Ammeter bouncing

[shark]

Hello gentlemen-- My car uses a ammeter, with the ford regulator and standard ford 3 wire alternator. During the last drive the ammeter gauge starts a consistant bouncing (at about 1,500rpm and up). It's only bouncing between 0 and 3-5 amperes. The wires to the regulator and altranot have bben checked and are all tight. Is this a sign of the regulator starting to take a dive on me .... Mabe some experienced hints can point me in the right direction. The parts have about 12,500 miles on them -

Regads, Sharkey -

[SCOBRAC]

You say "standard" alternator. What is the amprage of the alternator? If you went with an alternator over 60 amps you may need a voltmeter instead.

Go to www.autometer.com

[clayfoushee]

Mine just started acting up too after a lot of idling on a hot day, taking occasional trips up to +60. If you have the v-reg bolted on to the back of the alt., it's very close to the heat of the heads. I've been told that's a common failure with this set-up.

[shark]

Sorry, what's standard anyway on these cars - the alternator is a 60 amp unit and the regulator is bolted to the left side wheel apron- I did a search on this site and found some info. The only thing I did not double check is the ground off the regulator. The apron is basically some type of composite plastic and I'm sure the ground bolt goes to metal (over 12k miles at this point) but we'll see.

Thanks, Mike

[Bill Wells]

mike , check your voltage regulator ground wire. many installs have that ground wire going from the regulator to itself, ie, about 6 inch wire from the reg and grounded to one of the screws that holds the reg in place, and said screw goes into composite non metal surface. try running your ground to your engine or to the frame crossmember area. it worked for me on the block . no more wiggle , except maybe some times at idle, kick the rpms up to about 1000 or so and that will go away. bill.