Strange Electrical Problem in my RA23

[RA28GT]

Hey guys just had a big day of working on my RA23.

Ill explain whats going on now:

The charge light when running is 'half-lit' but when i pull up the handbrake it turns to 'full-lit' and all my dials die? How wierd is this?

I have already changed the alternator as i thought that might be dead.

Then got access to a volt-meter and i am getting just above 13V while running?

Has anyone got any ideas what this might be? Is something draining power? Bad earth maybe?

[airfireman1]

It really does sound like bad connections, check the earth connections from the battery to the chassis and to the engine, worth checking also is the positive side of things such as the fusible link conections. I would also check the fuse box and make sure all the connections at the back are secure. it really seems to be dash related so if all the above check out I would be checking the plugs at the back of the dash.
Cheers

[RA28GT]

After playing around a little more i have found the dials are not reading correctly. They are 50% lower then what the should be, and when i turn a switch on (handbrake, fan, anything really) they just die.

Im going to check the earths now.

[Golberg]

I still sounds to me that you're not getting enough charge or your battery is crap.

13v is pretty low for charge also, it depends though, as you should really be measuring the voltage when you've got the car above idle, say at 2000RPM.

In which case it should be above 13.5v if the alt is ok, and above 14v if its charging really well.

[oldcorollas]

earth..
if the bolts between alternator and engine are loose, it will do this.
if the earth lead between engine and body or battery are loose ti will do this.
I tend to put a dedicated earth lead from battery to alternator and block to avoid it.

other option (unlikely with two alts, unless they are Bosch) is that the alt field diodes may have failed, or the solder connections are buggered (happens on KE70 alts and other Bosch alts)
but you can resolder them and they go again. if you had an LED voltage meter 8bar graph type) then you would see the voltage flickering up and down.


first, check if you have voltage between the case of the alternator, and the neg terminal of battery

[RA28GT]

Turned out being a faulty line behind the 'heater' line in the fuse box. It kept blowing out the fuse.

Strange how it effected all the dials though?

Anyway all fixed thanks guys!

[river]

Hi,

Some of the gauges share a common loom and if something goes in the loom than it can affect other gauges. Glad to see it fixed now.

seeyuzz
river