply trigger power to the starter motor.

I want it so that my amplifier, head unit, interior lights etc all run from the auxilary battery.

I want the starter battery complete isolated.

Am I going to have to chop up the factory loom in order to do this?

 

[Wish I Had Coils]

can't answer that one, I have not ventured that far in but when you work it out just post it all for us I like the idea.

 

[JET-6]

Made sticky, there is way too much good info here to lose

 

[GQ TANK]

The only way to isolate the accs would be to disconnect the acc cable at the ignition switch.

Install a solnoid/relay that is activated from the ignition acc. ( will ensure that you switch the acc off's when you remove the ignition key). You could also fit an over ride switch - if you want acc with the ign key removed.

Then use the solnoid to activate the acc supply from the second battery (fused near the battery).

Personally, i would not do this.

I use my secondary battery as a backup if I leave the lights on and flattten my main batter. (Plus run my fridge)


No External regulator

I just replaced my internal regulator alternator, the two spares that I had required external regulators. My 86 build MK does not have an external regulator OR the wiring to connect an external regulator.

 

[landy]

ive looked into this, can you give some more info on your wiring. the bridge/bypass you have done to the ext reg plug has done nothing. unless you have connected those wires (white-blue and white-black) to the new alternator, which you did not mention.

i also dont think this need to be a sticky. its funny, weve gone full circle and are back to the worst solution.

Done nothing?

It is what HAS to be done when you have an internally regulated alternator.

The shorting of those pins allows the charge light to function correctly, and for the glow relay light to function correctly as they are relying on the voltage regulator for voltage/current to work - which is now redundant.

Without those terminals bridged, the charge and glow lights stay on.
The charge light now works correctly, it comes on when the voltage is low and when the car is cranking.