Question For The Electrical Nerds (Guys)

OK, I have a 1987 Range Rover (no need for condolences cards ) and the other night while driving home my rev counter drops to zero, my lights go dim down to candle power and my driving lights dim off as well.

So, on the weekend I popped the bonnet and found a motor, that was lucky!

I twiddled with wires, nothing loose, nothing burnt , all fuses intact everything connected to where it should be, checked the alternator belt and wires, all OK, did not check the charging as I am electrically impaired and do not have a muiltimetre.

Thought, OK time for the auto sparky, Monday comes, I drive of down the road and my rev counter comes up , so I did not take it to the auto sparky, I have not driven at night since so don't know if my lights are back on track.

Does anyone know what might be the problem apart for it being English as normally it is great electrically.

Does anyone know where the rev counter pick up point is?

Thanks all

Mr Lucas is visiting you already. British cars and electricity go together like american cars and fuel economy.
My first guess would have been a charging problem since the lights went dim...but if the car will start back up..then that's almost out of the question (better check on that thought). Next thing to check is a loose connection on a set of fraid wires somewhere underneath the dashboard near the firewall. If you have a wiring diagram, it could help pin-point possible troublespots. With that you can locate where the rev counter wire/headlights etc are all together in a loom...and start looking for problems there.
Good luck.

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, yeah I know, electrically it has been sweet up till now, I am a little mystfied, the truck is basic which is cool, might take it to the sparky to check the power output and start from there.

The only electrical problem I had was when the fuel pump wire got squashed between a rock and the chasis and that warmed everything up a bit, turns out it is the ONLY circuit in the vehicle that is NOT fused, bloody poms!

Thanks man!

Sounds as though the alternator is working.

Dimming or devices that stop working then miraculously recover is sometimes a sign of a bad earth wire connection. Run a heavy wire from the - terminal of the battery and secure it under a bolt on the body. Also check that the engine has an earthing cable to the body.

Thanks old fart, I will spend some time on it this weekend and methodically follow everything thru, I have 8 earth straps now from body to motor to starter to winch bla bla bla, when I start up now the rev counter takes afew seconds to pick up, it never used to do that so I will investigate that first.

Alternators can do wierd things, I wouldn't rule that out yet.

I had an alernator go bad on me a while back. I was driving down the road at night and everything just kept getting dimmer until it died.

I charged the battery back up, and based on a recommendation from a friend, whacked the alternator with hammer. It worked fine for another 10,000 miles.

Apparently, the brushes in the alternator can sometimes get hung up, and a good solid whack with a blunt instrument is all it needed.

Yeah I will give that a try, sometimes they have got sticky over time with mud and shit going thru it, could be as simple as that although we haven't been off road for a while....maybe that it the problem, not enough water running thru it to keep it clean