Charge light advice?

[streetboy]

Hi all, I have noticed that over the last few days cold starting the charge light has remained on. But this cleared as soon as I backed out of the drive. But this morning it came on and took at leat five mins driving before it suddenly went out.
Loose wire? regulator playing up? or something else?

 

[Pete B]

Mark, mine is behaving in a similar manner, suspect the regulator box is going to give up before long. Lucky for me I have a brand new one in the garage

 

[Araon]

likely to be that the battery if a few years old is taking a little longer to charge or indeed the cold cranking is taking more effort hence the longer charge cycle.....but it could also be simply down to connections needing cleaning and greasing

 

[Peter Good]

Basic question folks .... Alternator or Dynamo? Peter Good

 

[streetboy]

Dynamo Peter.

The dynamo is practically brand new and I put a new battery on it when it touched down here in August. I just hankered on it being the regulator playing up from my moggy and mini days.
Areon, I have dosed the contacts on both the regulator and the dynamo with wd40 to keep the damp off till tomorrow when I can give everything a good clean up. Might think about a spare reg after your comments Pete B

Thanks for your replies guys.

 

[crede999]

Mark, mine is behaving in a similar manner, suspect the regulator box is going to give up before long. Lucky for me I have a brand new one in the garage

i agree ,you can do this aswell when the lights on, tap the reg and listen for a change in engine tone, if it changes the light will go out , also check its screwed down tight too

regards
chris

 

[streetboy]

Hi Chris, cheers for that. If it plays up again I'll try it
I gave the terminals a good clean and it has worked ok so far.

 

[K@rlos]

I've got an alternator conversion on my bus, during the summer months the light went out straight away, but now the colder mornings are here it takes abit longer. some of the hgv drivers at work come in the workshop saying that the lights not going out straight away too. cold does sometimes have an effect, but as yours is still dynamo the brushes and windings might have some crap on them or the regulator may be playing up

 

[streetboy]

Put another reg on (thanks Westy R) but still not going out straight away. :?

12.68v across battery terminals. When the charge light is on it is not charging the battery, when it goes off its pulling 13.85v.
I also checked the dynamo when the charge light is on and its deffo not charging, but still goes out after about 3 to 4 miles. So reg is ok I assume and the problem is with the dynamo. Perhaps sticking brushes? maybe the fan belt? it does seem a little on the slack side. Maybe this accounts for the light going off around the same distance when it warms up?
Any advice welcomed bit of a puzzle

 

[streetboy]

Hmmmm, the fan belt according to the book says it should have 9 to 10mm free play, the belt has considerably more than that! :shock: Looking with it running it moves a hell of a lot. Not saying that is causing the charge light to stay on for a spell, but needs to be adjusted up whatever.

 

[streetboy]

Well adjusted the belt and problem solved not only has the charge light gone out but the bus had developed a very slight flat spot accelerating from low revs, that went too :shock:
I guess the loose belt was causing a weaker spark?