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funky electrical issue, any ideas?

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its an 86 gl wagon, carbed ea82 engine.. was drivin home tonight from work, and the alt gauge jumped up to almost 18, lights got real bright, the tach started jumping all over the place, and it started backfireing and pinging bad..

 

the first thing i noticed was the tack so i thought coil, but then i noticed the alt gauge and lights, then the backfireing and pinging..

 

possibly the disty?!

 

i just changed the fuel filter today.. so i know its not that..

 

EDIT: ohh its also had this intermittent miss.. like it drops a cylinder once in awhile.. does it totally random, no rhym or reason..

sounds like the voltage regulator in the alternator went out - DO NOT DRIVE UNTIL IT IS FIXED!!! - I blew up a battery when it happened to me ....

  • Author

when i saw the guage jump up i turned the blower on high to get it back to 14, lol.. i know that was too much juice..

 

sounds like the voltage regulator in the alternator went out - DO NOT DRIVE UNTIL IT IS FIXED!!! - I blew up a battery when it happened to me ....

yeah - I had it happen to me while I was decending a mountain - I ended up going 35mph in 5th gear :-\ - I got to the bottom, and found/installed a replacement - then I discovered my battery had croaked, spewing acid all over the engine bay :banghead:

those things do not take well to voltage spikes - luckily you don't have fuel injection, cause that can get REALLY messed up when voltage goes up like that - gotta love our voltmeters :D

  • Author

so was it the alternator or the disty?

 

yeah - I had it happen to me while I was decending a mountain - I ended up going 35mph in 5th gear :-\ - I got to the bottom, and found/installed a replacement - then I discovered my battery had croaked, spewing acid all over the engine bay :banghead:

those things do not take well to voltage spikes - luckily you don't have fuel injection, cause that can get REALLY messed up when voltage goes up like that - gotta love our voltmeters :D

so was it the alternator or the disty?

it was the alternator - the tach jump only indicates disty if the voltage in the car is normal - your tach is fairly sensitive to the car's voltage, so when you start getting crazy voltage spikes, it will shoot your tach all over the place - the giveaway in your case was that your lights got super-bright and voltmeter went high

 

after you get your alt. replaced, it would probably be a good idea to keep an eye on the electrical system, just to be sure that nothing was damaged

 

good luck

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