gen light wont go off.

slyness41bus · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 9:20 am Post subject: gen light wont go off.

I was driving the other day and the generator light came on, the bus ran just fine and when I stopped at my friends house the bus turned back on just fine. Then I got it home went on another trip and got to a parking lot where it would not turn over....but a jumpstart got me home.
so I replaced the alternator with a new bosch unit, & a new regulator, and had the battery tested which tested fine on load test. But the LIGHT is still on! Let sit overnight, started fine this am, still the light.
not sure what to look for, can have lights etc All on at same time, no issues.....tried pulled fuses one at time then started to see if light would go out, looking for possible culprit circuit grounds causing issues when running and the light. But light only goes out when the fuse FOR THAT light is pulled...
also it doesn't matter if I'm driving and get up to higher RPM or anything the light stays constant.
the only repairs that have been done to it previous to this, was a couple of weeks before that I replace to the electric fuel pump but I haven't had any issues up until just this time when it happened...

14platoon · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:53 pm Post subject:

Not wishing to scare you but, my beetle had the same issue and I had a nightmare trying to find the cause. My gen light would not go off, I replaced alternator then light still wouldn't go off.
It transpired that my wiring loom was nearly completed shot, the previous owner obviously had a fuse which kept blowing, instead of finding the fault he replaced with a much larger fuse. The result was that instead of the fuse blowing, now that a large fuse was in place, larger than the wiring capacity, the wires melted instead of the fuse blowing out. By pure chance I looked at the middle of the loom while trying to move something, I found that all the separate wires had their coats melted and were now bare, wires were now stuck to each other and power was interrupted to the alternator.

Fix:
I fond a bare wire from my number plate shorting on metalwork.
I replaced the complete burnt part of the wiring loom which was in fact very simple, just followed the wire from connection to connection.
Wires replaced, new alternator (again) and now works.

If I knew how to fault find with a multimeter I'm sure this job would have been easier to find.

Check your wires thoroughly, I had to cut sheath to expose my loom and that's where I found my burnt wires, this could easily have toasted my whole car.

Hope that helps, it's a lot easier to do than it sounds if this is indeed your problem.

Amskeptic · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:54 pm Post subject: Re: gen light wont go off.

slyness41bus · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:08 pm Post subject:

Yea, all wires are connected, my heater fan haz also stopped working...same circuit...gonna have to chase wires it looks like. The wiring behind dash is all good, so might be back where loom goes out of engine bay into body...ugh! I HOPE NOT. The fan has power and everything to relay, its a 99 dollar relay, so hoping its something else! Embarassed

all the other things on rig work...just no fan, and a light in dash. Its backfeeding somewhere.

slyness41bus · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:10 pm Post subject:

Funny thing about that blue wire.. .UNPLUGGED the light STILL stays on either way.

busdaddy · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:17 pm Post subject:

Are we discussing some sort of VW here?, there's a few ways that charge light circuit is wired depending on year and model.
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slyness41bus · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:41 am Post subject:

Oops...sorry, yes it is a 1972 camper.

slyness41bus · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:43 am Post subject:

Also, it shut down my fuel guage, and the turn signals, hit the horn button it went back to normal, but gas guage bounced around here and there. And when THAT happened, the LIGHT went out! UGH!!!!!

busdaddy · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:50 am Post subject:

Sounds like issues with the power to the back of the fuel gauge and idiot lights, remove fuse #11 and clean up both ends as well as the tabs it snaps into to start with.
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Vince Waldon · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:57 am Post subject:

...and if that doesn't help you can also spend some quality time checking all the grounds in the vicinity of the dash and cluster. Brown wires, PO notwithstanding. Very Happy

The fact that hitting the horn switch changes things on ya (which grounds the horn...which will kinda look like a ground to small lights and gauges) might be a clue in that general direction.
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HBChris · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:26 pm Post subject:

My front turn signal plastic bulb holder housing was loose and grounding out, it caused Gen light to stay on.

slyness41bus · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:17 pm Post subject:

Found LOTS of half assed wiring at fuse box, and various areas...all fixed. But still a light...the alternator is putting out 21.3 amps at the battery...is that good or bad? Book was saying like 35-40 or something....has anyone ever experienced grounding of the back cooling cover on the alternator??? maybe post is slightly grounding? Ive looked at, jiggled, cussed at, rewired everything I can find, and entire harness', nothing makes light go out but pulling blue wire from regulator.
Has anyone had problems like this??? it runs, but is 50/50 on starting..
replaced headlight switch, emergency light switch, fuses to the right size, dash bulbs, and it fixed any and all bad wiring that I could find and nothing seems to make this light go out

slyness41bus · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 4:25 pm Post subject:

now that I have fixed all the wiring and replaced all these switches and all this stuff, when I pull the blue wire off the voltage regulator the light goes out now. What the hell does a stupid blue wire do anyway!??? do I have to have it connected?
I chased it down in the book, and it goes to the heater fan relay and it also goes to that idiot light that is staying on then it goes from that Into the dash fuse box. I was told the alternator will not charge with it disconnected. TRUE OR FALSE LOL

Tcash · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:02 pm Post subject:

I was told the alternator will not charge with it disconnected. TRUE

busdaddy · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:09 pm Post subject:

telford dorr · Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2015 5:37 pm Post subject: Blue wire

14platoon · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:23 pm Post subject:

I found a cut / frayed wire shorting out on the gap between the rear of my fan shroud and the body of the car. I don't know what made me look here but the wire was touching bare metal and shorting out. The previous owner obviously couldn't find this shorted wire either and that's why he put a very large fuse in the fuse box, to prevent it from continually blowing out. The large fuse is what caused my wiring loom to melt. The wire transpired to be the number plate light wire.
I held a phone camera between the rear fan shroud and car body gap and snapped a few photos, this revealed the grounding wire.
Another common place to look for bodged wiring is in the headlight bowls, I found both my vehicles had wiring like this:

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

slyness41bus · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 4:04 pm Post subject:

Thanks much guys, I will check all that stuff...I also have not as of yet checked the wiring at the STARTER....The main feel wire from alt. goes into starter before battery...a problem there may also be the culprit...its so wierd to run from alt into starter THEN battery....most vehicles are alt to batt to starter....but ok, I will check everything. I am gonna put an entire new harness front to back this summer so I KNOW the wiring is good....43 years of backyard mechanic work has rendered this one dicey at best.

Tcash · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:27 am Post subject:

slyness41bus · Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:03 pm Post subject:

Turned out one of the wires in the plug had come undone, so the charge signal wasnt touching, so it triggered the gen light thinking the alternator was bad.
but overall a great experience, fix LOTS of wiring that was haphazard and borderline fire danger.
all is well, bus is super happy now!!!!
Thanks to everyone that offered help, that is what rules about the Samba.


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