alright. here's the story. when the car is idling the voltage is acceptable at about 13. as soon as i start driving the voltage goes down. the voltage also drasticly goes down when i turn on an accessory (eg. headlihts, turn signals, brakes, wipers). i thought maybe there might be a bad ground somewhere in the back half of the car so i disconnected the wiring harness that runs to the back of the car and the problem persisted (thought it might have been something to do with the rear lights). then i thought it might have been the alternator, although i just had it rebuilt a few months ago i did the ole' unplug the battery and see if the car dies. then THE PROBLEM!! instead of dieing the volts jumped to like 15 or something and i immediatly plugged the battery back in. (it's great having the battery in the storage bin). now i have no idea what to do and i mist turn to you all for help.

-seth

 

um... what you are describing sounds normal to me, what is the problem? the voltage will go down as you turn other stuff on, is the car dieing at any point because of battery? I would replace your power and ground wires as a good maintance, but i'm not sure if there's a problem.

 

the voltage drops a LOT tho... and the wires were all replaced when i relocated the battery to the rear.. i was thinking it might have something to do with the voltage regulator.. but honestly that's just a guess.

-seth

 

add a few extra ground wires, batt. to the body and motor to the body, make sure you clean off all the crap where you bolt them so you get good conections. i saw a 1 volt increase on my 81 when i did this and i also stoped killing alt.

 

hmm... that's a good idea.. i'll have to try re-grounding stuff.. but DAMNIT now i just noticed that when i turn the headlights on the temp gauge goes up.. this is rediclious.. sometimes i jsut wanna rewire the whole damn car.