I make a point to keep the connection clean and filled with electrical
grease at the alternator after having a troublesome drive home on a long
trip with flickering alternator light once. It does pay to go through that
weak link once in a while. I keep a small diamond file on board for the
purpose, you never know when you are going to need it on a 30+ year-old car.

Jim

On Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 10:10 PM Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> The Diesel alternator harness is a plug in with undersized wiring. Over
> time
> the slide on connectors loose tier fit and with corrosion become fairly
> high
> resistance points. Added to this is the smaller size (~70 amps) of the
> alternator so that especially at low speeds, idling you get a low voltage
> situation.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Jim Felder
> Sent: Friday, January 1, 2016 9:38 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Riddle me this about Vanagon dash wiring gremlin
>
>  More discussion on this?
>
> Jim
> >
> > Being an 83 the harness from the alternator is the first thing that needs
> to  be upgraded
>
> Dennis
>