Club 80-90 Forums

On my 1.9 petrol watercooled my battery charge light on the dashboard doesnt come on at all.
Now ive had the alternator off and checked out to be ok at a specialist and ive had the instrument panel off and checked the led is ok. Which points to the wiring.
The original blue charge wire isnt used and has a separate wire connecting to a fuse box under the rear seat which connects to a relay (the split charge relay) i assume.To here the wire continuity is ok then the wiring dissapears under the fridge. Thats where im stuck ,any help from here to sort this out and should the charge light wire from the alternator be 12 volts because it rings through to earth.
Cheers

What year van? Slight differences with the mebrane PCB components on pre 85 and onwards. With no engine running the wire from the Dash circuit that links to the LED is effectively linked to chassis through the Alternator (LED lights up....), with engine running and Alt spinning same wire will read 12V (LED goes out as ther is no longer a path to earth so to speak). The LED gets it voltage from the 12V ignition feed at the membrane panel and, via several components, exits from the multiconnector directly to the Alternator. Possible faults are:-

The wire at the multiconnector pin/socket isn't making good contact (which pin depends on year of van)

The wire has a break in it somewhere

The connection at the alternator is poor

The blocking diode (post 85 only) or LED series resistor has had it (rare and unlikely)

the LED legs are tarnished and not making a good connection in the socket or LED fitted wrong way round


Check the connection at the alternator and renew it if it looks corroded, directly connecting this wire to engine block with the ignition on should result in the LED lighting, also check that you have a voltage at the same wire with it disconnected fom the alternator and ignition on.