Hello. I have a 1982 300d turbo diesel and while i was driving a few days ago the light that indicates the battery is not charging came on, as well as the break pad wear light and the brake fluid level light all came on at the same time. The alternator and battery have both been replaced and and I cant find any breaks in the wiring, the break pads are fine and the break fluid level is full. the battery still will not charge. ANyone able to help? Thanks.

 

I bought my 1982 over Thanksgiving. I am finding the fuses to be a challenge.... A few times the fuse looked OK, but things were still not working, (turn signals, rear defroster, etc.). When I replaced the fuses, everything was OK. It would probably be a good idea to just replace all of them and "know" that everything is good. I REALLY wish I had bought the car in the summer as doing this kind of work in the cold is a pain. The fuses themselves just are not very sturdy and trying to wrangle them in there with cold hands is a challenge. Please let us know when you figure this one out as I have a feeling my car will experience something similar in the future.

 

Well I checked then changed all of the fuses. All of the warning lights are still on. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

Harbor Freight sells an inexpensive Vol/Ohm Meter (Muiltimeter). That will tell you what type of Voltage you are getting to the Battery (and if later you have issues with your Glow Plugs you can use it to do a test on them).

General reasons for the Alternator not charging:

Belts or Alternator Drive Pully slipping

The Voltage Regulator or the Brushes on the Voltage Regulator no good. (The Voltage Rebulator has 2 screws holding it in and can be removed to check the Brushs or to replace it).

Some gone bad inside of the Alternator other than the Voltage Regulator/Brushes.

If the Battery is old and not holding a charge there will not be enough Voltage for the Alternator to work correctly. Take the Battery to an Auto Parts place that has free testing and have a load test done on the Battery.
If you have a Battery Charger charge the Battery before the test. If it is not charge when you bring it in they will have to charge it first and that takes time so you would have to leave it with them for a while. The cannot load test a Dead Battery.

You could do the same with the Alternator. Bring the whole Car if they will test it on the Car or remove the Alternator and have it tested.
Have that Alternator off of the Car when testing had the advantage that the wiring harness on the test equipment is most likely OK. If the Alternator is found to be no good on the Test Stand you will know it is not a wiring issue on your Car.
(If it is found to be good on the Test Stand but not on your Car you may have a wiring problem.)

If they say the Alternator is no good you still do not know if it is the Voltage Regulator or other problem inside of the Alternator (remove the Voltage Rebulator and take a look at the Brushes before you take it to be tested test it the min length of the Brushes stickon out is 2mm for each brush).

 

I bought a new voltage regulator but unfortunately one of the brushes wasn't attached so I'm waiting on a new one. the old one looks very worn and the brushes are less than half the length of the new one so hopefully i will just need to replace the voltage regulator.

 

I changed the voltage regulator but unfortunatly that did not fix the problem.

 

Besides being frustrating; trouble shooting by replacing parts can be expensive.

You can keep replacing parts our you can have the Charging System tested as I described in my previousl post or do some of the Testing yourself. That might tell you what needs to be replaced or fixed.

Also if your Battery is not fully charged you Alternator is not going to work like it is supposed to.