Those damn lights!

While I was driving up to Carlisle today a little generator light problem resurfaced; I had a problem with the generator light coming on about 2-3 weeks ago. My wrench buddy thought it might be a voltage regulator, so I switched it out, nope. So we put in a new generator and still nope. He fiddled with it and reversed the polarity(?) and cleaned the brushes (in a new generator?) and the light went out and hasn

whoa- nice friend you have. :)

as to the problem, there really inst a magic way to diagnose it. it's as simple as start with a test light or volt meter and start checking. I'd suggest starting at the battery, good clean connections, move to alternator / generator, is everything crimped or soldered? did you use dia-electric grease?

crimping is a very poor connection and i was surprised to see how much resistance is lost in one connection. These add up *big* time.

you could probably spend 2 hrs and fix a bunch of little electrical problems on your car.

good luck man.

The nice new voltage regulator I put in fried! Replaced it today and all is good again.

Was the recently fried Regulator Mexican, Oriental, or German?
Just curious...

Just to clarify the MSD was installed before the FIRST occurrence 2-3 weeks ago? I know the MSD boxes can be finicky. They are designed to handle spikes in voltage (they claim even short term 24v spikes so you don't fry if jumping the car), but if the reg. was bad it may be an MSD problem... Like the guys have said, it is difficult to troubleshoot wiring for a far, but step by step tracing will lead you to it.

leon,
all i know is it wasn't bosch.

After markit stuff is crap Bosch is the only way to go If you can find it.