Alfa Pages

[munro]

Drove from Southampton up to Birmingham NEC Saturday to go the the classic car show - in the wet weather coming home Sat night with wipers, headlights, heater fan on I got an occasional dim glow from the charging light. Seemed to be happening when there was water around outside.

Has anyone else had this? Belt is OK and battery fairly new. No problems with starting or anything. Early signs of a decaying alternator, or normal and nothing to worry about?

TIA.

Munro.

[tvatavuk]

Hi,

First time my alternator warning light started glowing resulted in fire, after which 33 was standing still in front of my house for 1 year, until I managed time to replace most of burned wires from wire loom.
Unfortunatly for me this days glow is back, and I cannot tell you what it does to my nerves.
Most of others had that glow for years and nothing happend.
So it all depends why is it glowing, it can be alternator that is not charging as it should (sliping belt,oxidated ground, bad regulator diode with brushes or its rotor) or it could be problems with ground or mixture of both.
I can tell you from my experiance that 33 has few big wires that are connected directly on battery, without fuse and when one of them shortes with ground there are fumes & flames if you're not fast enough to unscrew it from battery + terminal you could lose your 33.
It would be best for you to se how many Volts on bat terminals are you getting when lights starts glowing, it should be 14.0-14.4V. If it's lower then 13.8V than you should try to repair it.
In case you have around 14V on terminals and light glows you have problems with earthing.
_________________
Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

[Ben_nz]

I've noticed that often when I start my car, the charging circuit doesn't seem to work (battery light on, and my battery voltmeter kitset indicates the alternator isn't charging). The car will sit there idling and running off the battery until the engine revs pass about 1200 or 1300rpm, then it starts to charge the battery and keeps working properly even if the engine rpm drops down again.
I'm guessing this is normal.

[Eddie W]

All our 33s do this to greater or lesser degree and it drives me nuts.On ours anyway the glow strobes with the wipers on the up strokeand I suspect that the wiper stalk control is switching too much current. Also the wipers slow down when the lights are switched on. Two of the cars have rebuilt wiper motors and linkage but that doesn't make a great difference.
I've also fitted big relays for the headlights which makes a vast difference to night driving But doesn't help the warning light saga. Interchangeing alternators doesn't seem to help either.
Whoever finds the end solution should be named a hero of the revolution.
Regards Eddie
_________________
A LITTLE FURTHER A LITTLE FASTER

[Matt Stolton]

It is all to do with the age of the cable itself, and the connectors.

Most of the alternator light stuff is bad earths, but check all connectors through the loom for oxidation as well, and replace as many as possible.

I also upgraded the +ve cable from the alternator to starter to battery with 2 x 10mm[] cables, and more for the battery to body to engine earth. This has made a huge improvement.
_________________
Regards

Matt

Ex Alfa 33 'GTA' (P4 with Knobs On)
Now cruising in a 166 3.2 Ti!!

[ZeNiTh-PbArM]

Hi,

if your alternator is old, have a close look at it : it may be time to renew brushes and regulator, check the diodes, and fit new bearings.
some pictures can be found here : http://alfaimola.free.fr/technique/electricite/alternateur/index.html

regards,
zp

[BILL]

My battery light glows when the lights are on and you activate the alarm or turning(flashing) lights on.I had the alternator serviced a year ago becoase the red light didnt come off even if i reved over 4000rpm!!!It included all that ZeNiTh-PbArM says.Also when i start the car most of the times the red light does not go off if i dont rev up to 1600-1800 rpm.

[Maze123]

Try replacing the relay on the alternator..I just replaced mine, and it solved the problem!
_________________
Alfa 33 1.7 16v '88 QV
http://www.bilgalleri.dk/html/gal_visbil.asp?ID=2498

[Paul D.]

If you start by cleaning all the earth-points there's a good chanse that the glowing will be gone. There are several to check: one behind the firewall, exactly on the other side of where the battery sits, one on the engine block, one in the trunk and if I'm wright there's one on the inner wheel arch too, not sure anymore about that last one. Just give them a good clean and put on soms non-corrode battery grease and they'll last forever. Bad earthing can be the cause of buring cables too. Anyway, going round you car with a can or two of contact spray will never hurt the electric system
Regards!

Paul D.

[GaryUK]

Don't know if this could be the problem. I had a burn't out radiator fan that was stuck on (bad thermo switch). Anyway the burnt out motor was shorting causing the battery to drain faster than the alternator could charge it.??