…never buy a car older than you. And if you do, dont put an engine built 20 years later in to it. And if you enough of a masochist to do that, dont expect it to work for more than 24hrs.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG.

What car and what engine?

Don't lose the faith. Mine started its life with me like this:

But it does get better…. I hope!

trying to fit a tdi into an old landie ?

Stangely mine started its life towed to my house. Then over the last 5 years has done more miles on a flatbed than under its own steam.

Any auto-electrical genini on here?

Right.

Vehicle 1973 Vw transporter (camper)

engine 1994(i think) subaru legacy 2.0l naturally EJ20 block.

[here is the bit where we ignore the people who fitted it in the first place – made an absolute balls of it and subsequently lead to another company having to sort it out and make it work. Which id did. For a week]

Drove fine prob 30miles in the week. Then sat did 20miles or so stopped at petrol station and wouldnt start, not even turning the starter. Jumped it start straight away rev'd up fine and drove fine. For about 2miles. Then revs dropping off and fianally dieing.

Again jumps starts fine, and idles fine – however put hazards / light on and engine starts to struggle idle poorly.

Mechanic put multi meter on it – reads 11.73v across battery terminals and the same from alterator to neg strap.

I was figuring dead alternator. However this has recently been replaced as had diff getting battery to charge. Had the original bench tested today and its working fine.

So this makes me wonder if there is a fault in the wiring to the alternator / regulator from the ignition loop.

This is supported by the fact there are only 2 wires coming of the alternator terminal (excluding main bat+ cable)

The connector has 4 pins – as it has been some what jury rigged to get it working (by v. capable mech) i dont know which terminals are in use.

the conector is Thus:

S D
IG L

S – Sense battery voltage
L – Ground to ingition light
IG – Ignition switch signal turns regulator ON
D – c**k only knows

So with only 2 wires im guessing they must complete the circuit from IG to L. Now im wondering if this means that the alternator doesnt sense the dropping battery voltage and that the alternator is sending enough charge to the battery. Or if the alternator would just feed a constant charge to the battery regardless of its charge state and that it is the alternator that is dead.

Any ideas?

Ta.

I'm pretty sure if your sense line isn't connected to the batt pos then it won't charge at all.

Hippy is it the ECU of the donor engine? I had grief with an ecu? nightmare to diagnose and then cost a fortune to fix.

Would the sense to bat + terminal require any fuse / relay arranagement so that it doesnt short when the alternator isnt running?

Lotus Europa 😯 shudder.

Im not sure about the ECU – i think that it might not have come from the same donor car – (see real botch job) however i dont think the ecu should affect the ignition / light/ alternator / battery as i think most of that is wired separtely to the ECU.

Good knows – unfortunately my knowledge of this things isnt extensive enough.

I can bearly drive the bloody things…

A quick google brings up this image:

(which probably makes it all as clear as mud now?)

A small fuse should suffice because its not carrying current.

I think this might be a case of a whole day with a multimeter and work out which bit of wiring does what.

Unfortunately theres 36 years of people fiddling with the loom to contend with…

That and thers about 12feet between the alternator / battery and the ignition.

Let us know how you get on. I might have more info at work. Some new ECUs also monitor the sense line so Pigface might be closer to identifying the problem (despite his poor taste in cars!).

OHH – You said 73 so it's a bay.

Does the loom still have the diagnostic offtakes so you can get a look at any error codes.

I have got a T3 Syncro with the 2.2 engine in and the wiring was/is the biggest bitch of all.

Had a nightmare recently and it was the Mass Airflow Sensor that was US, spare from a breakers and it ran up and down to London sweet as a nut.

Re the ECU – may be worth checking that you do have a 2ltr ECU and not a 2.2ltr ECU

Another useful resource is RJES, Richard has encyclopedic knowledge of Scooby/VW conversions – who did the original conversion?

How new is the battery?

Battery was brand new in the last month.

not quite the same problem, but whenever the alternator/dynamo has gone on anything i've ever owned/maintained it's taken the battery with it as they dont like being run down so low. Just a thought if you realy do try everything, just check it still doesn't work with a new battery.

Could D be a connection for a rev counter? I know many cars used to take this info off the alternator