mid 90's accord alt warning light

New to this group - have UK june 90 accord 20li

The battery warning lamp has begun to stay on at start up - especially when very cold weather, then goes off OK once the car is warmed up a while. Searching posts here - I'm suspecting brushes or bad connection.The belts were replaced a while back and are tight.

Strangely, the ABS light is also coming on with it sometimes, then going off with it. This I really don't understand, as this only comes on if I have a fault on the brake light, bulb etc.

With regard connections - does the alt.charging wire go to battery terminal or to the starter motor pos. I have an extra small gauge wire connecting in to the main battery pos terminal?

On the brushes - are these serviceable ? I have air con as well, so to get the thing out, just to check it over, is a real pain.

I haven't yet tried a mult meter across the battery terminals at tick over with the light ON - as its stopped doing it now the weather is warmer ! I was getting 14.2 volts on the old battery with engine running at start up - so there would seem no problem when it is ok. The real test would be the voltage at the battery with the light ON, engine running, but the last couple of days its ok. Any tips for removing the alternator on UK right hand drive, air con model - I have heard its awkward ! Thanks - Geoff, Bristol UK

I'd first do what you are about to do and check the voltage on the battery with the car running. It may not be the alternator at all because the ABS is not really related to it. Of course, it could be that you are having two problems (alternator and ABS) but that is far less likely to happen at the very same time.

You may want to check the connections from the battery to the alternator -- they should be fairly direct and certainly not very thin gauge wire. Also check the ground. You could try using a booster cable to determine wheter you have a bad ground somewhere or not: use the negative (black) side only and let the positive (red) side dangle, not hooking it up to anything. Place the black clamp on your battery terminal and start bridging points that should be grounded (make sure that they should be grounded, because you could do damage if they are normally not grounded). For instance, go from the battery (-) to the chassis, then to the engine, to the alternator, possibly to frame piece in your dash. When you bridge and the symptom disappears, you have found youself a clue as to what ground connection is not making good contact. You will obviously still need to find this connection, because driving around with a booster cable dangling around your engine compartment looks pretty silly :)

Remco