Hello all,
As I came in from the cold PA winter's night, I read with great interest
the alternator light thread. Rick offers some good advice in his post, but
my alternator light is doing something different.
I came out to my car and fired it up while I scraped the frost off the
glass. The lights were on the entire time, as was the heater and interior
light. I revved the engine (Which made the lights a touch brighter) and
took off. When I got to the first stop, I noticed that my alternator
warning light was flashing very faintly in time with my turn signal. I got
home and checked to see that my alt. belt was tight, and it was.
Here's what gets me. The alternator is new, as of August. The turn
signals did not slow down, the lights did not get appreciably dimmer, and
the starter turned very easily tonight. Nothing seems to indicate that I'm
losing juice in the system
Tomorrow I'm dragging out the voltmeter to see what kinds of readings I
get. When I replaced the alternator the first time, I did a thorough exam
of the wiring to and from the indicator light, so I doubt there's a short -
but I'm looking anyway.
Is there a chance that this idiot light phenomenon is related to the
cold
weather? When I went to get into the car, I found a frozen field mouse on
my friend's porch - not a good sign! <G> Could the battery electrolyte be
frozen? Could this also have something to do with my idle speed of 1000
rpm? Could there be a short causing diode failure in my alternator? Any
advice or tips would be greatly appreciated...
Mike Lishego
1974 MGB
1986 Plymouth Turismo 2.2
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/3706
|