D2 Alternator 9 v no warning light

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Mark Ormond

Active Member
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253
Location
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Alternator putting out 9 volts battery wont start car
But warning light not coming on it does work
Is there another problem or could Alternator be shot and not put warning light on
Mark
 
Sounds like two problems, but i'd get alternator fixed first then try again. 9v is no use to man nor beast. Could just be worn brush or brushes.
 
Mark Ormond said:
Alternator putting out 9 volts battery wont start car
But warning light not coming on it does work
Is there another problem or could Alternator be shot and not put warning light on
Mark
Click to expand...
The D2's charging system warning light is not the best engineering as it comes on only when the voltage drops below 7.5V... thoughnif you dont get 14V with engine running your alternator is not OK which means the battery gets weak so it will not start
 
sierrafery said:
The D2's charging system warning light is not the best engineering as it comes on only when the voltage drops below 7.5V... thoughnif you dont get 14V with engine running your alternator is not OK which means the battery gets weak so it will not start
Click to expand...
So all being well I only have one problem new Alternator required
Will the battery being flat for 48 hours effect ECU or any other components
 
Mark Ormond said:
So all being well I only have one problem new Alternator required
Will the battery being flat for 48 hours effect ECU or any other components
Click to expand...
New or repaired or reconned. (There was an argument about this on here the other day).
I'm tight so I'd first of all take it apart to look at the brushes and commutator, and, since it was apart anyway, probably put new ones in and clean the commutator. Second of all I'd take it to a man I know who does nothing else except recondition alternators and starter motors and get him to redo it. If it is beyond redemption he'd tell me and get a new one cheaper than anywhere else I could get one.
As for a flat battery doing harm, cannot see why. No different to it's having been taken off. Just respect the "rules of engagement" when charging it up and reconnecting it.
 
sierrafery said:
The D2's charging system warning light is not the best engineering as it comes on only when the voltage drops below 7.5V... thoughnif you dont get 14V with engine running your alternator is not OK which means the battery gets weak so it will not start
Click to expand...
Remember the old days when you had either an ammeter or a voltmeter on the dash to tell you what was going on? I have these on my Kit Cars. So much more reassuring. And not an ECU in sight!
 
New Lucas alternator fitted £150 Euro Car Parts took me about 3 hours
No further problems as not driven it yet but runs and starts fine
Not the easiest job but done far worse
So to recap looks like alternator was shot but I had NO WARNING LIGHT it does work
Many thanks for all help
Mark
 
Stanleysteamer said:
Err, with an alternator you'd want a Volt meter, ammeters were for cars with dynamos!

Did you see that? I actually gave a piece of electrical advice. @sierrafery will be laughing his head off!
Click to expand...
Where did u get that idea from,:rolleyes: many cars with an alternator have an ammeter fitted in the dash, it’s intended for those that want to know the direction an amount of current flow into and out off a battery. A voltmeter, well that tells you the the amount voltage with or without generator running.
 
Mark Ormond said:
So to recap looks like alternator was shot but I had NO WARNING LIGHT it does work
Click to expand...
co you still had 9V... as i said the D2's charging failure warning is full of sh*t, like the overheat warning... when you ee them it's too late... that's why a VOLTMETER and additional ECT gauge are compulsory, no A-meters required
 
discool said:
Where did u get that idea from,:rolleyes: many cars with an alternator have an ammeter fitted in the dash, it’s intended for those that want to know the direction an amount of current flow into and out off a battery. A voltmeter, well that tells you the the amount voltage with or without generator running.
Click to expand...
I think you'll find @sierrafery just backed me up. I think you'll find that cars that look like they have an ammeter fitted in fact have a voltmeter fitted. Anyway, i have never seen one on a recent car, please let us know on which cars they are fitted as I'd be very interested.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
I think you'll find @sierrafery just backed me up. I think you'll find that cars that look like they have an ammeter fitted in fact have a voltmeter fitted. Anyway, i have never seen one on a recent car, please let us know on which cars they are fitted as I'd be very interested.
Click to expand...
So where do u get the idea that your statement was backed up ? It’s just the first stage on testing an alternator, output or any other generator that is, so get a volt meter in what ever for takes your fancy.

Suggest you have a look at production cars past that have a gauges spread around the dash and you will no doubt find an ammeter, most ‘sporty’ cars had the round dash gauges including an oil pressure, engine temp and fuel.

