lagasse@biomed.UUCP (Robert C. Lagasse) (09/26/85)
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