No Charge Getting to Battery

[Betty Bongo]

Our Bongo went in for MOT on Monday - she needed a bit of welding and an electrician to fix a problem with the foglight and horn. All fixed and went to collect from garage yesterday and she had to be jump started as the battery had gone flat. Never happened before - but now seems there is a problem with the battery getting charge and it is completely devoid of power. The electrician has been back out today and is at a complete loss as to what the problem is. We took our vehicle in for MOT all working and back it comes completely kaput!

The electrician thinks there may be a major charging fault and says the problem does not lie with the alternator or battery but that something, somewhere along the line is stopping the charge getting through.

Has anyone come across these mystery electricals before? Any suggestions?

We were off to the South West Bongo Fest tomorrow and are very very disappointed

[dandywarhol]

I hoped the welder disconnected the battery if he was electric welding - if not he could have damaged the alternator. do the interior lights dim when you turn the engine off? If not then the battery isn't being charged.

[Dave and sally]

id say the welder didnt disconnect the alternater and or battery you should disconnect both !

its an awful lot of amps a welder pump out

id see what volts are at the battery running and non running if you have 14v ish then alternater is ok

id say battery is fried (Been there ,still have the T shirt)

[g8dhe]

Given that the electrician says that the S/B and alternator are OK, but that welding work has taken place, then I would suspect the relay (VSR) that connects the LB to the S/B-Alternator may have been damaged or that one of the two fuses from the relay to the batteries has blown. The welder may have disconnected the S/B but forgot the L/B and even then there is still a risk of a surge else where which may have taken out the electronics in the VSR.