Alternator Not Charging Without Instrument Cluster?

[bombastic]

I've had to send my instrument cluster away for repair, and the day after I noticed the battery went flat quicksmart. Checked the voltage when the car's running and it was 12 point something, so clearly the alternator isn't working, and a bit of googling leads me to believe that something in the instrument cluster enables the alternator.

So, my question is, does anyone know if there's an easy workaround to turn the alternator on? I can only drive about 40km's before the battery goes dead

[daywalker]

I've had to send my instrument cluster away for repair, and the day after I noticed the battery went flat quicksmart. Checked the voltage when the car's running and it was 12 point something, so clearly the alternator isn't working, and a bit of googling leads me to believe that something in the instrument cluster enables the alternator.

So, my question is, does anyone know if there's an easy workaround to turn the alternator on? I can only drive about 40km's before the battery goes dead

You are correct with the dash having something to do with the charging, the charge light in the dash is what essentially turns the alternator on to charge the battery.I am no auto electrician but i guess you will have to put some sort of light on the wire in the loom of the dash to make it work.

[Chris Rogers]

pretty much correct. if you want I have the 33 service manual here so you can workout what wire you need .

[some_cs_student]

Ah so it is the same as the R31?

In the R31 the alternator will "self excite" when you hit 2 or 3K RPM, but before that your voltage will be very weak.

To get it working the globe in the dash had to be working, in the R31 it was a globe called "alternator" that switched off when you start the car, if it fails to do this the alternator doesn't kick in unless you self-excite it.

[bombastic]

pretty much correct. if you want I have the 33 service manual here so you can workout what wire you need .

Yes please Chris if it's not too much trouble! Would be lovely if I could drive to uni tomorrow instead of wasting hours mucking around with public transport I'll PM you my email address.

In the R31 the alternator will "self excite" when you hit 2 or 3K RPM, but before that your voltage will be very weak.

Interesting... I'm not sure if this is true of the 33, cause I had it revving at 4-5000 rpm to stop it from stalling at one point, and it was misfiring *a lot*... I'm thinking if the alternator was running this would not have happened.