wtf?

[tubbyG]

had the 5 out for a wee run today and encountered some problems.


firstly my battery keeps losing charge so I lose ability to indicate and use lights. im concerned that I have not wired the alternator properly. On the back of the alternator, left side(rad) I have one connection, and the right (engine) side I have 3 - is this wrong?
secondly - when I was driving along, i went to put the passenger window down. doing this resulted in the rev's dropping and a massive bang (shotgun style) coming from the exhaust, as if I had hit the rev limiter. the rev counter was also only showing half actual revs.

so I have disconnected the earth to the rev limiter and this seems to have sorted the 1/2 revs/shotgun effect


My thoughts are that there is a short somewhere causing power to be fed to the rev limiter earth. Does anyone have a picture of the connections at the back of the alternator I can compare with?

thanks

[Dave Reed]

The charge is from the exciter side of the alternator, this is the 2 small wires in the plug.
You need to measure the volts when the car is running, should be around 14v


Is it a aftermarket rev counter? If so have you changed the selector switch on the back to 4 cylinder?

[tubbyG]

thanks for that.

It is the oe rev counter i was meaning. - now that the rev-limiter is disconnected it reads the correct rpm although was fine last week with it connected :scratch:

exciter side of the alternator- is this the yellow wire? voltage here is 11.8 when running

unfortunatley all of the connectors to the alt have the same size connector so I am unable to tell which side they go straight away. I did have pics before I dismantled it but they are gone when my phone was repaired:(

[Dave Reed]

thanks for that.

It is the oe rev counter i was meaning. - now that the rev-limiter is disconnected it reads the correct rpm although was fine last week with it connected :scratch:

exciter side of the alternator- is this the yellow wire? voltage here is 11.8 when running

unfortunatley all of the connectors to the alt have the same size connector so I am unable to tell which side they go straight away. I did have pics before I dismantled it but they are gone when my phone was repaired:(


Arrr ok I see.. So it's your oe rev counter that's playing up, but you've disconnected the rev limiter and now all is fine.. Seems a strange one that, possibly a bad earth/coil connection.. (could also be caused by the poor voltage)

Yeah 1's yellow the other purple (I think).. They should be in a brown plug that just plugs into the back of the alternator.. Have you got this??
With 11.8v your alternator is definitely not charging.

[tubbyG]

there used to be a brown plug but that was removed due to it being knackared and not attatching properly so the wires are held in place with just the spade connectors.

I'm hoping someone will be kind enough to post up a pic of the alt connections so I can confirm wether the alternator is fubared or its down to my (poor) attempt at putting the wiring back together:wasntme:

[steer from the rear]

As regards to the brown plug that does ur battery light/ switched ignition feed Can you run the car and put the wires on and swap them round? If so you will hear the engine note change when it's right as the load will be the alternator switching on to charge the battery

If you swap both wires and it doesn't make a change to the engine load I'd start looking at ur wires and get a multi meter

[tubbyG]

thanks :agree: I will give that a go tomorrow and post up my findings. I have the battery on charge for the night.

I am on night shift tonight so I will have a more detailed search of the boards when at work and see if I can find anything relevant

cheers:niceone:

[tubbyG]

well I had a go at checking the alternator wiring today. the more I inspected the wiring the worse it got!

so I started from scratch with the help of this schematic;

http://www.rtoc.org/files/Technical%20Files/Wiring%20diagrams/WD135%20GENERAL%20FEED.JPG

I removed this lot which did nothing for the system except cause grief - it looks like a poor attempt at connecting some fog lights :sad2:
http://i880.photobucket.com/albums/ac2/Phase2-tungy-gtt/DSC01505.jpg

so battery is now charging as it should........... and my window button no longer acts like a shotgun :laugh:

Thanks for all the input :agree:

[Trevhib]

That's a good diagram, thanks for posting. The only problem is, with a thread title of 'wtf' it makes it more difficult for other members to find/use this schematic through searching the boards.

[tiff_lee]

Ah good old bodgers wiring, that relay and plug are part of the oe loom but yea just looks like it's been butchered. Reminds me of some of the delights I found on mine

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s4/tiff_lee_photos/Renault%205/DSC00027-1.jpg

[tubbyG]

That's a good diagram, thanks for posting. The only problem is, with a thread title of 'wtf' it makes it more difficult for other members to find/use this schematic through searching the boards.


ah yes...... appologies for the vague thread title :crap:

I put very little thought into it (as you can see) as I was so bemused by the strange electrical goings on I was experiencing.

is it possible to alter the title?

[Trevhib]

:)

Where is Sir Mod when you need him :D