No Charge, No power on exciter, No Charge Light

[Van31]

I swear I'm about to burn this thing to the ground.

After the car dying, I replaced the battery. I thought I was good, and didnt even think to check the idiot light on the dash.
However next time the car died I knew it was to do with the charging system and not to do with the battery itself. Dim lights, misfiring, all that.

I was sent two replacement alternators from my stash at my family's house. Fitted both and the charging light still wouldnt come on. I pulled the dash and there is no power at the light socket. the bulb was fine. There is also no power on the small blue wire (the exciter wire?!) But there is 12v on the red terminal hooked up to the battery.

Is it possible a connection in the dash has died?
I've got to drive the car home and back next week which is a 12 hour return drive, so I want to get this sorted this weekend if possible.

My solution is currently sitting at runing a wire from the battery with a resistor to the exciter terminal, just to get me around.

Does anyone have any ideas? I know the alternator/voltage regulator work because they came off a running car which charged/ran/did everything well. Get a replacement dash? I'm flat out with work and trying to get this done before Sunday/Monday, so any help would be absolutely the best.


TIA.

[jlevie]

The battery/charging bulb not getting power when the ignition is on indicates a problem in the cluster if the rest of the cluster works.

Running a wire from the alternator output (red wire) with a resistor to simulate the bulb to the exciter terminal will cause the alternator to charge. But when the car is parked that continuous current draw will drain the battery.

A better choice is to power the exciter from the auxiliary fuse block mounted on the front of the main fuse block. One of those provides un-switched power and the other provides switched power. Use the switched power fuse.