Bob - a charging system question??

[DanEC]

Too cold and windy right now to get the car out where I can run it but I have run through all of the continuity and voltage checks with the engine off.

1. Ignition on/engine off - voltage from Y/P wire at VR harness plug to VR ground - 12.5V

2. Voltage from Y/R wire in VR plug to battery (+) terminal - 12.7V

3. Verified all wires on alternator, VR plug and on fuse box are in the correct position.

4. Continuity W/B wire at VR plug to alternator connection for stator - Yes. Continuity to ground - No.

5. Continuity U/B wire at VR plug to alternator field connection - Yes. Continuity to ground - Yes??????

6. Continuity orange wire at alternator to fuse block at VR fuse - Yes. Continuity to ground - No.

7. Continuity through VR fuse - Yes.

8. Continuity of G/R wire at VR plug to dash light - Yes. Oddly, I have the parallel resistor wired in place and when I disconnected one wire from the light I only had continuity through one of the two leads. It seems like it should have circled through the resistor to the other side with the disconnected lead. May be nothing.

9. Anyone ever toy with testing continuity through a VR. On the solid state one I got no continuity between any of the terminals which may well be because of the solid state hardware.

On the Mechanical Regulator I have continuity as follows:

I to F and S

A none

S to F

F to I and S

Probably means absolutely nothing. I see nothing amiss inside the regulator such as poor solder joints or anything.

Does it seem right that the field connection off of the VR plug shows continuity to engine ground?

Thanks in advance for any observations from this.

[strictlypersonl]

Originally Posted by DanEC

8. Continuity of G/R wire at VR plug to dash light - Yes. Oddly, I have the parallel resistor wired in place and when I disconnected one wire from the light I only had continuity through one of the two leads. It seems like it should have circled through the resistor to the other side with the disconnected lead. May be nothing.

I'm not sure I that understand your description, but if you actually have an LED for the light, it will act like a diode.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by strictlypersonl

I'm not sure I that understand your description, but if you actually have an LED for the light, it will act like a diode.

I pulled one connection to the light and tested continuity to the connected lead and to the disconnected lead. I didn't get a signal on the disconnected lead coming (I think) from the tach. Normally I would not expect to, but I thought with the resistor in parallel to the light, that I would still get connectivity to the disconnected lead from across the resistor. I've used a multi-meter to check ballast resistors in the past to see if they are intact and not burned through.

I guess I need to check continuity across that 5W resistor and make sure it is functional.

[DanEC]

The resistor is OK and the light is a filiment bulb. I think I just didn't stab a good connection to it while upside down under the dash. Hopefully tomorrow will be better outside and I can re-run the checks with the engine running.

[DanEC]

Well - it's finally charging anyway. It looks like the resistor did the trick as I ran it with both voltage regulators (solid state and mechanical) and both worked. I think my initial try failed because my optimism in post 9 above was apparently misplaced and I could and did screw up installing the resistor and harness the first time - I think I managed to plug the resistor into itself. That appears to also be why I couldn't get continuity across the light leads that Bob couldn't understand. So much for cramming yourself under a dash and trying to work on little things with bi-focals.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by DanEC

So much for cramming yourself under a dash and trying to work on little things with bi-focals.

I guess I should have passed this tip on to you about 100 pages ago into your build thread:
Spray the underside of your cowl and dash flat white so when working upside down with your droplight, it's like Broadway without glare under there...much easier to see.