In a message dated 7/6/99 10:58:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time, bill@cs.uofs.edu
writes:
> thinking of it. Any possible reason why the the idiot light is not showing
> a charging problem?? Shouldn't the light be on all the time if the system
> is not charging at all?? Is it possible that the failure of the idiot
light
> points instead to a possible wiring problem. (now that I think of it, and
> being unfamiliar with the dashboard as I have only had the car running for
> one day, I am not sure if the light comes on at all!!) Hmmmm. Now I can't
> wait to get home and look into this further.
Bill,
It is entirely possible that you have both a bad battery and a bad
alternator. The first thing to do, though, is to make sure the warning light
bulb is good. Without this lamp, the alternator probably not function. In
theory, it definately won't, but in practice, it may. The lamp is required to
get the initial field current to the alternator, so it can then "bootstrap"
itself, and generate its own field curretn. Sometimes, though, the iron in
these units can become magnetized, just like your screwdrivers, do, and the
magnetism maybe enough to allow the alternator to bootstrap.
Check out: http://www.vtr.org/maintain/alternator-overview.html
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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