I have traced my no charge/no alternator light to no continuity from the DF connection on the alternator wiring harness (at the relay board) to ground. I hope it is a broken 30 year old wire and not a broken 2 year old alternator.

Is it possible to remove the back from the alternator without removing the alternator from the car?

If so, how much trouble and time am I in for?

Thanks in advance for any help or misdirection (either works for me)

It would be difficult to remove the cover in the car. Much easier to drop the alternator. I'd check the relay board carefully since they are a known trouble spot. Maybe get a new alt harness from Bowlsby. I have a dozen rotten harnesses, and no good ones. They are a high failure item in my book.

Or you could check the fusebox under the dash. First things first ................
The Cap'n

Thanks for the replies.

It is deffinatly NOT the relay board. I unplugged the alt harness from the relay board and measuerd resistance from the DF connection on the alt harness to the engine and got infinite resistance. I am hoping it is the harness. It seems that the light works and the alt charges every now and then, but almost never if the car has been run and is still warm.

Guess I will have to remove the alternator either way. I was just trying to avoid removing the heat exchanger, etc. jsut to unplug the alt wiring harness (lazy always wins out in my book)

Thanks again

You can work around the heat exchangers on a pre-75 car. You'll have to drop some of the other heater parts out (I think the S-shaped ducts from the fan shroud, etc.) but I did the job without removing a heat exchanger.

Three times in a row, actually. ("OK, now all that's left is this piece. Which goes on before everything else does... ARGH!")

Oh, and the light won't come on at all if the VR is not plugged in. (Guess how I know that?)

--DD

Glad to hear that I won't have to remove the heat exchanger. After 15 years of owning a VW type 3 I have found that you don't always have to remove everything the books say (you can remove a type 3 head without removing the engine if you are very stuborn!)

VR is plugged in (I checked). Being naturally lazy, I may not get to this until the weekend, but I have a new 2 amp battery charger and a 20 mile each way commute. Sometimes I get the alt light and it charges for part of the drive, other time none of the drive, and once last week I got home with the battery fully charged. I deffinately have continuity from fuse #9 all the way through the relay board to both the VR plug and the alt harness plug. Continuty gets intermittent from the alt harness to ground throught the field windings.

Also, I installed a new battery, as the old one wouldn't hold a charge any longer. I actually thought that was my problem at first. I bought a sealed battery for a Miata at the FLAPS for $85.00. It seems to crank the engine over just fine. I have it held to my rusty (er...trusty) battery tray with a $4 battery hold-down kit from the same FLAPS.

Thanks again for the help, this site makes owning an old car a lot easier/more fun.