Mk1 voltage drop and faint alternator light glowing

[bmcgarvey at gmail.com (Brian McGarvey)]

Ok folks.
It been a while since the Church of the Free Electron has been preached..
You folks with old cars and bad voltages.. need to pay the following.

You need to update your grounds. Replace the ground from the battery
to the body,( under the battery near the drivers side tranny mount ).
Run a new ground from the body to engine block. No cleaning the tranny
mount is not going to do it. you haave dis-similar metal contact and a
semiconductor diode gets formed there. (steel to aluminum or magnesuim
alloy depending on the year of your tranny). All connections need to
be cleaned throughoughly threads need to be chased out with taps or
cleaned with wire brush pipe cleaners. then apply copious amounts of
copperkote (copper or silver based contact anti-sieze) . Clean the
ground rose underneath your dashboard. and poof.. many things will
clear up. Replace the hot wires to the starter and alternator and
wow.. Your lights.. well here is a german engineer I'd like to smack
for 100.. ALL the current for your headlights go through the dashboard
switch. V=I*R has struck. you need to relay your headlights.

I recommend the following.
http://www.momentummotorparts.com/store/harnesses.asp @ 59.00 this is
a steal. You cannot buy the bits and DIY for this much. This
definately qualifies as a nice piece of Kit. For the 4
headlight(hi/lo, hi, hi, hi/lo) folks you may need to adjust it a bit
or ask them to add a third relay to drive the inside lights.. It took
my headlamps on a convertible from @#$ decoration to usable in about
10 minutes.

Thanks for listening...
Donations are always accepted at the Church of the Free Electron..


On 10/2/06, Behrle Hubbuch <behrleiii@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>    I have the exact same thing happening with Dieter my '81 S.  I have tried the exact same remedies (except the fan switch) and unfortunately have gotten the exact same results, no change.  I'd love to get to the bottom of this and have plenty of juice for everything.
>
>  Behrle
>
> My battery light glows ever so slightly at night when I have my headlights
> on and no other accessories on on my '77. The voltage gauge reads a touch
> under 12 volts. With no headlights on, I have a consistent 13.2 volts unless
> the radiator fan turns on. My interior fan sucks quite a bit of juice on the
> system.
>
> I was wondering what sort of voltage drop you folks see on the volt gauge
> when you have your headlights on and interior fan on? Just with the fan on
> setting "1" and the headlights on, the volt gauge reading drops to 11 volts.
> Setting "3" will drop the voltage down to 10.5 volts, especially when the
> radiator fan turns on. My battery light on the instrument cluster gets
> brighter and brighter as the voltage gauge readings decrease with additional
> accessories.
>
> Does anyone else experience severe reduction of voltage readings with some
> accessories on? It's a good thing I don't have a stereo in the Mk1 :)
>
> I have done some things to combat the faintly glowing battery light. I have
> a fresh new battery, rebuilt Bosch 55 amp alternator. Lastly, I cleaned the
> negative battery cable and each of the two contacts (inner fender and on the
> transmission mount). I used some dielectric (SP?) grease on the contacts. I
> also swapped out a 70-75 degree Celsius (very low temp) radiator fan switch
> with a 77-82 degree Celsius to reduce the frequency of the fan coming on.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim
>
> --
> http://members.aol.com/jlpawlicki
> 92 Corrado SLC
> 90 Corrado G60
> 84 Rabbit Gti Callaway Stage II
> 83 Rabbit Gti
> 77 Scirocco Callaway Stage I
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 13
> Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:05:59 -0500
> From: "Chuck Blue"
> Subject: Re: one more problem with brakes
> To: "Jacob Hawes"
> Cc: scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> Message-ID: <005101c6e4e4$fe9d35b0$030fa8c0@FAMILY>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
> How much is not much?The shoes don't move much inside the drum when the hand
> brake is applied.
> ole blue
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jacob Hawes"
> Cc:
> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 4:17 PM
> Subject: Re: one more problem with brakes
>
>
> > Chris Bennett wrote:
> >> Ditto brother...
> >>
> >> Your bar on the top should go into a groove on the left side top of
> >> that brake shoe.
> >>
> >> Good luck. Futzing with that in place is a pain.
> >>
> > That is a picture of how it was before I started working on it, the bar is
> > in place and does push the the shoes out now, just not much. I just added
> > a new picture named New brakes.
> >
> > --
> > --Jacob Hawes
> > Cars:
> > '80 Scirocco mk1 "Tuyer"
> > Sharp pointy things:
> > 18" HI Kobra "pillow knife"
> > 17.5" HI Ang Khola Villager "camp axe"
> > ~48" Custom XVII longsword. unnamed
> > My Photobucket:
> > http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v310/yoippari/
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 14
> Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 18:10:31 -0500
> From: "Chuck Blue"
> Subject: Re: 82 wiring diagram PDF needed...
> To: "Mark F." , "Scirocco List"
>
> Message-ID: <005e01c6e4e5$a051d8c0$030fa8c0@FAMILY>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=response
>
> You might want to check your cold start fuel pressure.You might also want to
> check the air flow sensor.Make sure it is centered in the hole and moves
> very freely.
> ole blue
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark F."
> To: "Scirocco List"
> Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 9:09 PM
> Subject: 82 wiring diagram PDF needed...
>
>
> > Hi list,
> >
> > I'm still banging my head against a wall trying to figure out what the
> > hell is wrong with my 82. It bogs/stumbles/hesitates like crazy
> > (except for the first 10 seconds of running), and I've swapped in a
> > bunch of parts to try and track the problem down, but no luck
> > (including plugs/wires, rotor/cap, coil, ignition module). I still
> > think it's a spark problem (tested the injectors, and they have good
> > spray pattern and even output volume w/ no dripping). I have a
> > Bentley that covers up till 81, and another that starts at 84. So far
> > the info from the 81 (w/ similar older style fuse box) has been
> > helpful, but I've noticed some differences in wire colors. Anyone
> > have a PDF of the wiring for an 82? I guess I'll break down and order
> > a proper Bentley for this car, since I plan on keeping it (imagine
> > that!), but it's my only working vehicle at the moment so I need to
> > get this problem sorted out asap...
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Mark.
> > 75
> > 82
> > 82 Caddy
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of Scirocco-l Digest, Vol 19, Issue 85
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