My voltage meter is showing 12v at idle and about 14.5 at 2500 rpm. I noticed two other things that struck me as being odd. My stop lamp light comes on when I start the car and flickers when I turm on either blinker. I played with the wiring harness coming from the alt., coil, and battery, and found the black fuseable link was smoken hot.

 

I pulled the link out and found I was geting around 15 to 17 volts from one side and about 10 volts from the other with the engine runing. without it running, about .8 from the hi side and about 12.5 from the low side.

 

I messed with the wires for awhile with the passenger blinker going, and the stop lamp light problem stated to fade away.

 

Being very frustrated, I put it all back to gether, anf found that the light stays on all the time while the engine is runing.

well in order to charge a 12v battery, you must supply at LEAST 14.4v to it in order to charge it, anything less wont really work. so your 14.5v at 2500 is fine, but 12v at idle isnt. by the way, were these readings from a multi-meter or the istrument panel gauge, cause those are not accurate at all. as for your other problems regarding your stop lamp light, check the stop lamp bulbs in the back, they might be burned out and needing replaced. if thats not it it sounds like your blicker lights might be on their way out also.

 

~Josh~

The volt readings were from a multimeter and the dash gauge.

 

The blikers have always acked funny, starts out normal then gets realy fast then goes back to normal.

 

Checked all bulbs and all are good.

 

Still wondering why the black fuseable link is still smoken hot, and causes the readings to be so far out there.

As many people that visit this site, someone has to have some ideas......PLEASE

sounds like an alternator problem. If I were you, I'd pull it out and take it to an autoparts store that will test it for you. They have a tendincy to fail and cause weird symptoms.

Could also be your battery...how old is it?

i have the exact same problem, only it all started after jumpstarting a p.o.s. mazda pickup. my voltmeter rises and falls with engine rpm, with all the lights off (headlights and markers) the stoplamp, brake fluid, and volt lights are ever so slightly on. as soon as i turn something on that draws current like the blower fan or the headlights, everything goes back to normal.

oh, and when the headlights are on, and i crank the fan to max, the lights dim a bit. kinda like when i put several large subwoofers into an 1987 pontiac grand am, everytime the bass would thump, the lights would dim.

check all your grounds too, i found a disconnected one, but when i connected it nothing happened.

I agree with the above post. Sound like the symptoms of a bad alternator.

 

-=fred=-

I had a similar problem with mine a while back. All of the idiot lights had a slight glow to them. Turned out to be that some or all of the diodes in the alternator had failed. When this happens, your putting AC voltage into the system. The diodes rectify (converts) the AC voltage that a alternator produces into DC voltage. Just a thought...