Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,

Fairly new to the forum and have benefited greatly from all the posts and Wiki. My 1986 1.9 petrol van has recently had some electrical problems.
I recently broke down as the charge to the alternator had cut out at some point and I ended up running the battery dead.
I've had a mechanic look at the wiring which is pretty poor and the pcb which has also seen better days. The contact tabs on the pcb were folded back, worn and soldered so we have done a temporary fix . By cleaning up the PCB connectors the mechanic was able to get the alternator working properly but it may just be a matter of time until it goes again

Also by fixing the connection the buzzer of doom was activated so we tested the switch/sensor and that seemed to be faulty. After that we grounded the wire from the .9 bar sensor but still the buzzer came on so must also be a problem with the wiring somewhere. I've disconnected the green wire from the ignition coil to shut the buzzer up for now.

So both the buzzer and alternator issue seem to potentially be due to the pcb / dash cluster. I know these aren't available new so any advise on common fixes, places to find used units, or people who are experienced dealing with this issue?

Thanks

you can get silver conductive paint from Maplins (for damaged rear heater screens) which in theory can repair damaged tracks on the PCB but if the plastyic backing is damaged it probably wont unless you could somehow repalce it with something else. Best bet would be to get a replacement PCB from a breaker, just be sure its the right one there various different ones for diesel petrol etc place an add in the wanted section make sure you state engine type etc. I have temporarily fixed the multipin connector area in the past by shortening the hard plastic so the ribbon folds at a new point using a better less corroded area further up. The multipin connector never really sat tight on I think I may have used a cable tie or something to hold it in place. It would occasionally warn me about something or other but I learned to check oil and coolant regularly so they were false positives.

Thanks,

Yeh I think I'll have to find a replacement PCB for a long term fix. Also just noticed the dash lights for the indicators aren't working although the indicators themselves are functioning normally. I guess I may have caused a break in the connection when sorting out the buzzer. Just hope the battery warning light stays connected so that the alternator continues to work.