Possible bad battery light connection

[dblincoln3]

Hello,
I cannot get my battery light to come one when I turn the ignition to the on position and my alternator will not charge when the car is running. The alternator is a brand new Hervey 120 which I put on the car yesterday. The old alternator was a ducellier that I wanted to change because I believe the regulator was shot, as it was putting out a high voltage when the car was running, however it was charging the battery even though the battery light was not lighting when the key was in the on position. I changed the bulb with a new 161 bulb and that did nothing. I grounded the brown/yellow wire attached to the alternator and tried the key in the "on" position and still no light. The oil light on the dash comes on when the key is in the on position and all the other guages seem to be working when the car is running, although after changing the alternator the tachometer seems to be less sensitive to slight changes in rpm, than it was with the old alternator, which I really don't understand why that would occur. The hand brake light does not seem to work either, but has worked intermittently in the short time that I have owned the car. I believe it must be a bad connection somewhere and was looking for suggestions on the best places to look. Is it possible to have a bad ground connection somewhere in the dash that would allow the oil light to work, but not the battery light?

Thanks.

[David T]

Hello,
I cannot get my battery light to come one when I turn the ignition to the on position and my alternator will not charge when the car is running. The alternator is a brand new Hervey 120 which I put on the car yesterday. The old alternator was a ducellier that I wanted to change because I believe the regulator was shot, as it was putting out a high voltage when the car was running, however it was charging the battery even though the battery light was not lighting when the key was in the on position. I changed the bulb with a new 161 bulb and that did nothing. I grounded the brown/yellow wire attached to the alternator and tried the key in the "on" position and still no light. The oil light on the dash comes on when the key is in the on position and all the other guages seem to be working when the car is running, although after changing the alternator the tachometer seems to be less sensitive to slight changes in rpm, than it was with the old alternator, which I really don't understand why that would occur. The hand brake light does not seem to work either, but has worked intermittently in the short time that I have owned the car. I believe it must be a bad connection somewhere and was looking for suggestions on the best places to look. Is it possible to have a bad ground connection somewhere in the dash that would allow the oil light to work, but not the battery light?

Thanks.

There are numerous possible connections that can cause trouble. My vote is either in the bulkhead under the cover in the engine bay front, right corner, or the flexible PC board in the binnacle. Truth is it can be anywhere between the dash and the alternator. Happy hunting!

[djdogbone]

If the battery bulb is burned out, the alternator will not charge the battery

[dblincoln3]

Found the problem, the white 16 pin connector that connects to the instrument cluster was not connected properly to the printed circuit and 3 of the tabs, for pins 5, 6 and 7, on the printed circuit board were bent outward and failing to make contact with the pin connector. I bent the tabs back in, reattached the pin connector and I got the battery light to work and now the alternator is charging. The dash was replaced at some point by a PO, so I imagine the tabs were bent outward at that time.