jonusbonus

Oh yes.. the second hand ebay ones in Newry and Southall... I don't know if they're the right type, but if you put them on your watchlist and then dither a while, you'll get an auto offer sometime later to buy either for £35!

I measured the alternator ohms to the battery and had continuity. Apparently there's a fusible line that can blow. I then ran the engine after I pulled off the ALT (2-wire) exiter connector, which is difficult to get off. You push the red tag down with a screwdriver and wiggle! This made the charge warning/ battery light come on. Putting it back in made it go out after a few seconds. This is a good sign that the computer's ok apparently. Still No volts coming direct from the alternator. I then swapped the alternator out and all was well. I then test drove and all the gears work again, so RESULT! I didn't do any key dancing as I've never been able to get it to work. Thanks for your help! Good luck with yours!!! I haven't checked, but apparently the exiter when running right should have 5 ish volts on one lead and 14 odd on the other. The 5 volts is really PWM but it's what the meter sees. Had I checked it with the duff alternator it probably would have been no volts and 11.8V (battery dependent) I will stand corrected on this though! Oh yes... on the old one the clutch was visibly slipping if you watched the pulley end of the alternator. I don't know if this was due to any shorted turns causing load/ mag-drag (have I made this term up?) or just the clutch being duff. Certainly the clutch was squeeky and rough feeling compared to the newish replacement. Ebay seemed to think my van was incompatible with any 80 quid alternators, because it seemed to think I had a 163 bhp version when I didn't. What was interesting was that the second hand alt paperwork had the VIN of the doner vehicle logged on it, and it clearly showed it was from the same engine type as mine i.e the 8th and 10th digits of the VIN were 5 & 7. This means, if they all have this kind of data, that you can ask the breaker about the VIN to be sure you're getting a match, if you can't be arsed to take the old one out first to see the part no. Good luck!

Thanks Richard That is actually VERY reassuring! I have got hold of an alternator today from a breaker and paid quite a lot for a battery. You are building my confidence that the gearbox is going to be ok, so thanks! I have had a dig on here and perhaps you should try what I'm going to: To remove the exiter cable from the alternator and see if the red charge warning LED on the dash lights. -I think This seems to indicate that the computerised alternator control is ok and points towards the alternator being at fault. It would seem from previous posts that having continuity on the alternator is no proof it works i.e 'shorted turns' might be in play.

Hi guys, I'm not all that good a mechanic so please bear with me. Firstly, thanks for all your great info on here. I've already done the thermostat mod and the button mod so.... Many thanks. I chose a battery recommended on here, but alas 2 months in it has stitched me up. This is no discredit to anyone. I had a hunch it was going duff and tried my luck and lost. MY fault !! My battery seems to have gone short and now the alternator isn't putting anything out. When it went wrong I got a warning in the display saying the system was about to shut down. I should have been quicker turning it off! Is the alternator fused anwhere? Most importantly: I test drove the car with a charged battery and no working alternator but it wouldn't change gear. It would do reverse and 'D' but wouldn't change up when approx 35mph. -I'm very concerned that if I go to the trouble of fixing the alternator, I'm going to find the solenoid pack is gone. This would be beyond repair for me. -Is that normal for no alt? I mean.. no one maybe has done this before but does the system 'know' that there's no alt and hence doesn't engage things? Could the shorted battery smoke the solenoid pack? One last question.. Is it hard to change the Alternator and what's roughly involved.? Can I blag the new one in without messing with the tensioner etc and the will the cheap £80 ones on ebay be ok? Any help gratefully received. I'm supposed to be going on my only camping trip this year at the weekend!! ARRRGH.