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Ignition warning light

Hi,

Trying to completely re-wire my dash with new lights, gauges, etc.

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Unfortunately i can't work out how to wire up the 'red' ignition warning light/ alternator charging light.

I've studied the 3-clock binacle and the connections to the red'bulb' (i.e. the bit I need to copy) seem to do all sort of wierd and wonderful things such as wind around the temperaure gauge needle. I've had a look around the web and am wondering if I need to somehow incorporate a Ballast Resistor?!?! I also have the Mini's wiring diagram in Powerpoint if that'll help anyone understand!

I have 99% of the bits working - any help on how to wire this last part would be greatly apprecaiated!

many thanks, Pottsy (Stoke, UK)

Reply to
Dave Potts
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One connection on the lamp connects to the +IND connection on the alternator. The wire should be brown with a yellow stripe from the alternator connector. The other connection on the lamp connects to the switched power pole of the ignition switch. This is the same pole that connects to the coil. Should be a white wire.

I think you're getting lost in the voltage stabilizer wiring. It's easy to do. I doubt your gauges use the standard voltage stabilizer so you should be able to safely ignore it.

Cheers,

Kelley

Reply to
Kelley Mascher

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The red IGN light is connected to a plain white wire and a plain brown wire. That's all.

That light is need by the alternator to charge the battery. If it's blown or missing, the alto won't charge.

Reply to
Nicholas Bales

Cheers guys - I had tried it that way round before but it would appear I was making a schoolboy error - had the LED wired back-to-front!

Thanks again, Dave

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Reply to
Dave Potts

I don't think it will work with a LED. It needs a real old-school 12V bulb.

Reply to
Nicholas Bales

Hmm, it seems to be working though - if you follow the link from my first post you can probably work out the LEDs from there; indicators & full beam are fine, Ignition warning now lights up (whether it goes off again with the engine running is yet to be discovered) and I just need to sort the low oil pressure - think there's a fault on the sender unit though.

Dave.

Reply to
Dave Potts

You may well find that it stays on and the alternator won't charge. If that happens though, you can get round it with just an extra resistor across the LED.

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

Reply to
Karl

That's not how it normally works. Alternators often expect a reasonable current to flow into the warning lamp terminal and the regulator needs that current in order to start up reliably. With an LED as the warning lamp, the alternator won't see nearly as much current as it's designed to and it may well not work.

The other problem is that some (but much less) can still sink into the warning lamp terminal even when the alternator is charging normally. It won't be enough to light a filament lamp, but it might well make an LED light up.

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

I depends on the type of alternator some don't need the current via the warning lamp for them to start charging.

Reply to
Rob

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