Well, it finally happened! Having never let me down, my 30 year old Alfa 164 finally arrived home last night on the back of a recovery truck...
I'd driven up to Glasgow (about 150 miles) in the morning. No problems. On the way home, I'd got about 70 or 80 miles and noticed the voltmeter (yeah, remember when cars had voltmeters?!) was showing about 13 volts. About 10 miles further on, it was showing 12. Normally, it sits just over 14.
Another 10 miles after that, it was showing 11 volts and I was getting worried because I was going to have to turn the lights on soon!
I just got over the border at Gretna and I was down to 10 volts. The ABS light came on. (At NO POINT in all this, did the alternator light come on)! A mile or so later, I lost the speedometer and rev counter. Anyway, I JUST managed to get off the motorway and up the sliproad, but the first set of lights I stopped at, the engine died (not even enough to run the fuel pump). Obviously, no chance of a re-start.
Looking at it this morning, (it's been on the battery charger all night) it starts and runs fine, still no alternator light, but isn't charging. It's a pretty ordinary Bosch alternator. I have a good 12 volts on the heavy cable at the back of the alternator and a good engine earth. The battery is in the boot, but I can't find any significant voltage drop between it and the front of the car. However, there's a thin green wire which pushes on to a spade terminal on the back of the alternator, at which I'm only getting 7 or 8 volts. I'm guessing that's the wire that feeds the field coils? I'm a bit of an electrical numpty, so I could be talking rubbish here! I tried running a wire direct from the battery positive to that spade terminal to put 12V on to it, but the alternator still won't charge. That's me out of ideas now!
I'd driven up to Glasgow (about 150 miles) in the morning. No problems. On the way home, I'd got about 70 or 80 miles and noticed the voltmeter (yeah, remember when cars had voltmeters?!) was showing about 13 volts. About 10 miles further on, it was showing 12. Normally, it sits just over 14.
Another 10 miles after that, it was showing 11 volts and I was getting worried because I was going to have to turn the lights on soon!
I just got over the border at Gretna and I was down to 10 volts. The ABS light came on. (At NO POINT in all this, did the alternator light come on)! A mile or so later, I lost the speedometer and rev counter. Anyway, I JUST managed to get off the motorway and up the sliproad, but the first set of lights I stopped at, the engine died (not even enough to run the fuel pump). Obviously, no chance of a re-start.
Looking at it this morning, (it's been on the battery charger all night) it starts and runs fine, still no alternator light, but isn't charging. It's a pretty ordinary Bosch alternator. I have a good 12 volts on the heavy cable at the back of the alternator and a good engine earth. The battery is in the boot, but I can't find any significant voltage drop between it and the front of the car. However, there's a thin green wire which pushes on to a spade terminal on the back of the alternator, at which I'm only getting 7 or 8 volts. I'm guessing that's the wire that feeds the field coils? I'm a bit of an electrical numpty, so I could be talking rubbish here! I tried running a wire direct from the battery positive to that spade terminal to put 12V on to it, but the alternator still won't charge. That's me out of ideas now!
