tenpastmidnight blog
Making hay while the sun shines
» Tuesday, January 20, 2004 «
Beetle brushes
Last night my Beetle only just got to my parents, who I was dropping in to see before going to a pub quiz with my friends (came third - woo, chocolate prize!)
The Beetle's battery was flat, after driving over with the headlights on. This galvanised me in to replacing the generator brushes earlier than I was planning and I went over this morning to do them. The brushes themselves weren't too difficult to replace, if a bit fiddly, but I'm not sure they've solved the problem - the red light was still on a bit, which means generator / electrical problems. I'll charge the battery up tonight and see if that fixes it.
I'm also still getting interference from something electrical over the stereo speakers. Before I'd thought it was the generator. As it was still happening on the way home, I thought it might be the 'sparkfire' widget that sits between the coil and distributor cap that I bought at the Volksworld show a few years back. I replaced that with a standard HT lead but haven't been out for a run to see if that's fixed it yet because the battery really needs charging. Hopefully, that'll be it, otherwise I'll be on a search for a loose connection - not easy. While I was waiting for the battery to charge earlier I cleaned all the electrical contacts I could see in the engine bay, so I can be pretty sure it's not any of those.
The Beetle's battery was flat, after driving over with the headlights on. This galvanised me in to replacing the generator brushes earlier than I was planning and I went over this morning to do them. The brushes themselves weren't too difficult to replace, if a bit fiddly, but I'm not sure they've solved the problem - the red light was still on a bit, which means generator / electrical problems. I'll charge the battery up tonight and see if that fixes it.
I'm also still getting interference from something electrical over the stereo speakers. Before I'd thought it was the generator. As it was still happening on the way home, I thought it might be the 'sparkfire' widget that sits between the coil and distributor cap that I bought at the Volksworld show a few years back. I replaced that with a standard HT lead but haven't been out for a run to see if that's fixed it yet because the battery really needs charging. Hopefully, that'll be it, otherwise I'll be on a search for a loose connection - not easy. While I was waiting for the battery to charge earlier I cleaned all the electrical contacts I could see in the engine bay, so I can be pretty sure it's not any of those.
