<VV> Alt light glows on LM

[JVHRoberts at aol.com]

When mine did that, I put a 25 ohm resistor in parallel with the bulb, and 
the glow essentially went away. Also, if the bulb fails, the alternator will 
still turn on. 

In a message dated 4/12/2005 6:37:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
charliemorgan at comcast.net writes:
As Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) would say--Never Mind.  The alt light is 
NOT connected to ground through the upper contacts.  So the question 
remains--why does the light glow dimly?  Thanks to Bob Helt for noticing my 
error and letting me correct it myself!

Charlie Morgan
Beaver State Corvairs
Head between my legs

At 12:05 PM 4/12/05, Charles Morgan wrote:
>Ewell, I think (but am not positive) that this is what's going on:  Look 
>at Fig 2c, page 6Y-5 of the 65 manual.  With the ignition on, one side of 
>the light is connected to the battery.  In order for the light to light 
>up, the other side must have a ground return path.  It gets that path when 
>the voltage regulator upper contacts are closed.  When the voltage 
>regulator relay is operating normally, those contacts are being 
>continually opened and closed.  So the light is being constantly turned on 
>and off--hence the faint glow.  The amount of glow is dependent upon the 
>regulator setting and probably upon the bulb itself.  (BTW, the "resistor" 
>shown directly above the light is really a resistance wire--the 24AWG 
>brown wire shown in the upper right hand corner of the schematic on page 
>12-25.)