Dancing Voltmeter Needle

[hb1980]

Hi Members,

I've noticed this issue since i bought the rig a few years back and never bothered me until its reached a point where i've troubleshooted most of the other issues on the rig, and now this one keeps bugging me. The rig is a '97 JDM HDJ81V with a 1HD-FT and auto A442F.

I've tried to search all similar threads but most have never posted a solution to the problem. Here's what happens:

1. Firstly voltmeter needle is just slightly above the middle, when idling and all accessories off. Drops almost to middle when A/C and Headlights are on.

2. The voltmeter needle follows the oscillations of the turn signals (either left of right), together with Auto shift Indicator (any P, R, N, D, 2 or L) or even the handbrake light (in short, whatever light that is on at the time)

3. If this happens at night with the A/C on and Headlights on at idle , the voltmeter needle oscillates from middle to below, the moment i engage the turn signal lever, the rev counter needle also jumps just once.

Is this a bad alternator?? a bad regulator?? bad grounding??

Any help appreciated.

hb1980

 

[Pin_Head]

Put a voltmeter on the battery and measure what the voltage change is. If the voltage is actually changing, then I would suspect a bad alternator.

More likely I think that there is a bad fusible link and what you are seeing is the voltage drop across the bad link. You could confirm this by measuring the voltage at the fuse block, or just replace the link because it is cheaper and easier.

 

[hb1980]

Thanks Pin_Head, I will try this over the weekend and post results.

One very important factor I forgot is that with indicators left or right the above happens, but if I flick the hazards, nothing happens.. they work perfect!! Does that shift the blame to something else?

 

[Lexland]

Mine shakes booty sitting at the stop lights, only with a turn signal on.

 

[Pin_Head]

Yes. The voltage drop is across a common connection, so maybe the fuse or fuse block is the culprit.

 

[hb1980]

Thanks, I'll check that out. I second your opinion as there was a leakage from the windscreen before I bought the rig that had done some damage to the A/C computer which I had to replace. Thanks, will update on what happens.