-By Eric Fantin-
Lately, some of my friends have brought in some of their Citroëns with the same maladies. The ailing patients were a DS and couple of 2CVs. The diagnosis: charging issues or lack thereof.
The DS had been retrofitted with a more modern GM alternator with built in regulator, the charging issue turned out to be a connection in the feed wire when the alternator conversion was made, so after tracing and finding the offending wire, back in business.
On the 2CV cars, one had a simple problem. The alternator was bad so, after ordering a new one and a new belt, problem solved, on the road again. The other 2CV was a little more difficult, alternator charging but not enough voltage, the owner had replaced the regulator also, I proceeded to trace each wire and found out that the wires had been crossed over and were damaging the regulator. I also found out later that 2 regulators had been already sacrificed! Once the wires were properly connected to a new regulator (a 3rd if anyone’s counting) was installed, on the move again.
As a reference point on charging systems, especially in older models, there are usually 3 causes for failure, the alternator or generator is bad, regulator is bad or wires are either bad or not connected correctly, that at least a ground base to go by, no pun intended.
Eric Fantin can be reached at straigh8@gmail.com