Battery light

When the alternator on my old TI went I drove about 20 miles before it finally conked out.

I thought your TI *is* Fishman's TI ? :)

Ooh very technical, I can see you know lots about alternators too!

A DVM on AC is pretty pointless on a car 12v DC rail. If you need to see ripple, use a scope.

And the battery is either disconnected or toast.

'Moden' cars have surprisingly high loads and as most batteries are in at best and acceptable state, dont last very long at all with no charge.

BTW that red light usually indicates that the field windings within the alternator are faulty. Basically one side of that light goes to 12v the other to the alternator, if the field is up there will also be 12v on the other side of the bulb - so it wont light, however if the field is not there it will ground the bulb and it will light. Put it this way, if the voltage coming out of the alternator is not at least 13v with the engine running at 1500rpm you have problems.

Ed

In which case it would have such a high internal impedance that the car would be unable to start anyway!!

The only damage an alternator can really do whilst inplace with a car is when the voltage regulator fails and the battery overcharges. Usually youll notice the battery in a really unhappy state before its done damage..

It is :) This is the second alternator that it's eaten :)

I think there's a heat issue somewhere - the alternator is right next to the glowing-red-hot manifold etc. which can't be good for it. Every TI owner seems to need one at some point !

What was the bill for your diff bearings by the way ?

Oi what havent you told me!!!

YEah I do actually but the answer suffices seeing as it is still under guarantee. Being as stupid as you are, I guess you're one of those silly bastards who fixes stuff under guarantee therefore not only costing you money and time but also invalidating any warranty remaining.

eh?

Er, Lordy's diff-bearings began to die. He was getting them replaced at a local gearbox place, at unknown cost.

Doesn't have any relevance to you, unless you ever need yours doing :)

It won't be an accurate reading, though, so is pretty meaningless.

Of course not but it will diagnose the problem.

Jumpleads, the dashboard went back to normal once he got a new battery, it was too late for the stereo though.

Not in my experience. A short circuit diode will superimpose little in the way of AC on the DC rail - and even then you'd need to know what the best condition read. However, a scope will show it instantly.

BWAHAHA.

ROFLMAO...

How exactly?

And unless it has a very high current across it when it goes, most diodes go O/C. THat's the idea.

I take it you know what I mean by O/C Burgerman?