Alternator/Charging 200: New Developments II

[Vittorio Bares]

Diode was good and actually didn't go to the brake warning light (Tony -
I think you were right in that it was a fix for another issue - dim
light).

I'm looking at the circuit boards now - I've identified 1 diode that is
not working - but unrelated to the exciter wire. I've also noted 3
'broken' soldering points that I'll attempt to fix.

In case all this goes badly - my next step is to get a known working
cluster. Does anyone know which clusters are compatible w/the 1990 200? 

I've checked the archives - found nothing.

Vittorio Bares
Senior Manager, DA
Professional Services
NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com]
On Behalf Of Vittorio Bares
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 11:26 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Alternator/Charging 200: New Developments

Ok - so I'm learning all about charging circuits in automobiles. All my
tests keep pointing to the D+ (term 61) exciter wire. More specifically,
the failure of a diode in the instrument panel.
 
I pulled the instrument panel - which btw, was much easier than I
thought it would be.
 
And guess what - someone had been there before me. They've spliced into
the blue wire going into the instrument cluster. The splice goes to a
diode, and then to the alternator warning light - 'magine that.
 
a) does anyone know how to test a diode? I'm assuming its a resistance
measure?
b) does anyone know what type of diode I'd be looking for if I wanted to
replace it?
 
Thanks !
 
The previous owners also added a wire from the B+ post, that travels
under the car and attaches to the positive side of the battery - I'm
assuming this was to guard against a potential draw from the splice (?).
I didn't see anything significant when for voltage drop. I even took a
booster cable and connected from the B+ directly to the + post on the
battery - with no change.
 
Vittorio -
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