Club 80-90 Forums

Battery light came on intermittently last week and then stayed off completely . Van always started so I assumed ( mistakenly !) that maybe it was just the bulb playing up. Yesterday after a lovely day out we broke down and had to call out RAC - turns out alternator not charging and battery flat. Anyway got the van home and have taken out alternator - bearings etc seem fine - do these things have brushes like they used to years ago ? ( I 'm now showing my age ! ) Is it worth getting it refurbished or should I just buy a new one ?

Advice greatly appreiciated. ( 89 2.1 Petrol - 112K miles )

Tony

They have a brush pack which takes about 5 minutes to change with the alternator in place.

Ian.

you can replace the brush pack, two screws on the back relese it, about £12 last time i bought one from lucus
it is also the regulator

worth having a look at before spending lots on a refurb

Thanks - taken brush pack off - looks OK - brushes don't appear worn - regulator perhaps gone? Didn't realise you could replace this bit insitu - good practice though!!

Thanks for help.

Tony

Take it to an auto electricians if your not sure what's wrong. Ours stopped working in Ireland and it was a broken wire

The diodes blow which causes the red light to not light - had exactly this a few weeks ago. Cost me £40 +vat to get fixed thru a repairer. Mine blew due to not removing the alternator plug whilst welding... oops!

Now this is just from memory - try and check the haynes manual - but I seem to think there is some odd system where if the bulb isn't working on the battery dash then the battery won't charge. Change the bulb it might work again?

O'wise I took mine to a good autoelectrician. Cost 70 quid total (but you have to remove and refit). At least they can tell you if there was a fault or not. Don't want to fork out for a new one (they cost over 100) to find out it was just the bulb or an easy fix.

Electrical Auto Engineer repaired it ( £30 ) - red light now comes on and goes off as it should - tickityboo !!

Thanks for help.

Tony

So did he explain what was wrong?

Not really - I could see the brush pack/regulator thingee was replaced - probably that was it but at least he tested it was charging OK before I put it back on the van.