Alternator/battery problem.

[discorich]

About 2 year back i went through a rather deep ford in my 1990 200tdi and as usual my battery light came on but then it never went off. over the last 2 year it has pulsed, flashed and been bright and been dull. i also noticed that i was slowly loosing the brightness on my head lights but yet my spots continued to work as well as ever. recently i noticed that my reversing light flicked and were intermittently bright. it was with this that i decided to have a look at the alternator. i found that one of the brushes had cracked and was staying in with hopes and dreams. yey at last a solution it was fixed. i got a replacement uprated voltage regulator that has the brushes on and after a bit of hassle it was fitted. once back on the engine i struggled to remember where what wires went. so i checked the haynes manual to find out that the alternator pictured in there was very different to my one even tho it was the same Lucas A127. so i put the wires on by the size of the terminal and the ring connector on the wire (as this made sense). i cautiously turned on the ignition and no big band but the battery light was still on. altho this time it didn't change brightness as lights were turned on or pulse when revved. is this possibly due to changing from a 65 amp to a 75amp regulator. if any one could shed some light on this problem i would greatly appreciate it. also any pics of where the wired on the back should go would be handy.

cheers

[extreme90]

have you fitted the charge light wire on the right terminal
check to see if the alt is giving you 14.2 volts at the battery when the engine is running
or, strike the engine up, turn lights on
then leaving the lights on, switch the engine off
do the lights dim or stay the same ?
this will tell you if it is charging or not
swapping diode/brush packs wont make any odds to the charge light
dan

[discorich]

if the charge light is the little thin wire with a plastic connector on it and not a rubber cap then yes i have put this on the right as you look at the back of the alternator. at the moment i only have a crap volt meter at the mo but it is giving between the 14 and 15 mark so could be about 14.2, i will try and get a digital meter and give it a check with that.
could the flashing charge light be a bad connection on that ciruit?
cheers for help dan