I have been sorting though mostly FI problems with my recently acquired ’70 1.7 which hasn’t been on the road for 13 years. Finally have it running fairly well and decided that I needed to double check the timing. Treated myself to a new timing light and hooked it up. . . wrong! In my excitement I reversed the negative & positive leads. When I pulled the trigger, the engine wanted to die (dead short). I then noticed and corrected my error set the timing. Thereafter I noticed my alternator light was staying on (it never had previously while running).
I’m guessing I either fried my alternator or voltage reg. I’ve read some threads trying to determine which component is likely dead but some of the explanations are a bit obtuse for me. One test I did was to pull the VR and jumper between D+ & DF on the relay board (after removing the VR). Supposedly if the light goes out the alternator is good. My light stayed on (with engine running of course). Is this confirmation that the alt is bad? Any other thoughts or am I relegated to pulling the alt? Comments appreciated (other than that I was dumb in reversing the leads).
Keith

Ya, make sure you didn't kick a fuse out while in panic mode. And use a volt meter to check when shorting the terminals on the battery, don't think the light will go out with the VR disconnected. Should read something like 18volts. Don't run it to long otherwise battery will go

Thanks Jeff. I checked fuses both in car & on relay plate and they were okay. Advice well taken as to battery issue.

keith

last time my alternator light stayed on, i found a smaller frail wire going to the starter under the car had corroded so bad it was not making contact. i cut and spliced a new end on the wire and plugged it back onto the starter. light went off

mabey your wire burned??

good luck