Alternator prolem
Turbo Mini Forums

This is a bit odd.

My girlfriends Mini 35 had the battery light come on a little while back and now the battery isn't charging. To cut a long story short, it's had 2 alternators and a battery since, but nothing makes any difference.

Now the light doesn't come on, but the battery still goes flat. Also the usual array of lights no longer light up on the second click of the key.

If I stick a live on the small alternator terminal, you can hear it power up, the battery starts to charge, but the battery light comes on.

I've been through some previous posts which have given me a few pointers, but still nothing seems to solve the problem.

Sorry, I've waffled on for ages! Still, The more info the better I suppose.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

ok, there are three wires (Usually),

one goes to the bulb, and the other two go to the switched positive on the solonoid.

IIRC one of the ones to the solonoid is the one that whacks charge back to the battery, nd the otherone tells the alt to charge,

if the one that tells the alt to charge is disconected the alt may charge a little bit but not enough,

basically check you have the two going to the solenoid.

If you get stuck i can pop over with a known good alt, some wire and a meter.

follow the 3 back from the alt.

http://www.minimania.com/images/wiring/PDFs/wiring13.pdf

take the wire going to the small terminal and ground it on the side of the alt turn on the Ignition and see if the red light comes on if it does not come on then you have lost power to the key switch or the contacts in the key switch are bunched or the battery light bulb has blown.

The light was intermittent. I did try earthing it but nothing happened. The bulb is fine.

I'll check the wiring in the column.

I will also check the two go to the solenoid.

Thanks guys.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Dp

Edited by theoneeyedlizard on 4th Nov, 2009.

In the 13's at last!.. Just