Hi all-
I know that the alternator can be a persistent pain for some X owner's and in my case my current X1/9 (1987 with the Bosch alternator). I had my alternator rebuilt about 12,000 miles and a little over a year ago by a local shop that we use quite frequently. It performed flawlessly until last june when it failed again:cry:. I had the same shop do it over and had the highest voltage ever (75% to 80% on the car's gauge and 13.8V-14.3V measured with my Fluke meter
) This was so great that I was even driving during heavy rains with headlights,fans,wipers,radio,etc with zero problems until the car's voltmeter started getting lower, confirmed by dimly glowing alt light,dimmer lights and slower fans. Using our shop's Snap On Micro Vat tester on the car gave me the following display during a charging test ("IS THE ENGINE RUNNING?" and obviously the alternator test failed)
Being that I needed to get home, I charged the battery and drove home using as little battery consumers as possible . Upon getting home tried to restart the car in my driveway with a resulting CLICK,CLICK:mad3: I parked the car for the remainder of winter to deal with the alternator in spring. This morning I started the car and it fires right up, voltmeter reads normal (again 75%-80%) and all is fine???:huh2:
When I bought the car back in 2001, I eliminated the plastic power block at the fuse board (which was discolored from heat), changed the ignition switch, also had discolored plug, and added a relay for the low beams in similar fashion to the factory high beam relay. I originally did the BWM but have since undid that and eliminated the Terminal 15 ignition circuit from the ignition switch by adding a large 50 amp relay (pic below). This way the ignition switch only triggers the relay and powers the Terminal 15 circuit on the fuse board directly from the battery. I have a good battery,oversize battery ground cable and the trans ground strap appears to be good(resistance not checked though). I have the alternator belt tight, the cooling hose and all the splash shields in place, yet I seem to need an alternator about every 15,000 miles.
Is there something that I'm overlooking:help:
Rolf.
The ignition switch bypass relay is to the left off the white (interior light delay relay, and the "53" relay is the low beam relay. Since I don't have A/C I just used the spare socket. Also above the fuses are the wires that used to be in the plastic block, now soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing.
I know that the alternator can be a persistent pain for some X owner's and in my case my current X1/9 (1987 with the Bosch alternator). I had my alternator rebuilt about 12,000 miles and a little over a year ago by a local shop that we use quite frequently. It performed flawlessly until last june when it failed again:cry:. I had the same shop do it over and had the highest voltage ever (75% to 80% on the car's gauge and 13.8V-14.3V measured with my Fluke meter
) This was so great that I was even driving during heavy rains with headlights,fans,wipers,radio,etc with zero problems until the car's voltmeter started getting lower, confirmed by dimly glowing alt light,dimmer lights and slower fans. Using our shop's Snap On Micro Vat tester on the car gave me the following display during a charging test ("IS THE ENGINE RUNNING?" and obviously the alternator test failed) Being that I needed to get home, I charged the battery and drove home using as little battery consumers as possible . Upon getting home tried to restart the car in my driveway with a resulting CLICK,CLICK:mad3: I parked the car for the remainder of winter to deal with the alternator in spring. This morning I started the car and it fires right up, voltmeter reads normal (again 75%-80%) and all is fine???:huh2:
When I bought the car back in 2001, I eliminated the plastic power block at the fuse board (which was discolored from heat), changed the ignition switch, also had discolored plug, and added a relay for the low beams in similar fashion to the factory high beam relay. I originally did the BWM but have since undid that and eliminated the Terminal 15 ignition circuit from the ignition switch by adding a large 50 amp relay (pic below). This way the ignition switch only triggers the relay and powers the Terminal 15 circuit on the fuse board directly from the battery. I have a good battery,oversize battery ground cable and the trans ground strap appears to be good(resistance not checked though). I have the alternator belt tight, the cooling hose and all the splash shields in place, yet I seem to need an alternator about every 15,000 miles.
Is there something that I'm overlooking:help:
Rolf.
The ignition switch bypass relay is to the left off the white (interior light delay relay, and the "53" relay is the low beam relay. Since I don't have A/C I just used the spare socket. Also above the fuses are the wires that used to be in the plastic block, now soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing.
