240 Alternator and fuses weirdness

thanks for that info. i didn't know that! that's likely the cause then.

the car is running fine mostly but I suspect there is an electrical gremlin. my battery is 12.7V static, idling unloaded at ~13.8V, but drops to ~13V under load - radio, blower, lights. my battery volt tach in the dash will even dip into the low orange at night with radio, blower, lights and turn signal on. additionally, I've had a couple instances, right after starting, where the car, under accelerations out of the hole, 'bucks' as though it lost power and then suddenly regained it. other times, at start, the idle will still have that rhythmic surge to it, like the power is cycling up and down.

I'm not too concerned, as I've only observed the 'bucking' twice in the past weeks - and I've done 3hr round-trips on highway without any issues. i can't find any loose ground or obvious wiring fault in the engine bay as of yet.

maybe i just let sleeping dogs lie.

Bosch alternators. When the voltage regulator was failing or if the brushes are wearing out. You can get flickering in the lights and odd driving surging and such. If you pull up the parking brake you'll see the dash light flicker if it has that charging issue.

thanks for all this good info 242. dash light is NOT flickering when parking brake is engaged and my brushes are in spec - i checked about a month ago. i'll keep my eye on the situation and check the wiring tomorrow, see if anything makes itself known.... thanks again

wait, checking back in.... is the dash light flicker with car OFF/ignition ON or with car ON and lights on? (instrument cluster light thus on) I get a flicker ignition ON pulling up parking brake.

Dash light - I assume you mean the charge indicator light on the dash? With the ignition switch in the run position; but, the engine not running the charge indicator light should be solidly on at max illumination. No flickering. When you start the engine the light should dim rapidly - so rapid that the go dim part may be un perceptible. With the engine running, the charge light will only flicker if the alternator output is failing or you have a sneak ground / short circuit somewhere in the charge wire circuit. Applying the parking brake should not cause the charge light to flicker. You may have a wiring issue; but, I would also be inclined to check the instrument cluster to see if there is any physical bridging on the circuit board traces that would cause a connection between the charge circuit and anything else.

Time to haul out the wiring diagram and do a little testing.

Just to clarify what I wrote about the dash light. Car is fully warmed up, idling. If you pull up the ebrake and observe the dash light for it. If the light is steady and solid you are fine. If you see slight flickering of the bulb. Then that means there is probably some service required somewhere. Worn brushes or a bad voltage regulator can cause the flickering I was referring to. The ebrake light is just a good way to observe it. The flickering can get bad enough that you will even see it in the headlights.