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Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:02 pm

Noticed recently that intermittantly my red warning light on the speedo comes on at low speeds. Whenever I am between 0-30 (it changes though, sometimes goes off as soon as I start rolling) I get that red light, however, it is coming on dimly.

I installed a brand new alternator a month ago, I've hardly put any miles on it really. It's an internally regulated 75 amp alt. When originally installed it worked awesome, no warning lights, no issues.

Now, on saturday I noticed while driving into town that the light was dimly coming on, I turned the car off and on again, still happened. Did this on the way home too. Then today I drove it along the highway some, had no issues getting to the highway with the light coming on (even at low speeds). Then at the end of the trip, the problem reveals its ugly face.

I'm really at a loss what could be going on here. Is my alt a piece of garbage and just starting to die on me? Or maybe my belt is getting worn out and stretching somehow so I am getting slippage on the pulley?

Any ideas on what I could be dealing with?

Tue Jul 17, 2012 5:35 am

it is possible that your belt is slipping, but i would say more likely you have bad connections/bad grounds.

Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:18 pm

Thanks for the reply Nootosoob,

Replaced belt, adjusted timing, cleaned electrical contacts and even replaced the ground cable for the battery.

Problem persists.

However, I can't get the idle to adjust properly on the carb, it idles at around 740 rpm. Should the car have vacuum advance at idle? there is no vacuum when idling... Could this be the issue, seems unlikely to me...

I'm going to take the car to have the alternator checked out later next week. The issue is very spontanious, today after I worked on it, I took the car out for a ride and it preformed as previously mentioned in my initial post. However, I drove it into the garage and the problem stopped, turned it off and on, revved it and no issue. Backed it out of the garage and drove around the street in second and no light...