Chris Fowler

The other night driving home with my headlights on I noticed the battery light glowing very slightly. When I turned on my blinker I noticed that the batterly light got slightly brighter every time the blinker turned on and then dimmed slightly when the blinker turned off.

Last night I added a bit more information. When I turn on my headlights the amp meter drops from about 15 to about 14 and that's when the battery light comes on. When I turn on my headlights the amp meter bounces up and down very slightly, but noticably with every blink.

I'm also noticing the battery seems to be getting slightly weaker. It didn't start quite as easily last night after a short drive.

So is my alternator dying?

Tom454

Clean & tighten the battery connections first... then charge the batt, then proceed to the alt./reg if the problem persists.

rdrman

Check your alt belt for tightness as this will cause the problems that you have described

Eddie 70

CLEAN and TIGHTEN battery connections first.

LAvetteman

Sounds like a loose connection. Had the same problem on another vehicle. Went away after I added an auxilary ground wire to chasis.

Chris Fowler

I forgot to mention that I had a battery die on me late last year.

I'm guessing this means that I have really bad conntions on my battery, a bad connection somewhere else or a bad alternator...

I just cleaned and tightened the current connections, though I think I need to find something better to clean them with.

Rockn-Roll

Every 5 years or so I buy new connectors and cut back the old wire about 1" to get into some clean metal. You might also get a volt meter to check your battery voltage while it's charging...it should read over 13.5Volts while charging, and settle back to 13.5 when it's sitting. I'm not sure about today, but 20 years ago the batteries were rated at 12Volts @ 2Amps...meaning if a 6 Ohm resistor is connected to short the battery then the voltage should read 12Volts...if it drops below that within about 5 seconds then the batter is bad...though an 11.5 reading is OK. When it dropped to 10Volts was when I would replace the battery.

Anyway, if you take it to a Schucks/Kragen/Checker they will test the battery and alternator for free...while it's still in the car, or if you take it out yourself.

stickben

if it is, Lars has a very good and detailed paper on how to rebuild alternators. :yesnod:

Ingar, Norway

On a 1980 all loads are taken off the starter connection, so even with disconnected battery the system will work normal. An intermittent battery connection will disturb voltage regulations though.
(Don't disconnect the battery while engine is running, or your regulator is history)
Starter is also the regulator sensing point.

My guess is that you have a bad alternator (worn brushes or faulty rectifier / diode trio), bad connections internally in the alternator or between alternator and the starter, bad regulator or loose belt.

If you have the original alternator, it has a test hole that can be grounded to bypass the regulator and drive the alternator to test it's full capacity.
The 1980 gauge measure voltage, not amp.
Proper charging voltage is 14.4V at the starter, a fully charged battery will have a float voltage of 12.7V.
Charging voltage measured at starter will be lower than 14.4 if the load exceeds max capacity of the alternator.

1980 shop manual electrical section and an article on how the charging system works is at my page.