does my thinking make sense???

Just picked up a series 2a '65 petrol. Started, ran, travelled 40 miles home with the lights on. As I pulled up it cut out and then nothing from the battery. Jumped it and it started no problem. Check battery with volt metre 12v, but no power to even attempt turn over, jumped it and volts went up to end of gauge 14 ish V. On the alternator a wire had been tied up with a spade clip on the end which should you into the top of the alternator I presume to regulate the amount of power going to charge the battery. So I am now charging the battery, if it takes the charge and holds it for a couple of days I guess my problem is the alternator. I can only assume the wire was removed as the power to the battery was spiking. But then why would the volts reading have gone up when the engine was started? As you can easily tell I am no expert so any advice would be much appreciated. The landrover also has lpg which is struggling to kick in, I was wondering if this was linked as it would draw more power from the battery to drive the pump etc?

or removed so charge light would go out. Thus showing no charging probs.

Has this been converted from a dynamo? I'm not sure when alternators became standard fitment on series land rovers. Have a look at the S3 wiring diagram. There's three outputs from the Lucas 16ACR alternator (I'm assuming it's the one you've got), one to the ignition light and the other two to the starter solenoid battery side. One is the current feed, the other is the regulator sense wire. Does this help?

Does it still have it's belt?

Just a thought

if your reading 14v+ then the alternator is working and if she starts with a jump then starters ok. You said the battery was reading 12v so this also would seem to be ok.

It might just be voltage drop caused by bad conections which jumping (adding in another battery) often overcomes. I'd check and clean up connections and if this doesn't help check the cables themselves by by-passing them, ie jump lead from battery to main feed on starter etc. Also check and clean up the earth strap connections.

Does the charge warning light work? The loose wire may be obsolete esp if you have a conv from a dynamo......hope that helps

you could check the battery buy measuring the voltage in the battery while trying to turn it over, if it drops below 9volts then the battery is shot

good news, i fitted a new (well from my scrap landrover) to the truck and then replaced / cleaned all the leads I could find, the red light in the bottom left of the dash now illuminates when the ignition is on and goes of as the engine is started and rev,ed, which i presume means it's charging. The dash is the old style without switches so it has a volt metre which seems to go down when it's being rev'ed and up if you turn the lights on without the engine running is this right or have I mucked up the wiring?

65 - positive earth? That may explain your gauge going the wrong way. It is a matter of knowing what has been done before, as they are fairly simple to switch over cables, arc across here and change the polarity - many owners do it. It may be that it has either had the clock wires put on the wrong way, or they have flicked it and forgotten to change the wires over on the battery meter.

O.K. I have no real idea about positive and negative earth other than the negative end of the battery is earthed not the positive and that the truck has an alternator conversion which I think means it has to have a negative earth??? If this is the case then I assume the volt reader needs the wires changing over but the ignition light is working correctly? Sorry for all the questions but all the wires are prity confusing for someone with no real idea about electrics, still I'm learning fast, ish!

If it has been converted, then get your meter on the wires going to the voltmeter. As long as there is no power to the 'earth' wire (which would have live the live lead) you should be fine.

I t may be that someone forgot to swap the wires over on that one. If there is power, just swap over. If it is wired correctly, check bad earths etc, as that would give a neg reading.