Weird - lights/electrical????

[stew]

My altenator packed up at the end of cadwell park back in sept. I ordered a new altenator from renault (£111) fitted it the week later. Job done or so i thought.

When i have the lights on, and the ignition switch in its second position, then the rev counter starts being weird and doing stupid things. When the inditcators are on with the lights, the rev counter jumps up and down in time with the indicators.

When i start the car and have the lights/indicators on or whatever its fine, although the battery light keeps flickering on and off.

This suggests to me loose connection/bad earth.

Ive checked :-

Battery connections
Kill switch connections and earths
lights connections
altenator connections
altenator output voltage @ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7krpm

still no luck.

it seems like the fault is only occuring when the ignition coil is powered up, lights on and engine not running.

could it be as simple as a fookered battery? i just dont wanna have to fork out 60quid for a new battery if i dont need one!

HELP!!!

[Andy P]

£60 for a battery?

Could be a piss poor earth. Check the earth on the top of the box, i had a similar problem and cleaning and tightening sorted that problem out

[stew]

£60 for a battery?

Could be a piss poor earth. Check the earth on the top of the box, i had a similar problem and cleaning and tightening sorted that problem out

well thats wot i quickly priced a battery up as!

what box/where?

it seems weird that residual current seems to be building up on the rev counter wiring tho. really weird this one. has been fine ever since i bought the car till about a month ago.

[Andy P]

gearbox mate.

I fitted a new altenator as the old one got gunked up with pas fluid, and the earth to the gearbox was red hot.

My mechanic friend sorted it all out nicely

[number1]

Gearbox earth and check the connections on the top of the coil too thats where the rev counter pick's up it's signal from

Dave

[stew]

cheers guys, will have a butchers next weekend. just hope its what you say it is!

why is it related to having the lights on though?

[stew]

UPDATE : new battery.

still same problems. earths look fine as far as i can see.

where are all the earths?

gearbox? earth on battery?

any other ideas...this is pissing me off!

[Andy P]

There is an earth point just above the passenger headlight next to the battery.
There is one at the back of the gearbox.
There is one on the side of the gearbox inside the passenger wheel arch.
I Think there is one on the front near the oil filter area
Theres an earth inside the passenger scuttle panel, not certain what that ones for.
And theres one under the dash top i think.

This is based on a Williams/16v probably the same for an rsi though.

[stew]

thanks andy for finding that, and to adam for orginally posting that.

im gonna sort this if its gonna kill me!!

[Andy P]

RIP Stew. i claim the wheels and bonnet.