Russell,
Me thinks your generator cut out relay on the
voltage regulator is sticking on, or is poorly adjusted.
Why?
The key is in your staement:
>with
>the ignition switch in the completely off position the ignition warning
>light is on. The only way to kill the light is to disconnect the battery.
The voltage regulator is supposed to open the dynamo (generator) from the
batter A and A1 terminals, when the charge voltage is less than the battery,
or if the dysnamo voltage is less than about 10v.
There are 2 relevant relays on the early regulator, the cutout, which
essentially acts as a diode on an alternator, and the field strength
relay, which does the actual voltage regulation.
Looks like your cut-out is welded shut, or out of adjustment.
Cheers, and good luck.
Jarrid Gross
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alpines@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-alpines@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Russell Maddock
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 2:34 PM
To: Alpine List (E-mail)
Subject: charging problem
I seem to have an interesting problem with my Alpine.
When I drive it with the headlights on, it's draining the battery. If I try
to restart it there's not enough charge left in the battery to turn the
engine over enough to fire. When I first put the car back on the road I left
the generator in place for the sake of simplicity. So I've been thinking the
generator isn't charging properly and it's time to do something about the
alternator that I always intended to fit.
However I've just discovered a couple of other disturbing problems.
The first one is that after driving with the lights on the ignition warning
light comes on when I switch off the ignition. Just to clarify that, with
the ignition switch in the completely off position the ignition warning
light is on. The only way to kill the light is to disconnect the battery.
When I reconnect the battery after everything has cooled down, the light is
then off.
Second thing is something I discovered the other night when I managed to
stall it in the driveway (d'oh). I thought I'd just jump start it and drive
it into the garage, but it turned out to be not so easy. I tried hooking my
jumper leads up first to a spare battery and then to another car, but
whatever I tried I couldn't get enough juice to kick the engine over enough
to fire.
So now I'm thinking this might be two different problems. Maybe the ignition
switch is also faulty?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks
Russ
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