On Tue, 21 Oct 2003, Bill Marshall wrote:

> Baloney.  My ancient '85 alternator began charging right away, no revving
> involved.  Now that I had it rebuilt, it has to go to 1500rpm to start charging
> and put the light out.  What a crapper.  Now, I punch it a little after I start
> it to get it going.
>
> I wonder how many extra gallons of gas that will cost me over the next
> 100,000 miles?

You could do what I do...just let the silly light glow until I back out of
my parking space and get up enough speed to reach the charging threshold.
On a warm day that's only 10 or 15 seconds.  On a cold day, I generally
have to use a little throttle for the first few seconds to keep the engine
running (it's a somewhat worn-out diesel), so the problem takes care of
itself.

I usually only blip the throttle to start the alternator charging if I
know I'm going to let the van sit and idle for a long time.

FWIW...the alternator on my '75 VW bus didn't need a throttle blip.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si