Alts at idle, low output?

[jmbrodsky@domain.elided]

Hey Tark et al.,

        I hate to state the obvious, but a corroded terminal can play games with
any diagnostic technique.  Make sure the battery terms are clean and tight.  
Also make sure the firewall conn's are clean and tight.  Also the terms on the 
alt can get dirty also.  I'd have to say that with my Scout, 9 times of 10 it's 
a connector somewhere.  Seems IH put crappy ones in anyway.  One more, the 
previous owner of my rig used driving lights hooked up on the back of the fuse 
block.  Long story short, the harness on the top of the sttering cloumn got 
melted and would kill the entire system.  Now I've got the spadelugs hand fitted
individually and lots of zip-ties hodling stuff together.  Love them zip-ties.

        My radio and amp seem to draw too much for the system at idle too, I 
think it's the 35A that is the problem.  Just never got around to the swap yet, 
I hate to buy a new alt until this one craps out.  I can R-R the one in the 
scout in 15min. so I'm not too worried.


     -Joel Brodsky

         '76 IHC Scout II 345/tf727
         '75 IHC Travelall 150 4wd 392/tf727
         '72 Chev Carryall 3dr 4wd 350/th350 sold, but not forgotten.
  
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  Date: Mon, 15 Dec 97 8:02:32 EST
  From: jeff tarquinio <tarquinio_jeff@domain.elided> Subject: Response to 
  weekend Digests
  
  Alright,
  I'm just trying to catch up after the weekend, here come my coments:
     
>From: Scott Machalk <smachalk@domain.elided> 
>Subject: Alternator problem?
>I'm driving and whenever I hit the brakes, the stereo cuts out. This 
>happened for a few days and then the headlights started getting dimmer. 
Now
>the ammeter is straight up at best and is usually showing a discharge. At 
>least before I could rev it and get a positive charge indication.
 Agree with DAN, Sounds like you've got a short, maybe in your 
taillight harness, suspect due to failure when brakes applied, I'd try 
disconnecting the harness at the firewall and see what happens.
     
     <snip>
OK, I know I repeated some of what others said, but its my $.02.  I hate 
not reading the Digest over the weekend!
Layda,
Tark '77 Terra 345/T19/D20
     
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