my electrical problem....

The alternator works that way, but the generator don't, or do it?

Right. Most (not all) alternators rely on the tiny current flowing thru the idiot light to get them started.

Gennies don't need the light to be working.

Speedy Jim

Jim - what do you think of putting a small resistor in place of the bulb? Or in parallel?

Yes, you can do that. 220 Ohms, 1 Watt rating. Put in parallel with bulb as a backup in case bulb burns out.

Speedy Jim

Alright! Very cool. I will do that.

Yes, you can do that, but there's little point. That bulb gets so little use that they almost never burn out. I've been driving and working on VWs since about 1964 and I don't think I've ever seen a burned out charging system warning bulb.

It's the turn signal bulbs and the gauge illumination bulbs which fail.

You're more likely to have a problem with the wiring harness, where the resistor wouldn't help.

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

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Hah! You don't have the same bad luck I do! I've had two of 'em wink out, and the second time it was a real bother. 'course, if I wasn't so stupid, I'd have known that I could have just briefly shorted the circuit to kick-start the charging. Right?

Any idea what you're doing that has brought you this bad luck? That's quite a record you've got going.

I suppose it's possible that you could introduce a temporary short there. I'd have to check my books to see if there's any chance that you might damage something.

This only applies to alternators, of course, and they contain rather electrically fragile diodes, and the VRs are also sometimes solid state. They won't take abuse the same way a generator would.

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

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