280 Alternator Upgrade - will Not Charge

[S30Driver]

14 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

So, pretty much everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  Weird!

Did ZCD pay for shipping on the exchange?

Pretty much.  At least I saved the brain damage of getting it tested at Oriely's.    ZcarDepot covered the shipping on the replacement & the return is prepaid.

Dave,  I did a quick test with all the lights on at idle, about 8 to 900 rpm , it held at 14.8 volts.   Will test it tomorrow with a bigger load,  fan, brake lights, seat heaters etc.  and update.

Only thing left to do is I lost the functionality of the charge warning light in all my experimentation.  It does not come on any more with the ignition on and the motor not running.  I know there is a fuse & a charge relay associated with that circuit.

[Zed Head]

 

On 4/12/2018 at 2:13 PM, S30Driver said:

Also when pins 1-5 are connected,  the charge warning light on the volt gauge comes on.

Sounds like the wire that you chose is not the actual L wire.  If I read the diagram right, the two wires I marked in red are the ones you want to jump, which looks like what atlanticz says.  Seems like you were there but undid it. 2-5 looks like the circuit is always powered.  Might drain your battery through the alternator windings.

[Captain Obvious]

Wrong parts in the box... Glad it was that easy.

I saw my notes on this swap go by the other day and I'll go back and have another look. I do know that the charge light should work. And, more importantly, the current through the bulb should be providing the bootstrap current for the internally regulated alternator to work. Most times it'll still work without it, but there is the slim possibility that it won't.

I'll refresh my memory on the details.

[S30Driver]

Looks like my pins 2-5 jumper does indeed drain the battery while the motor is not running.  Will re-pin for 1-5 again and give that a try.

With all accessories on at idle, the 60amp alternator output drops to and maintains about 12.65 volts.   I'll make that measurement again when I have the battery back to a full charge.

Bruce,  this is the circuit I am looking at in the 77 shop manual (BE41) for the charge lamp problem ........

[Zed Head]

I've found that an old used Nissan original alternator puts out more idle amps than a "new" reman parts store alternator.  I have an old 81 ZX alt on my car and a new reman on the shelf.