Anyone who has been following my progress lately knows it's just one stupid hold-up after the next.

Now, for whatever reason, I'm experiencing an overcharging problem. The good news is that only happens under certain conditions, so I'm hoping it won't be hard to pinpoint the problem.

The overcharging situation only happens when I'm cruising around town at low speed. For whatever reason, when the RPM's are pushed up and I accelerate to highway speeds it goes away. But, if I slow the car down on the highway, lets say 30-40 MPH, I start intermittently overcharging. The Alternator gauge maxes out, lights get really bright, etc.

I don't think it's a bad wiring connection or anything like that, because it isn't completely random. I can control it by pushing the car to a faster speed. Makes me think my alternator is just going bad, but I did want to check here to see if anyone thinks it could be the Voltage Regulator.

Anyone care to offer a prognosis for my symptoms? THANKS!

-Matt

I REALLY HATE the nature of electrical problems.

I swapped the voltage regulator and the problem went away. Okay, must have been the voltage regulator!!

Drove it for a while and the problem came back. I guess the alternator just felt like working correctly for long enough to trick me. Swapped out the evil alternator and the problem has gone away... hopefully for good.

-Matt

If you've got the isolated-field (2 wire) alternator, a short on the wiring to the the low side of the field could cause overcharging - I'd carefully check that if the problem isn't the regulator or a broken low-side brush. You could test for that by just unplugging the regulator entirely.