Any Idea What This Is ?

[Raggylad]

I'm trying to identify a rogue wire connected to the back of the alternator fitted to my '83 110 V8 - see picture below.

The alternator is a Lucas A115-45 (LR Part No: PRC2677) with following numbers on it: 24028D A115-45 178312V1. It is, I think, original - but has been reconditioned at least once.

The wire in question is the single brown one connected to a spade terminal towards the top of the picture (not the one at the very top). It is not shown on the wiring diagram in the Owner's Handbook.

Only suggestion I have had so far is that it may be connected to the 'W' terminal (whatever that is ?!) - usually used for either a rev counter or automatic choke (I have neither !).

Any ideas ?

[dreadnought110]

Brown as long as it's standard land rover wire is an unfused battery feed hope this helps??

[western]

have you tried tracing it to see where it goes to, or does it just go striaght into the engines wiring loom. on the V8 wiring diagram, there should be 2 brown cables to the start solenios & a brown/yellow tracer to the battery/ignition light on the dash.

[simonb]

Only suggestion I have had so far is that it may be connected to the 'W' terminal (whatever that is ?!) - usually used for either a rev counter or automatic choke (I have neither !).

Any ideas ?

Could be W terminal for tacho, just cos you don't have one doesn't mean the wire wasn't in the loom. With engine off, pull off connector and insert a thin bit of wire in the female bit of the terminal, then refit it back to the alt. Start engine, connect voltmeter between that wire you stuffed in and earth. Set meter to ac volts range, if you get a reading its the W terminal. If no reading its dc so not W term, the other thing it could be is a suppressor terminal, but that normally has the capacitor mounted direct to it, or it may be another sense/warning light terminal that is common to the main output connector. BUT, since it ain't broke dont worry about it!

[Raggylad]

Many thanks for the answers and advice. The wire diasppears straight into the loom - so hard to tell where it goes. I'll run the test suggested. Reason for asking is that I am about to fit an 80A alternator (the current one is only 45A & struggles with the load of headlights, heater fan & wipers in bad weather) and I don't want to cock up this mystery connection & cause unnecessary damage !

[Raggylad]

Simon - ran the AC volts test you suggested & got a reading - which suggested it was the W terminal, though there is no marking anywhere near it to confirm.

Turns out, in fact, that it wasn't ! If you look at the Lucas spec here http://www.lucas-tvs.com/products/A115.html (which I only found this evening) you can see that it is the 'optional spade terminal for warning light'.

This would explain why, when I connected it to the W terminal on the new alternator, the battery warning light came on as soon as I reconnected the battery ! Anyway, I then disconnected the wire and everything ran fine without it - so it is now taped up out of the way !

Thanks for all the replies - they all helped.

Nick

[madcanuck]

Nick,

Good question, helped me out as well.

Did your new altenator fit right in, otherwise? I need to upgrade to a higher capacity one as well, are they expensive?

T

[streaky]

T.

You need to get up to AAA in Rashidiya, Dubai. They have a huge array of 2nd hand used parts for all Rovers. I was there at the weekend swapping out my cam...they have at least 15-20 alternators of various fittments on the shelf.

AAA have a huge alternator test rig which sorts out the good from the bad.

For the record....what engine do you have? Is your alty on the left or right side of the engine? How many mounting points is it 2 or 3? It's usually possible to swing the ends around to make a left hand one fit the right side.

Regards.

S.