The Dreaded Red Light!

[cram72]

I was always educated as a young man that red lights were good things and if in premises of questionable character they were even better!

My 79 RS2000 however is displaying the dreaded alternator light and thus is bringing me only pain, all connections electrical have been cleaned and redone however this little red demon still displays. Checks conducted state that the alternator is chucking out charge and the battery is good, no dimming head lights or problems, I;ve checked it all. But it won't go out, I just want to remove the bulb from the dash but this problem is bugging me some wont give up just yet.

Any ideas?

[Les]

I'd suggest checking your alternator as the light wire generally shorts to earth until the alternator kicks in, the diodes then open the circuit allowing the light to go out. If every thing else stacks up OK this is probably the culprit,
Cheers, hope this is of some use.

[Engine Guy]

Ford alternators are known for developing faults...
1st check would be the Carbon alternator brushes
2nd would be the Diode pack - there are 9 diodes all together..check them all
3rd a voltage regulator fault (not a common fault)
4th most unlikely would be the stator & field windings

Fixed heaps of these...

Cheers
Engine Guy

[philfree]

hi
You said it's charging fine even when the lights on means 2 things. 1Ttheirs a short to ground some where between the alternator and the light as already said. or 2 The regulator on the alternator could be faulty but i highly doubt that.
Thanks

[cram72]

Thanks for the advice philfree, I removed the dash to check the rear wiring and discovered that a quite intricate set of new wires had been soldered to the wiring card inclusive of a regulator, I noted one connection had snapped to the alternator light. Once placed on the bench all wires promptly fell away from the wiring card and thus I now have no fuel guage or templ guage. It looked like a very dodgy earthing set up! Question, can you get repro cards or should I take it to a auto electrician to sort and rewire? Or say bugger it and just fit after market fuel and temp guage however alternatior light would still be on.Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Any advice appreciated.

[bloggs24]

Originally Posted by cram72

Thanks for the advice philfree, I removed the dash to check the rear wiring and discovered that a quite intricate set of new wires had been soldered to the wiring card inclusive of a regulator, I noted one connection had snapped to the alternator light. Once placed on the bench all wires promptly fell away from the wiring card and thus I now have no fuel guage or templ guage. It looked like a very dodgy earthing set up! Question, can you get repro cards or should I take it to a auto electrician to sort and rewire? Or say bugger it and just fit after market fuel and temp guage however alternatior light would still be on.Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Any advice appreciated.

Just save yourself the trouble and take it to an auto electrician to sort out.

[feral]

Otherwise keep an eye out for a dash on ebay.

[Puzzlescort]

Cram

I am pretty sure I have a few tacho dashes at home, one of them is an RS dash which was in my car before I put a custom dash in - drop me a message if you get stuck, I am sure we can work something out