There are a number of possibilities. While the way I describe this is not
entirely electrically accurate it illustrates the operation right. There
are two seperate regulation circuits in the alternator. A big bad one to
run the car and charge the battery, and a lil teensy one to reference the
IGN light. The IGN light is tied between the two so that it glows if there
is a difference in voltage between two regulators.
A bad diode or other such problem will drag the voltage of the big regulator
down, but not the reference regulator so the voltages are different and the
light alights, as you rev the engine the voltage difference increases and
the light gets brighter.
My light went aglow this summer while I was driving through the Okeefenokee
Swamp (visiting Pogo) a zillion miles from the nearest Lucas outlet.
Stopped and checked the output of the alternator on one of them Autozone
fancy carts they roll out to check an alternator in situ. All was well,
drove the remaining 250 miles with A/C blasting, headlights burning, etc.,
got home and played with my volt meter found the main output at 14.4 volts
(i.e. perfect) but the reference was at 21! The reference regulator had
blown.
Took it to the neighborhood alternator rebuilder shop and he said he'd make
it good as new. I said NNNOOOOOO, its a Lucas better be better than new!
He found some other problems, rebuilt the whole thing and its been fine ever
since.
Jim Altman jaltman@altlaw.com Illigitimi non Carborundum
http://www.altlaw.com/metro/jaltman.html 69-TR6 76-TR7 80-TR8 W4UCK
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-triumphs@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-triumphs@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of john taylor
Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2001 2:58 PM
To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: alternator
Hello Listers,
The red ING light is on in my TR-8 and thought I plan to convert to a GM
unitI thought that I might fix this one as a spare.
So the dash lite is on low when the motor is at idle and gets brighter as
motor speed go up. It flashes in an even pulse at around 3000rpm.
I have set a volt meter at th ebattery and it shows 13v and go to high 14v
and just hitting 15v and switching. So the alernator seems to be working and
so does the regulator as you can watch it switch on the meter.
Sooooo why is the red light on ? ?
Cheers
John
******** ALWAYS BE SAFE ********
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