Idiot's Guide to Alternator fitting

Post by **adritch** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:07 am

Spent the weekend replacing my wheezing 803 with a 1098. Happy days indeed.

The 1098 came with an alternator, and I have got a plug from the scrappy. Sorry if this has been asked before, but I can't work out from previous posts what I need to do (hence the title).

My dynamo had a large spade think yellow wire, and a small spade yellow/green wire.

Yellow goes to D on the control box. Another yellow (thinner wire) also connects into D.

Yellow/green goes to F on the control box and is the only wire connecting to F.

The plug I got from the scrappy has 3 wires. 2 large spade (1 thick brown, one thin brown) and one small spade (brown/green (I think)).

Can someone please tell me what I need to do to connect the alternator up?

Thanks in advance.
Adam.

Post by **MoggyTech** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:03 pm

Disconnect Battery BEFORE you do anything.

Remove Large Yellow wire between Dynamo and D Terminal of Control Box (you can disgard it)

Remove Large Yellow/Green Wire from Dynamo and F Terminal of Control Box (You can disgard it)

Disconnect thinner Yellow wire from D Terminal on Control box (Charge Warning Lamp) and connect to small wire from alternator (IND)

Connect Large Wires from Alternator (Both of them) to Solenoid connection that is fed directly from the battery.

Reconnect Battery.

Don't be alarmed if you need to blip the throttle to get the charge warning lamp to go off. Your alternator could be either 'machine' or 'battery' sensing, and sometimes it takes a little over 1,000 RPM after startup to get the IGN light to go off.

Post by **adritch** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:16 pm

Excellent, thank you very much. I shall go and do that and give it a go.

Thanks,
Adam.

Post by **adritch** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:59 pm

Excellent, thank you very much. I shall go and do that and give it a go.

Thanks,
Adam.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:07 pm

Err - FIRST make sure your car has been converted to Negative Earth or you will ruin the alternator !!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:17 pm

Or alternatively - get rid of the alternator, leave the wiring loom as it should be and break down less often! Alternator 'upgrades' are one of the biggest cause of Minor breakdowns

- even compared to SU petrol pumps *
If you want to fit the alternator then don't forget to carry a spare if you're off on holiday / away for the weekend - otherwise it can be very costly! **

The guy who fitted an alternator on my pick up had a very sick sense of humour so bodged the loom as much as possible to make it irrevertible and then connected the Alternator with speaker wire and 3 pieces of 10 amp wire, each only 3" long, joined together by twisting the ends. Amazingly the wiring wasn't the fault (it was the alternator itself), but the wiring would have caught fire if it had been left in that state and the car run with a flat battery.

** Yes - I do hate alternators! I've had 3 faulty alternators on Minors, + one on a Volvo, a Porsche, a Montego, a Fiesta....

* Actually SU fuel pumps can be very reliable as long as the points are checked and replaced when needed - however people prefer to blame the pump and not the lack of maintenance if they stop working.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:22 pm

If you have no great need for masses of electricity I tend to agree with Ray on this one! But if the car is to be used all year round - idling in traffic in winter with lights/wipers/heater motor all runnng, then you DO really need an alternator. I get them at autojumbles usually for £1 - and yes not a bad idea to carry a KNOWN GOOD one if going on long journey. But then - I used to carry a spare dynamo with me in my Rally Minor - and had to use it more than once too.

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:30 pm

rayofleamington wrote: Alternator 'upgrades' are one of the biggest cause of Minor breakdowns
.

For you

I've driven many, many thousands of miles in alternator equipped vehicles, not just Minors, and never had any problem at all

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:48 pm

OOOOOOOOOOhhh.., tempting fate there I would say!

Post by **bigginger** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:00 pm

Kinda guy I am...

Post by **Packedup** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:07 am

bigginger wrote: For you I've driven many, many thousands of miles in alternator equipped vehicles, not just Minors, and never had any problem at all

I find alternators have a habit of failing after driving through deep puddles/ minor floods. Aside from one that drained the battery overnight this has been teh most common cause of death in my experience, and when I used to have to drive through lots of often flooded country lanes I was killing an average of one a week! These were "modern" fwd cars with the alternators right in the path of any excess water forced into the engine bay.

I've had plenty that have started to lose full charging effectiveness, but they've still worked OK. Dynamos scare me when there's an ammeter fitted - Watching the needle sit in the wrong side on a winters night in traffic is not a relaxing experience!

Post by **adritch** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:16 pm

Oh well, it's fitted now, so we'll just have to see.

Left the original wiring intact though, just taped over the ends and tucked it out the way, so if anyone wants to go back to a dynamo then it's easily done.

Still, going nowhere at the moment, so no risk of floods, breakdown etc. (see my other thread related to my non existent clutch. Grrrr).

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:47 pm

Oh well, it's fitted now, so we'll just have to see.

Good luck! Hopefully at least better luck than Cam, who had to replace 3 in a year... on the same Minor!

Dynamo's are fine - and unlike many people I've used the cars all year round. Out of 16 Minors I've had, 3 had alternator and ALL faulty. 12 came with Dynamo's and only one failure which was a broken brush spring (+ another had a worn bearing but lasted months until I exchanged it).
Running in Winter is not a problem unless you only drive with lights + heater on AND spend most of your time in queues with the engine at idle. If this is the case, put the battery charger on occasionally (no need to remove the battery from the car). The time taken to charge the battery once or twice over winter is a lot less than the time and cost of a failed alternator.

Dynamos scare me when there's an ammeter fitted

Easy solution is to remove the ammeter! Ammeters need you to have your entire charging load to go through the dash - quite a risk in itsef!
It is however funny to watch the ammeter woble about when the indicators are on but apart from amusement value, they don't normally offer much assistance.