Alternator Woes!

[Alan_M 66 1 Cars]

A little while ago, the alternator packed up and consequently replaced it with another unit from GSF. I figured that as my car is stripped out, a 50A item would suffice. And indeed it did all the right things, and the 205 was back up and running. On my way home from work this morning I decided to give it some beans, as it'd been a while since it had been 'stretched', in 3rd from 2500rpm and got to 4500/5000rpm and the low battery charge light came on. Banged it into 4th and it came back again at the same revs, then disappeared when I slowed for the roundabout.

 

Just been out to check the tension which is fine, the earths from box etc, battery voltage and the charge output. Nothing seems amiss.

 

Only thing I can think of is that a 50A isn't man enough for an Mi16, but surely if it wasn't then it would show when I first put the 50A alternator in.

 

I'm off to work again in a bit, so will try and hit 'that' rev range again and see what happens. Otherwise I'll have to stay below 4000rpm and miss out on the Mi16 warp drive

 

Any ideas?

[stuart1298 6]

What size is the battery? remember the alternator replaces whats used from the battery, short runs dont help as its not getting a good charge, check ya voltage on the battery with the ignition off, shud be about 13v

[large 33]

I would have thought it would have been OK, its not like the Mi has more spark plugs than an 8v.

 

I had a problem like this with my old 1.9 8v engine wd40 in the brown multi plug by the afm and it would be OK for another 6 months.

 

You could just have a loose exciter wire from the alternator.

[Anthony 1,003]

50A should be fine - after all, it's not like there's anything electrical left in your car to need a beefy alternator!

 

Obvious thing to do is rig up a multimeter / voltage gauge and see what the alternator output does at high revs - if it drops off or stops charging completely, then I'd be taking the alternator back to GSF and getting it replaced. If the charge stays constant, it would be worth checking that the charge light wire isn't grounding out on the engine block when giving it some beans, as that will make the light come on.