Ok, I know I need to replace the ammeter with a volt meter, I'm overdue making this update and now that the car is out of winter storage, I have no excuse - well, one actually - does anyone have a Veglia volt meter kicking around that they want to unload?
Now to the problem driving me to do this and I need opinions as to whether this is likely going to fix the problem, or just bury it behind the dash where bad things could happen ...
Last year the voltage regulator went on the car and the battery boiled over (ammeter was at the top end of the scale during a long drive and heated up to the point where I'm sure I would have burnt my fingers if I let them touch it for more than a fraction of a second. The Tachometer was also acting up, it would get to about 3000 RPM then drop to zero until I shifted, then climb to 3K again and drop - I checked the ammeter connections and they were solid, so that's when the regulator seemed like a weak link).
I replaced the voltage regulator (electronic instead of the old mechanical one) and with a gauge directly on the battery it was pegged at 14.1 volts as I wound up the engine and didn't go any higher (prior to the new regulator, it was reaching the high teens by 3K RPM). The Tach was working perfectly again, and no excessive heat from the ammeter, so I figured I'd solved the problem, took out the old battery for the winter, and just dropped a brand new one in, put on the battery tender to ensure it was full, and everything seemed good. On Sunday I went for a good run, with no problems, but then went out again in the evening to a show, and the Tach was starting to act up again and the ammeter was starting to get extra warm - fortunately it was a short run and when I started her up for the drive home there were no problems, tach was fine, ammeter bezel was fine.
I put her on the battery tender and lo and behold the gauge showed the brand new battery was down quite a bit (it was 100% a few hours earlier when I started out on my long run). Yesterday I fired her up with a meter on the battery and she wasn't going above 14.1 so now I'm stumped. It's almost as though she really isn't charging the battery (but metering the battery says she must be) when I'm driving, so the battery runs down, and the draw to try to charge the battery goes up and up until the regulator can't handle it and passes higher voltage (causing the tach to act up) and amperage (causing the Ammeter to heat up).
Does this sound possible/likely (perhaps an intermittent grounding somewhere, but I'm not an electrical wiz), and if so, then I'm actually worried that taking the ammeter out of the loop may just remove a warning sign (the hot bezel) and I'll go along happily until there is smoke or worse.
Opinions?
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