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On 11 Oct 2001, at 8:16, Brian Schlepp wrote: > Last night I checked voltage (digital VOM) across > the gen (ground and D+) at idle (800rpm) with nothing on (I was > clothed but nothing electrical was turned on in the car) and got > roughly 14V which increased to 15.4V at higher rpms. With all lights > on and the stereo, at idle got 13.4V and about 14.8V at higher rpms. > Never saw below 13.2V, even with turn signals on (voltage did go up > and down with turn signals blinking and the gen light gets brighter > when turn signals on). The really meaningful place to measure the voltage is at the voltage regulator output or across the battery. I know this is inconvenient, but that gives you what you really need to know. Measuring at the generator will always give you somewhat higher numbers, but the difference varies with load, so it's hard to say what your numbers mean. At the battery, the voltage should be 14.1-14.4V with the engine warmed up after a drive and at medium RPM. The voltage will drop as the RPMs drop, but at medium RPMs the voltage should have risen to some max and leveled out from there on up. What you get at lower RPMs really doesn't matter, just look for it to level out. A slightly glowing gen lamp just means that there is some small amount of voltage drop between the VR and the dash light, as it passes thru the wires from the VR to the ign switch to the fuse box to the dash light. You might want to check these areas for loose connections. I don't usually see any glow in that lamp, but if you do, I'd expect it to get brighter as you turn on more loads. - Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ------------------------------------------------------------------- Too much? Digest! mailto:type3-d-request@vwtype3.org Subj=subscribe