Club 80-90 Forums

Had a search on this but drew a blank.

How long for a mechanic experienced with these vans? I've been quoted 3 hours. Sounds a lot to me... Am sure I saw a YouTube video of someone getting one out in 10 minutes (knew what they were doing).

I feel like I should be doing this myself, but on a simple job of swapping the voltage reg / brushes part, I managed to cross thread a screw, so my basic mistakes have a penalty :-/

An hour tops if you stop for a fag and a brew, expensive bit is the alternator.

Yes you should be comfortable within and hour, bear in mind you have to transfer the fan and housing over to the new alternator.

Hacksawbob wrote:An hour tops if you stop for a fag and a brew, expensive bit is the alternator.

Cheers Bob and bigherb.

Sounds like 3 hours is an inflated quote then - dare I name and shame? Given that it doesn't look like a specialist job, might try the local independent place round the corner, who have a good rep for fair billing. Or I just tackle it myself, take it steady.

The fault is intermittent. For five minutes it can be charging, then it's all over the place (I have an ammeter in the dash). Not the regulator/brushes unit as I replaced that and still wobbly.

Sounds like getting it reconned could do it, but I'm being impatient. Heading to Glastonbury in a week, and whilst I can survive the journey using my monster jump pack + two (!) extra batteries, it's all a bit of a faff on every restart. So might have to swallow the alternator cost.

Before you dive in with a new alternator, check the alternator wiring connection onto the starter motor is not loose.

Then check the regulator is making good contact with the sprung bus bar.

Is the charging light bulb loose in the dash cluster?

Maybe you have over analysing syndrome? maybe mine is all over the place, but if the light on on the dash goes out I'm not worried uninstall the guage and blissful ignorance will ensue

bigherb wrote:Before you dive in with a new alternator, check the alternator wiring connection onto the starter motor is not loose.

Then check the regulator is making good contact with the sprung bus bar.

Wouldn't that trigger the sign lamp if poorly contacted?

It should, but he didn't tell us what the LED is doing.

Hacksawbob wrote:if the light on on the dash goes out I'm not worried

But does the light turn on in the first place? If light don't work, it won't charge , simples.

If one of the LED legs isn't fitted properly it will make intermitant contact.

Not overanalysing , cheap/easy bit of trouble shooting bro

Fault showed up because I have an ammeter and voltmeter fitted. Ammeter is configured to show neg when drawing from battery, pos when charging.

The neg indication corresponds with steady decline in voltage.

There'll be occasions when it does get charge; anything from a few seconds to five minutes, but soon enough it's not charging again and the steady collapse continues.

I've meters the voltage at the alternator end and it's consistent with those readings.

Now the next challenge... where to find an alternator

JK & VW Heritage out of stock. Brickwerks have a series of web pages about not phoning them, how it's wasting their time, which leads to a page with no phone number - chortle.

So, the hunt for an alternator is on! All tips welcome

Its worth taking the regulator of the alternator and cleaning up the contacts before changing the alternator, doing that sorted charging problems on mine.

paulo999 wrote:Now the next challenge... where to find an alternator

JK & VW Heritage out of stock. Brickwerks have a series of web pages about not phoning them, how it's wasting their time, which leads to a page with no phone number - chortle.

So, the hunt for an alternator is on! All tips welcome

try googling brickwerks phone number

Just googled "Brickwerks Phone Number".

That was an eye opener