6 replies to this topic

[meetthespeakers]

Hey guys, just put in my new dash that I customized, and it does not have a provision for the exciter bulb. Is there anyway I can bypass this, or do I need to wire in somewhere a bulb? What volt, and how to wire it? Do I just simply wire the brown and yellow wire to a bulb, then ground the bulb? I took my mini on a nice 12 hour cruise this past weekend and found out it was just running off the battery the entire time.... of course this left me stranded on the last 2 hours of the leg. Limped it home with a charged up battery.

[KernowCooper]

The alternator needs the ignition light to provide the alternator with a exciter feed to enable it to charge initially, and its a ignition light would have told you your alternator was not charging as your aware, in my mind its a must and is fed from the ignition on 12v circuit through the bulb to the terminal on the alternator, so the bulb finds a earth when not charging through the alternator and when the voltage equalises on the cable the light goes out.

Edited by KernowCooper, 15 April 2013 - 06:05 PM.

[lrostoke]

If you don't want the bulb to be seen then hide it somewhere although really it is a warning light to tell you something is wrong with the charging system.

also they are wired like so

12v ignition switched live goes to one terminal on the bulb you can take a feed of the white wires on the fuse box.
The other terminal connects to the brown/yellow (taking the place of an earth wire)

I forget what wattage they are but 2 - 3 watts is fine

[colinu]

Nice speedo!... what make is it?

[meetthespeakers]

Autometer, black prestige tach speedo combo. LED backlit, odometer, GPS sender for speedo. Really nice unit, think it looks the biz.

[colinu]

Very nice!... but a bit out of my price range until I complete my rebuild/restoration

[meetthespeakers]

Well with this Mini I wanted to do something a little different since it is my "demo car" of what I can build, and some of the products I do. Next up is air ride.... then ultimately a engine swap. Building a d16a6 right now. Very tempting to pull that out of the car and swap it into the clubby.