Definitely on my patches there & Meva is one of my favourite places if you can stand the crowds in the summer. Padstow is again always heaving ( like St Ives) & parking normally has to be the top field up be Tesco. Board masters is always fun around Newquay & I had a contract there this time taking 18 Vip guests in & out so had no choice but to go, still i was getting paid ;-)

I'm in St Austell, I have sorted the srs light using autodiagnos at my old work place ( they owed me a favour)

Just a quick update to say it's running well now so time to enjoy. Thanks all for your help
Mark

Gilbertd
I think you are probably right & it just shows how easily it is to be led up the wrong path. Maybe I was looking for a bigger problem than first thought too but having worked in the trade for 32 years it was rare to find an earth fault cure a problem but of course as I previously mentioned I hadn't had much experience with the P38.
I have to say though I do love the car & hopefully we can start using it with confidence now. It's good to have support from fellow owners too and this particular forum has been fantastic with the responses.

Hi yes the voltage drop is 0.04 v but the bonnet was open then

Thank you all for the input so far. I thought I'd give you an update of the current status. I have removed and cleaned all the earth cables and checked the fuse box as suggested which appears to have the early original part number on it. As the alternator was still getting warm I decided to refit the old one and see what happened. The battery light has worked every time since I refitted it & the fuse box relays are behaving themselves too. The car is charging at 13.97 volts at the battery and 14.4 volts at the alternator. I will replace the positive lead as also suggested over the nex couple of days and see where we go from here. It looks as if the after market alternator is not compatible ( I know it's been said numerous times before but due to the price differences I hoped it would be ok). I have a volt meter wired to the cigar lighter for now to monitor the alternator for a day or two. I'm just a little dubious at the moment to know if it's a glitch or whether it will behave itself.

Hi all & thanks for your input (Gilbertd from the other forum too!) it is much appreciated and gives me plenty to work with for now. I will check them out over the next day or two as I'm working today & tomorrow.
Interesting to hear about the suspension relay too as the previous owner said he had disconnected it all but eas light comes on initially & the air bags are still fitted but the system has the manual valves in line. This was something I planned to sort out further down the line. I will check out & come back to you all.
Mark

Gilbertd wrote:

Hi Mark, glad you found your way here. Something is odd here and as I mentioned on the other forum (no, lads, not that other forum, but another one), hot fuse box and relays being held in when they shouldn't could suggest someone has replaced the fuse box with the wrong one. Fuseboxes, particularly the early ones, did have a habit of burning out. They can be rebuilt is you are handy with a soldering iron (see http://www.rangerovers.net/repairdetails/electrical/fusebox.html) but if you've got the wrong one all bets are off.

The voltage drop between battery and alternator suggest that there's a dodgy connection. Maybe where the two cables are joined at the starter or just corrosion inside the terminals. Do they look good or are they a bit on the green side?

Hi all I hope someone can throw some light on this for me. I recently bought a P38 4.6 1996 automatic & it broke down on the way home. Rev counter & speedo fluctuations & engine holding back, the car wouldn't restart after turning off so I fitted a new battery & car drove home fine. The car wasn't charging & fuse box smelt hot and initially had no battery light until I fitted the new battery. I replaced the alternator and the car is now charging but goes flat over night. I checked for current drain 0.05amp. Charging battery relays 18 & 19 got hot. The result from the electric sticky tests are
Engine off full load 30sec 11.31v, voltage across battery at ldle no load 13.87, voltage across battery 2000 rpm no load 13.86,voltage across battery 2000 rpm full load 13.37, voltage at alternator 2000 rpm 14.31, voltage drop ody & battery neg 0.18, voltage drop alt pos & battery pos 0.8, voltage drop battery neg & 1st ground 0.06, 1st ground & block 0.10, alt housing & block 0.00, alt pos & alt housing 12v? Surely that can't be right? I'm confusing myself now.
Is alternator faulty & what could have caused my initial problems? Also srs light is on but I suspect that's a separate issue but just in case thought I'd mention it. Oh and there is battery voltage on the brown & yellow wire to the alternator, is this from the becm? If I connect a bulb from the terminal on alternator this goes to and poss terminal of battery the bulb illuminated until engine started then goes out, once turned of it comes on again.
Sorry if this reads rushed but I spent ages typing it out just now & the system timed out & I lost everything & had to start again.
Mark ( newbie)