Bongo Fury

No it went up .1 volt to 13.5 my mistake

Sounds like it could be alternator on the way out then, this one may help if we can get some definitive answers - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=51070

Decided to check again and dropped the multimeter , now it doesnt work at all

But I had a spare diesal filter houseing so plugged it in to see if the sediment light would come on and it did (as the probe was sat in fresh air)

But what I cant get my head round is why the light DOESN'T come on at all?, apart from when I touch the exciter wire to the alternator body or if I pull the HEAD fuse out!, I have a battery voltage dial connected all the time and that goes past 14v whilst driving and sits around 12 to 13v on tick over. (its a dial not digital)

Is there any other fuses I need to check somewhere? or its a new alternator or get mine reconditioned, Mr m said he got his reconditioned for £70.

Just dont want to fork out for it if it doesn't need it

Maybe its just a faulty dash binnacle. . .

Shall I pop round, plug mine into yours to see if it works?

ive got a working good spare alternator wayne if you need to test try.

waycar8 wrote: But what I cant get my head round is why the light DOESN'T come on at all?, apart from when I touch the exciter wire to the alternator body or if I pull the HEAD fuse out!, I have a battery voltage dial connected all the time and that goes past 14v whilst driving and sits around 12 to 13v on tick over. (its a dial not digital)

this may help, quote from Grumpo from years back

The ignition lamp takes a supply from the battery and completes the
circuit by earthing it through the auxilliary connection on the alternator.

When the alternator is charging, it opposes the battery voltage and so
puts the lamp out, ( 12V + both sides of the lamp).

from this thread on split charging (before willinton went into production ) - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... alternator

mister munkey wrote:Maybe its just a faulty dash binnacle. . .

Shall I pop round, plug mine into yours to see if it works?

Cant be Faulty Mr M, when I take out the fuse in the HEAD slot the lights come on, cheers anyhow

Northern Bongolow wrote:ive got a working good spare alternator wayne if you need to test try.

sounds a good option, just to check of course, I wouldnt dream of leaving it on if turned out mine was faulty

missfixit70 wrote:

waycar8 wrote: But what I cant get my head round is why the light DOESN'T come on at all?, apart from when I touch the exciter wire to the alternator body or if I pull the HEAD fuse out!, I have a battery voltage dial connected all the time and that goes past 14v whilst driving and sits around 12 to 13v on tick over. (its a dial not digital)

this may help, quote from Grumpo from years back

The ignition lamp takes a supply from the battery and completes the
circuit by earthing it through the auxilliary connection on the alternator.

When the alternator is charging, it opposes the battery voltage and so
puts the lamp out, ( 12V + both sides of the lamp).

from this thread on split charging (before willinton went into production ) - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... alternator

thanks for your help Kirsty but me being a bit thick................................
I do have the willinton kit but from what you quoted are you saying that my alternator is kicking out 12v when I turn the key before I turn the ignition to start the engine?

Nope, the alternator will only start kicking out once it's running if it's been "excited" , but if it's not earthing through the alternator initially, then the light won't light in theory. The light then goes out as it's getting 12v (or equivalent output voltage) from the alternator opposing the 12v from the battery side, meaning there is no "potential difference" ie voltage at the lamp.
Think of it as being a slide 12m high (metres represents voltage) going down to the ground ie 0v, anything placed on the top will slide down, think of this movement as the light working. If the bottom end of the slide is now lifted to 12m, nothing is going to slide down it, it's the equivalent of 0v.
Not sure if that helps or makes it more complicated & of course it may have no bearing whatsoever.
Worth trying Ady's spare alternator though

If you have a split charger, do the lights come on when its disconnected?

Doone wrote:If you have a split charger, do the lights come on when its disconnected?

,

No havent tried disconnecting it Lorna, I only unplugged the rewire in port/fuse 1, will try tomorrow Thanks

unplugged all the wires from the fuse ports and put the fuses back in turned the ignition and nothing still.

Didn't actually unplug the split charge relay as non of the wires used to put blinds etc onto the leisure battery were connected so it was just sat there doing nothing, and with it being the willinton kit it isn't connected to the alternator.

Ok.
If you've eliminated an earth fault and eliminated the split charger, it would be sensible to eliminate the alternator from the problem, or prove its at fault... We're thinking possible diode fault? Or possibly not
Can you plug your alternator wires into another alternator? (You may be able to do this without removing the alternator.)

Doone wrote:Ok.
If you've eliminated an earth fault and eliminated the split charger, it would be sensible to eliminate the alternator from the problem, or prove its at fault... We're thinking possible diode fault? Or possibly not
Can you plug your alternator wires into another alternator? (You may be able to do this without removing the alternator.)

Good sugestion, just been over to Ady's and wired in his alternator rather than disasembling mine (just in case) turned the ignition and nothing still no lights came on, so we did a separate earth from the alternator body to a bracket on the chassis and bingo lights came on.

So looks like my alternator is somehow intermitent.......... s it seems to be charging then dropping volts, (only noticed this on the way over to Adys as I kept a keen eye on the battery gauge and it dropped every so often to 13 volts whilst driving then it went beack up to just over 14 volts again.



Big Big thanks to Ady for helping me out and lending me his spare alternator till I get another or get mine refurbed and thank you to everyone else for all your imput and advice

Glad you got an answer, wonder if it's worth seeing if they can beef up the alternator output when they refurb it? See if you can get the old bits for part no's or if they're willing to supply the parts to refurb