Ignition trouble re-surfaces (long)

...,.hmmm. Interesting cunundrum. I'd take a good hard look at the ground connection from battery to body, and from boddy to transmixer first. Once those are confirmed clean and tight, move on and make sure the positive connection is clean and tight on starter. If all those check out fine....might wanna take a close gander at the ignition seitch as a potential culprit.

...Gareth

Replaced with new grounding strap after second Incident. At same time I replaced the battery's +12 lead to/from starter/alternator. But nevertheless, this is goodly advice and I'll be poking a prodding all the connections a bit later this morning.

Uh -- what's a transmixer?

If the connection to the start was bad, say it fell off, that would not light the GEN lamp. It gets its + voltage feed from the alternator. If the ground connection from the battery to the chassis was bad, then that lamp could not even light in the first place.

A failed ignition switch /could/ cause the sudden engine stop. It /could/ cause the starter to refuse to kick over, and it /could/be responsible for it being willing to start again 15 minutes later. The wiring from the switch to the starter has been upgraded with a starter relay.

But I don't know if a failed ignition switch could cause those tach spikes, its high reading, nor could it cause the headlights to start dimming on the way home last night and the gen light to start to brighten at the same time. I may be dealing with more than one problem.

I'm now thinking something is shorting out intermittently. Tranmixer is transmission. Biggy ground strap at front left. I would check every place a wire might have been disturbed / moved / re-routed / touched / considered / looked at while doing the engine removal and replacemet. As soon as you're ready, you can help me with my tranny problem! - BH

Others folks

my top post

a slew of

Squirrel Elliott"

wrote:

look at the

At same time I

starter/alternator. But

prodding all

make sure

that would not

alternator. If

bad, then that

ignition

stop. It

/could/be

later. The

with a starter

those tach

headlights to start

start to

one problem.

Now wouldn't that fall into the little electronic niche that MY simple mind can never seem to comprehend - the way "they" try to 'splain it to me, is, "THIS path has MORE + (or) LESS - than that path..." Or does that apply here? -BH

Do you have a dwell meter? This would be a good time to use it. It might show up some problem in the distributor that is intermittent.

When I get intermittent voltage problems I hook up a voltmeter and leave it on the floor where I can glance at it when things start to go wrong. It beats trying to guess.

BTW, your 71 would have a generator, not an alternator, unless you've changed it.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Mr. Dwell-o-meter sez dwell is hokey-dokey. So the next thing is to "remote" it -- use the same line that feeds Mr. Tach-o-meter and observe from the pilot room when the gremlins are up to their mischief in the back.

New (or so the invoice that came with the Wonderbus claims) engine w/alternator.

Does what apply here. I'm thoroughly lost.

Mike Have you tried disconnecting the tach completely, all wires, just in case you are sending 12v or grounding the coil at the wrong times ?

James

When you have a multiple of electrical problems, you most likely have a circuit finding a completion to ground back to the battery by some path other than the one it was designed for many times routing through other electrical items giving you erratic systems from them and masking the real problem. Look at the big picture and reground or add more grounds so the electricity finds an easier path back to its' home base (the battery). Be patient and good luck....Dennis

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Hi guys -- I think I sorted out the problem several days ago. I believe the problem was a crap connection between the alternator and the battery.

Add a ground wire from the alternator body to the chassis if you don't have one already. There's a screw hole for that purpose on top of the alternator, back where the strap is.

Jan

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Not just anywhere on the chassis. It should go to the same grounding-point used by the battery -- ideally, to the negative post of the battery itself.

The voltage comparitor used in the regulator chip uses the frame of the alternator as its ground reference, which may vary by as much as a volt from the battery.

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As early bugs aged, a significant number of dead battery and failure-to-charge complaints were traced to high resistance in the ground-path between the regulator (mounted under the rear seat) and the battery (also under the seat but on the opposite side). The fault was most often in a bad terminal but sometimes at the battery ground, sometimes at the regulator, usually do to corrosion on the former and rust at the latter. The easy solution was to run a grounding braid or wire between the two.

Steel simply isn't that good a conductor. Adding a grounding buss of extra-flexible 8 gauge cable from the front of a bus to the battery is often all it takes to clear up years of electrical complaints.

-Bob Hoover

Thanks Bob

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Thanks guys -- this makes sense. I did see the threaded hole in the top of the alternator, a great location for a ground wire.

However, I seem to have reasonably good low-resistance connection between alternator frame and battery negative: 13mV when the engine is at 2,000 rpm.

It may be too thin to carry enough AMPS?

Jan

Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott wrote: