[DML] Re: Altenator problems

[DMC83in99@xxxx]

I myself talked to Rob earlier about his altenator drain, and although his 
sounds somewhat different than mine, we both thought it best to pass the info 
he sent back to me along to the list:

Scott
#16738


The alternator doesn't ground by a wire connected to it. It grounds 
through the bracket, engine then frame. I never thought that was a really 
good way to ground things in a car (especially it seems, a British car. :) 
) but it does cut down on the number of wires. The battery is grounded to 
the frame by the negative wire from the battery. The rest of the 
components are grounded by touching the frame. The engine doesn't touch 
the frame except through rubber motor mounts so you need a strap to conduct 
the electricity around the rubber. The alternator is then connected to the 
engine to get its ground.

The pink wires you see coming from the alternator are the positive wires. 
You say you've checked the battery and found a drain? Are you resetting 
the computer properly? Not doing that will cause the appearance of a 
drain. You have to connect the leads of the test light to the positive 
battery terminal and the positive cable. Then touch the cable itself to 
the terminal for about 30 seconds. Disconnect the postive cable and see if 
the light stays on. If so, you have a drain. This is completely different 
than the ground strap problem. The most common cause for a drain in the 
DeLorean is the door lights. Disconnect them by pulling the wires off from 
behind the little switches that stick out in the door jamb. If you have a 
clock, there will be a SMALL amount of drain. But it's probably not even 
enough to light your test light.

My car was very peculiar in that if you were moving already (even a litte) 
it tended to start fine. If you were sitting still, it wouldn't start at 
all. Once I figured out the problem, I realized this was because the 
starter (and everything else) was grounding through the wheel bearings!

--Rob Hook