FU$&*ING idiot Volt light.....

[earlbrown]

Damn thing ended up with an iffy connection on the way to my parents house tonight. I noticed it turned over a little slow and was down to 8.5 volts by the time I got to the road.


Nothing like removing that panel using an old ass pair of wire bending pliers just to wiggle that damn bulb.

To top it off, when it finally busted off from jump starting it with a 45A alternator my damn chip's "theft BS setting" reset itself and killed it.

........and on the way home the commander's theft proof setting's page blew out the window.


I might have to make another "how-to" post. Although I'd rather find the dumbass that designed that circuit and make a snuff film.

[SuperSix]

I fixed mine by removing the cluster, and burnishing ALL of the exposed copper contacts.

There's a thread on here somewhere about it.

Stupid design

[Steve Wood]

Cut the brown wire going to the L terminal on the alternator and insert something like a 135 ohm resistor, solder it in, cover with shrink wrap.  Take the end of the brown wire that goes to the bulb in the dash and connect it to a switched source of 12 volt power.  You can do this under the dash, or under the hood..  It is not crucial to have exactly a 135 ohm resistor as anything from 50-200 or so should work.

If you wish to be elegant and have a light that works, simply stick a bulb socket in the brown wire along with a bulb, instead of a resistor.....a man of your many talents can surely stick it in the hole vacated by the original volt light.

[SuperSix]

[Steve Wood]

stick it in the hole had no secondary meaning for the record....

[SuperSix]

The Astroglide may short it out..

[Steve Wood]

Don't say short around Earl....gives him a complex

[SuperSix]

http://www.installationinstructions.com/FYI/alternator_charging_tech.pdf

[Scott87]

Almost certain he said he uses spit...  Either will cause a short..

The Astroglide may short it out..

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[earlbrown]

It is not crucial to have exactly a 135 ohm resistor as anything from 50-200 or so should work.

If you wish to be elegant and have a light that works, simply stick a bulb socket in the brown wire along with a bulb, instead of a resistor.....a man of your many talents can surely stick it in the hole vacated by the original volt light.

That's where the trick is going to cum in. I need to figure out the "perfect" pull-up resistor to lay on the line. I want it to be open enough to still allow the idiot light to work yet take the bulb, the socket, the tracers and all the rest of that crap out of the equation.

Oddly enough I could just replace the "VOLT" get in my dash with one that says "You've got about 3 minutes before your entire car is dead. Good luck."
 I don't think that Supra pump helped either. Last night my battery got sucked down like this chick I knew in high school was doing it. I'm still a little numb on the end.



This just in: Looks like that .pdf is the ticket. I'm guessing my volt bulb's socket doesn't have the resistor inline. I guess it was changed for a normal one before I got my GN.
I just need to head on down the harness and find a better place to solder one in to take all the dash's contacts out of the way.
  Might be just the excuse I've been looking for to finally put in my new speedo cable. It'll be nice to not have the cruise control quit making 8#s on the interstate and then try and throw me through the windshield.



And, yes, spit is the ticket. To quote Lara, one of my old porn costars:

"What's the point in taking it up the ass if you're going to use lube? It defeats the whole purpose."

Good times 

[Steve Wood]

Very few turbo buicks had the socket with the resistor across it.  I have never seen one.   It would do no good in this case anyway as the socket is the part not making contact.  If you want a lite in the slot, then you can take a normal socket and solder a couple of wires into it.  pick up 12 volts ignition switched for power and run the other side to intercept the brown wire under the dash....

If you want to be elegant and put a resistor across the socket base, google should provide the resistance value...again, I don't think it is very crucial even when paralleled with a bulb -just large enuf to keep the bulb burning when it is good

[earlbrown]

On my car the failure was between the bulb and the socket. Once I removed the trim panel and the color gels it was a simple wiggle to restore my charging system.


This flaw just gets at me from all angles. Not only does it cause a failure for no reason, it hides the failure until the car is completely dead AND gives you the chance to get away from home before stranding you.

It's almost virus like.

[daveismissing]

As a starving student I had a regulator crap out on me so I extended a wire from the alt to the lighter socket via a switch and manually applied periodic charge monitoring my voltmeter. eek

[Steve Wood]

That's a strange one, Earl...never saw the bulb and socket have a problem

I always prefer a volt gauge, anyway, so I can see if the alternator is working properly....ju st ordered this one to replace my wide band gauge....now if it were only programmable so I could set it to flash red if it dropped below 13 v or so  http://www.aemelectronics.com/voltmeter-gauge-759

New wb will be in the glovebox

[SuperSix]

Maybe you need an aftermarket dash...