Mk1 voltage drop and faint alternator light glowing

[sukchew at cox.net (Chuck Blue)]

You need 13.8 volts with the engine running and the battery loaded.Check 
your alternator.It could be a voltage regulator or maybe a bad slip ring.I 
ran into that on a rebuilt alternator.It the slip ring is not round it can 
cause the brushes to "bounce".It'll drive you nuts because the voltage may 
not be constant. After two waranty alternator replcements I went to my local 
auto electric shop and had it checked out and repaired.
ole blue
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Pawlicki" <james.pawlicki@gmail.com>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: Mk1 voltage drop and faint alternator light glowing


> My battery light glows ever so slightly at night when I have my headlights
> on and no other accessories on on my '77. The voltage gauge reads a touch
> under 12 volts. With no headlights on, I have a consistent 13.2 volts 
> unless
> the radiator fan turns on. My interior fan sucks quite a bit of juice on 
> the
> system.
>
> I was wondering what sort of voltage drop you folks see on the volt gauge
> when you have your headlights on and interior fan on? Just with the fan on
> setting "1" and the headlights on, the volt gauge reading drops to 11 
> volts.
> Setting "3" will drop the voltage down to 10.5 volts, especially when the
> radiator fan turns on. My battery light on the instrument cluster gets
> brighter and brighter as the voltage gauge readings decrease with 
> additional
> accessories.
>
> Does anyone else experience severe reduction of voltage readings with some
> accessories on? It's a good thing I don't have a stereo in the Mk1 :)
>
> I have done some things to combat the faintly glowing battery light. I 
> have
> a fresh new battery, rebuilt Bosch 55 amp alternator. Lastly, I cleaned 
> the
> negative battery cable and each of the two contacts (inner fender and on 
> the
> transmission mount). I used some dielectric (SP?) grease on the contacts. 
> I
> also swapped out a 70-75 degree Celsius (very low temp) radiator fan 
> switch
> with a 77-82 degree Celsius to reduce the frequency of the fan coming on.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim
>
> -- 
> http://members.aol.com/jlpawlicki
> 92 Corrado SLC
> 90 Corrado G60
> 84 Rabbit Gti Callaway Stage II
> 83 Rabbit Gti
> 77 Scirocco Callaway Stage I
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