[Vwdiesel] Updating Alternator

[Sandy Cameron]

At 06:52 PM 10/21/05 -0500, you wrote:
>	 
  I took it to a little hole in the wall auto electrical shop run by
>a gentleman in his mid 80's, staff well into their 60's.  Technician
>remembered a trick from working on old Beetles with similar system and
>installed an adjustable regulator.  I'd never heard of such a thing and
>asked where they got it, but they both just sort of chuckled and made it
>quite clear that they weren't about to tell. The tech later told me that the
>company is very careful about who they sell to, due to potential liability
>from them being misadjusted. 

This old "gentleman" has modified 3 terminal chrysler external regulators so
fine voltage control can be remoted to a dashboard potentiometer. It entails
removing some of the potting compound from the back of the PC board,
soldering a couple of wires on, and running them to the pot. Pictures are
available to non-litigious persons.It works well with most american systems
of all 3 types

I think I will hie myself off to the lab and see if I can do it with a volks
regulator.
Seems to me someone has already done it by separating the regulator ground
from the frame and inserting 1 or 2 silicon diodes between ground and the
bottom of the regulator circuit.
Will report results here.

The more likely problem would be the lousy grounding in VWs. I have run a
heavy #8 from a copper lug on one of the alternator through bolts, back to
the negative battery post clamp and gained .75 of a volt at the battery.
Besides that, I have replaced all of the VW battery cables with HEAVY north
American types, both run directly to the starter, one on the terminal, the
other under a starter mounting bolt. This is the car that always starts on
the first compresion stroke. No cranking. First its quiet, then its running.

Also dont forget the odd positive and negative  (red and brown) wires in the
body harness.

Sandy