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From: lagasse@biomed.UUCP (Robert C. Lagasse)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: answer to alt. question
Message-ID: <136@biomed.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 14:20:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: biomed.136
Posted: Thu Sep 26 14:20:21 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 06:31:26 EDT
Organization: Mass. Gen. Hosp. - Dept. Biomed. Engineering
Lines: 17

Joe Heneghan writes in a previous article about an alternator needle pegging
at night when the lights are on and also the dashboard lights getting very
bright.  My guess is that the voltage regulator is faulty and is causing the
alternator to produce its' full output.  This would raise the entire system
voltage , and cause any load to draw an excess amount of current.  The way
to check for this would be to monitor the output voltage of the alternator
at its big fat output stud terminal. The voltage should not be above 15.0V
Another thing it could be is some strange mess of shorted or melted together
wires from some other problem causing the ammeter to peg and the dashboard
lights *only* to increase brightness.  If the headlights, dome light,
taillights, etc. are also getting brighter then it is obvious that the
entire electrical system is experiancing a voltage increase.  The other
possibility that it may be is that in your type of electrical system (I
really don't know what Dodge uses) if the battery is disconnected or not
perfectly in-circuit (corroded terminals) the voltage regulator may sense
low battery terminal voltage and force the alternator to produce full
output. Gotta go.............. Bob Lagasse


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