edit: thanks turismo i was just posting this when you posted
appreciate the info regarding TCM tune, I htink I'll pass and just do the ECU.
Regarding alternator, I have found Chirpz's guides and they will do me for the replacement I think. I have posted his guides in the how-to thread of this forum.
Only tangentially related to my GC, but I wanted to post some of the useful electronic tools I've been using.
Multimeter
you probably have and know how to use one already
Like this one
I don't have that one, I have a crappy one from jaycar but it works.
Checck your battery/alternator/whatever voltage, check your glow plugs internal resistance, etc. These can check current draw BUT if you put them i nthe middle of a circuit with too much current flow, it will either blow the fuse or melt the meter.
So for checking current that could be higher than the max unfused current of a standard multimeter, use a...
Clamp meter
I have this one, it's great
It's really handy to have at least two multimeters.
Benchtop power supply
I recently purchased this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...archweb201603_
I got the whole kit with interface, PSU and case.
This is an indispensable piece of kit and this particular unit has a really nice battery charging feature. it detects when you have a battery connected and tells you if the polarity is backwards (And doesn't let you charge a battery when you have reversed the polarity), and does CC/CV charging
You can use it to charge your crank battery or any battery
You can use it to run the electrical stuff in your vehicle, for example you want to test if a light is working without turning on the car, or if the battery is disconnected and you can't connect it for some reason - you can power whatever directly with this.
just set the voltage to 14.4 to simulate the alternator, max amps, and it will provide up to 18 amps to anything
You can energize a relay with it
I used it instead my battery when i was diagnosing what I thought was a parasitic draw issue. It was a huge pain in the ass to do this with multimeters:
- the in-line type, first type I linked, are very accurate but can only handle a certain current (less than a car might need after cranking).
- the clamp type can handle huge current but often have this short-term drift where they wobble, not very accurate.
so instead I connected the powersupply to the battery terminals, set it to 14.4v 18A, and watched what was being drawn. you can set the PSU to a graph mode where it draws out what was used over time. helped me determine that I did not have a parasitic draw happening.
anyways, you can get cheaper ones but this particular unit is pretty high quality at an very reasonable price.