[Driving an R50 pathfinder with no cluster, how to trigger alternator to charge]

3 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

The trigger wire for the alternator (what tells it to power up when the ignition is on) goes through the idiot light in the dash. No bulb, no charge. Some vehicles won't charge with an LED bulb in that spot. Nissan included a resistor in parallel to keep the alt working if the bulb burns out, but it's no help in this situation because it's in the cluster too. Page SC-12 of the '98 manual has diagrams of the circuit and the two cluster plugs. Looks like there's a white/black wire in one of the plugs going to the cluster from key-switched + and a yellow/black wire in the other plug going to the alt. Rig up a temporary idiot light with a 194 bulb or similar with one wire to pin 12 and one to pin 43, and that should get it working until you get your cluster back. Don't just jumper the two without the bulb! That would create a dead short when the bulb is supposed to be on (key on/engine off, so, every time you go to start it), which would probably pop the 10a fuse (which powers quite a few other systems as well), and might not make the alt happy either.

 

I didn't know that Nissan split the starting/charging systems off from the electrical section in '98. I was looking for the alternator wiring in EL and it just wasn't there. I thought I'd left a few marbles somewhere!

Thank you very much! I will try this out. 

[Driving an R50 pathfinder with no cluster, how to trigger alternator to charge]

It definitely is being triggered by one of the wires but I'm just curious if anyone has jumped it somehow. Not really sure which wires to mess with and don't really want to screw anything up. 

I 100% confirmed that when plugged in the battery was charging and once I unplugged it it stopped so that much I know. 

[Driving an R50 pathfinder with no cluster, how to trigger alternator to charge]

Hey all, I've got a 1998 nissan pathfinder that recently had the instrument cluster die on me so I sent it off for repair. Only problem is I need to drive the pathy to and from work and it only makes it about a day before the battery dies due to the alternator being triggered by the cluster. Does anyone here have any experience bypassing the cluster to make the alternator charge the vehicle when its on? I did a test with a multimeter and as soon as I unplug one of the big plugs on the cluster while it runs it goes from 14+ volts immediately to 12-12.7v.

Any way I can jump a wire anywhere to bypass it for the next couple weeks? 

Thanks