lights flickering

US '74 Supers had an alternator. Does your engine have the original alternator or has a generator been substituted, or even a later alternator?

First step, I would connect a multimeter across the battery posts so you can monitor the charging voltage as you drive.

Normally, it would sit rock-solid at something like 14V (range of 13.5 to 14.5V. If it goes above

Try to find out just what charging system is installed.

Speedy Jim

Are you still running the 4 wire Motorola alternator(two connections, one has 3 wires and the B+ lead) or has it been converted to a single- wire internally regulated alternator(one wire, usually a spade connector and the B+ connection with a ring connector)?

Chris

Check the brown negative ground wires. Maybe it has a loose or bad connection. Check where the brown wires connect in front of the gas tank. These links might help:

The alternator is the two-post Bosch AL82N. Not sure how old that is. I will check the voltage across the battery tonight. The only problem that I have now is that for some reason the headlights are no longer working. It could very well be a ground wire. I will check those connections as well.

Thanks.

If both side headlights quit at the same time, it's more likely something common to both, such as the dimmer relay or the Ignition switch.

This page of my web site:

Jim and Hal,

Thank you both very much for your comments. I wanted to let you know what I found:

1. The problem that I was having with the headlights not working turned out to be a faulty headlight/dimmer switch. After replacing that, I was back to the original problem.

1. Now that the problem was occurring again, I ran the voltage test across the battery. While idling, the volt meter read about 14-14.5volts. When the lights got brighter, the voltmeter read 20v. So, the problem is probably the voltage regulator. After some searching, it appears that the voltage regulator is missing - hence the problem.

I am ordering a voltage regulator now, and we should be all set. Thanks again for all your help.

- Nellis

Check the brown negative ground wires. Maybe it has a loose or bad connection. Check where the brown wires connect in front of the gas tank. These links might help: