Paper clips and tie-wraps

We have a two battery system. One is linked directly to the alternator and is charged when the engine is running (as per normal) and the other is connected to the solar panel and is charged when there's bright light. This second battery is used to power the fridge.

In fact both battery systems are connected together too so that the engine battery gets a top-up from the box of electronics that handles the solar panel. Alternators in older vehicles are not very clever and as the engine battery charges up, the output from the alternator decreases and so the battery doesn't always get a full charge. As long as you watch out for this then things are ok but it isn't good to constantly under-charge.

So that we can indeed watch the battery voltage we have a read-out on the dash that we can switch between the two batteries. As we were travelling south into Andalusia on Friday the engine battery voltage began to rise from normal 13.8 up to 17 or 18 volts. Then it settled down for a while and then started to go haywire again.

Realising there was some sort of issue we stopped at the end of an olive grove lane and disconnected the two systems so now we have the engine / alternator and battery isolated from the solar panel side. We carried on driving but it was still a problem and we had a faulty alternator. It was lunchtime on a Friday in Spain where all we can say is hola, dos cervezas por favor, and grazie. We were looking out for an auto-electrican and planning to use Google Translate (thank goodness for no data roaming charges anymore) and a photo.

We stopped at six places in two different towns and finally someone knew where to buy a regulator for the A127 alternator. The best bit was that a customer at this last place could speak some Ingelish and explained that the mechanic was on zee phone to a place down the road who had one in stock. "Follow mee" and we did and ten minutes later I had paid €8 for a new regulator. It was quicker than eBay!

I fitted it that night at the current campsite, getting confidence by referring to the technical library on www.lr4x4.com. Thank goodness for the selection of tools that we have with us. We used a 1/4" drive socket set, a 10mm ring spanner but wait - we needed a paper clip to hold the brushes in until the regulator was bolted in place, at which point they could be released by pulling the clip back out... well the campsite office had one of those.

So old and new regulators are shown below (and I need a note to remind me to put one in the spares kit next time).

This regulator is delivering 14.4 volts, much better than the other one (when it was working). So our engine battery is receiving a better charge than before and this is good news, as the batteries are the second most expensive items in the vehicle (after the fridge). 

A second running repair was made today (Sunday 10 June '18) after a prolonged spell of gravel road driving in the mountains around Cazorla. The rear exhaust mount rubber fell off and I had to use tie-wraps to stop the back end from banging around.

This should be a good-enough repair to see us through the trip! Thank goodness for paper clips and tie-wraps.