i've again tried a few things. What should the multimeter sorta read when its charging? i'm sure mine doesnt change from engine off or running. should the light on the regulator be on? mines not. its a 4w bulb though, does this matter? I'm sure the brushes were ok as i took them out quickly when the alternator was off the car. not sure what im really looking for but they were long ish and looked to be touching the spindle

Do you mean the light you've put in instead of the regulator? It should light when the engine's stopped, and go out once it's charging. I'd say you were aiming for about 14 volts.

checking the volts with a multimeter from the main wire to earth at the alternator is gives 12.7 without engine running then abou 12.5 with it running. makes no difference when you give it more revs.

can make the warning light come on by connecting the small wire to the battery but not to the coil + connections. This means the ignition is live when i wire it straight to the battery?!

I am stuggling to understand what the small wire should be attached to now?

please help me

Still no joy Tim? An alternator with built in regulator should be a piece of p1ss to wire up. You've got the fat wire that goes to the battery on the big connector, that looks right if it's the black wire.
Where does the blue wire go? is it a live feed for something else, or is that the small wire you're having trouble with?

The socket with the two spade connectors needs something plugging into it.

I think the majority of alternators work the same way, they have two basic wires, a fat charging wire which connects to the battery positive and a smaller 'signal' wire which supplies the alternator with power when the ignition is switched on. This is important as the alternator contains electro magnets which need to be energised in order for it to work.
As a point of interest, and you can try this at home kids, if you take your fan belt off the alternator should spin over quite freely by hand. Now go and switch the ignition on,(disconnect your coil first to prevent it over-heating) Try spinning the alternator over again, it should put up some resistance and feel lumpy showing that the electro magnets are energised. If you pull the 'signal' wire off the back it should spin freely again.

I suspect that one of those two spade connectors needs a live feed from the ignition Tim, but I don't know which one, you need to check a GS wiring diagram, and then look at an original wiring loom and check what colour goes to which spade. However you may well be lucky, check for continuity between the two spades. If it shows no resistance then they are probably joined inside the casing and either one will do. Check the resistance between the spades and earth, I would expect the one that needs a live feed to show a resistance of somewhere around 2-5 ohms. But at this point I'm just guessing, a wiring diagram is your friend.

Anyone around here got a haynes for the GS/GSA?

Was looking for a GSA wiring diagram last night, with no luck.

Last thing I knew, TIMMY had tried connecting his wire-with-a-bulb straight from the battery to each of the two spades in turn. One of them caused the bulb to light, but stay lit while the engine was running. The other didn't do anything at all...

tried everything mentioned above tonight and linked everything in all different combinations, nothing. the black wire goes to the starter motor (as on G's it would appear - it didnt charge with or without it)
the blue wire comes from the 2cv loom, the white wire is the thinner wire from the same place in the 2cv loom as the blue one.

have stuck Jeremy on charge for tonight and put in jump leads, spare wires, connectors in the hope that someone on the wknd can lend me a hand if i get there. Also got to pack the spare batteries from the other cars in the morning... think i'll be making buttons on the trip there! (Easter camp)

wish i had, had more time to sort it but i said i would try and take it!

sorry if my comments sounded ungreatful, just re-read them. I really appreciate the help from everyone, its just very frustrating that I cant do it!!

thanks Guys.

TIM

Likewise. My Haynes seems to be hiding.

Timmy - ring Rob Moss at Chevronics, he'll be able to put you straight.

Had quick look at Jeremy at the weekend, it would appear from the Haynes Book that the GSA alternator *doesn't* actually have a built in regulator. All it says about the GSA regulator is that it's not user-servicable, so I don't know for sure whether a 2CV one would do the job properly, I guess it would though? The wiring diagram in Haynes is less than useless in this case, it shows three wires from the alternator; the output, the field coil, and the third one, simply marked 'M'. No hope of working out what 'M' is supposed to do from the diagram, because it just shows all three wires disappearing into the loom. (helpful!)

Also, the elctronic 2CV regulator didn't appear to be doing much, I would have thought with the ignition on and the engine stopped there should be 12V at the connector for the field coil?

Later GSAs had a built in regulator in the alternator, earlier ones didn't.

I still reckon it'd pay to fit a 2CV alternator, that's what I've always done on my Sidewinders and they've always been man for the job and it only takes a few minutes to make/modify the adjusting bracket.......