My “recent” car is a Jag XE S and no gauges other than a digital rev counter then speedo one side and the other side a trip computer plus the info on a screen, my previous car to the Jag was a Masa Quattroporte a digital screen plus rev counter and speedo few lights the most important item was the speedo with its 170 mph top speed.

I don’t understand stand the recent fixation on fitted volt meters in dashes, perhaps it’s because I don’t bother width them other than the rev counter and speedo, fuel gauge maybe but I have an Illuminated lamp to tells me to go and fill up.
 
@discool I agree entirely that modern cars have bugrall that is useful on the dash, even the stupid warning lights as witnessed recently where a guys engine boiled up despite there being no light to tell him his temperature was too high.
Yes, I have cars, Kit Cars and have had others like old Jags, that had both Ammeters and Voltmeters. A Renault 17 for instance which had no ignition light so i had to look at the voltmeter to be told the drive belt to the alternator had come off.
Here is an interesting blog which covers the whole thing http://blog.ks3j.net/?p=1024
It backs you up and also explains why manufacturers who can be bothered to fit anything fit a voltmeter rather than an Ammeter.
I am sure that somewhere along the line Ammeters were fitted to cars with dynamos, but i am not electrically minded enough to come up with the reason why, but i think it must have been something to do with the regulator.
I am not going to put @sierrafery on the spot as arbitrator here. He knows my car electrical skills date back to the seventies/eighties and he knows I know my limits. All I can say is, he usually shoots people down if they make a misstatement. And he didn't do that here.
Ideally, I think it would be best to have both an ammeter and a voltmeter on the dash, just as ideally it would be good to have both an oil temperature gauge and a coolant temperature gauge. And they used to fit gauges that showed both the latter.
Even an old Mini deluxe had a temperature gauge and an oil pressure gauge as well as a fuel gauge. So why modern cars have less I can only put down to two things, expense and the idea that drivers know f all about the car they are driving or how to fix a fault, so they call out recovery.
 
With my original 850cc Mini which learned to drive in, I fitted five gauges, amp, water temp, time clock, oil pressure and a larger rev counter in it’s housing, this was the first but no last car, a few years ago with a nephew’s Celica I fitted with a couple of gauges that were mounted in a housing by the windscreen on the A pillar with all the wiring behind the pillars plastic cover... by all accounts that’s “on trend” but simple just an afternoons work, no books or Forums required, just get on and do it...as always :D

The 850 mini were fitted with dynamos :)
 
discool said:
With my original 850cc Mini which learned to drive in, I fitted five gauges, amp, water temp, time clock, oil pressure and a larger rev counter in it’s housing, this was the first but no last car, a few years ago with a nephew’s Celica I fitted with a couple of gauges that were mounted in a housing by the windscreen on the A pillar with all the wiring behind the pillars plastic cover... by all accounts that’s “on trend” but simple just an afternoons work, no books or Forums required, just get on and do it...as always :D

850 mini were fitted with dynamos :)
Click to expand...
So you and I have something in common, I also had a Mini De Luxe 850 as my first car, it had terminal rot so I then bought another and started swapping the decent components over from the old one to the new one. So that was when I first got a set of spanners and i have never looked back. Bought a book about working on minis which still had a price in old fashioned shillings and pence of about 2/6!, although I paid in new money, this was 1973. And yes, it had a dynamo! Went through a lot of cars before I bought my first Haynes manual for a Ford Cortina mk1 iirc. That was after I had bought a Mk1 Jag for £5 drove it for a couple of weeks then sold it to a scrapper for £10 and thought ! had done well! (2.4l wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding but looked the biz!) But nice one on the gauges. MGBs always had a nice number of gauges. Kit Car people always looked for them even if the car was based on summat else.
 
Mini sold for a new MG Midget sold for a Zepher Mk3 sold after fitting a recon engine for new Cortina 1600E sold for new Capri S still owned, then a new TVR part x for new RR sold for new Disco still owned, then a Masa part x for a new Jag, soon to be part x for some else, plus the 30 years or so and until last year driving a company car.

Sorry. But now we will get back to the Topic of this thread
 
Last edited:
discool said:
Mini sold for a new MG Midget sold for a Zepher Mk3 sold after fitting a recon engine for new Cortina 1600E sold for new Capri S still owned, then a new TVR part x for new RR sold for new Disco still owned, then a Masa part x for a new Jag, soon to be part x for some else, plus the 30 years or so and until last year driving a company car.

Sorry. But now we will get back to the Topic of this thread
Click to expand...
Never owned a new car in my life, so always worked on them, and the wife's! But as you say no longer on topic!
 
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