Cant fiure this out!

[3RDZ]

71 240z up to a month ago it was runninig good not perfect but good, then i hit a huge dog , i had time to just see it before it hit, it riped the wiring from me alt ,wich put it into over charge set off my alarm, wich tosted soon after, and so did the alt /volt reg,i got it home , next day it started but was missing,repaced the alt and reg..no charge found a huge maltie wire short in the loom to the vreg, cut out the bad rewired the vreg plug no charge, returned both for testing ..fryed replaced .. fryed got gm single wire100 amp alt, it charges at idle but the lights go dim as i drive what gives?? at idle its 13.21 at 1500 14.85 vlts what could draw it down while driving with the lights on only? i also replaced dizzy with new one with a crain 3200 and excell super coil stock coil was weak , after surge, i just did the valve adjust , and su tune , runs way better but havent gone on the road to see under load yet, the charger alt problem has me mifed any ideas??

[3RDZ]

Hmmm no takers aye well i cant say as i blame you this is a stumper to me , i can see that its charging when sitting running with meter on it , havnt run cables to connect the fluke meter to it while going down the road to see if its still charging , i just dont get why the lights get bright when idling, marginaly briter when reving , but go way dim as im driving at night if i come to a stop and idle they get bright again , when i say dim i mean almost out compleatly, ive checked all the wires and connects, cleaned contacts and grounds, , havent posted but a very few times but i come here all the time and have always found the awsers ive needed beandip saved me the last time with the su test of lifting the piston to check the other su !found out the first su wasnt pulling its oun weight ,was way too lean ive found so many helpfull posts in the last year good stuff from all the regulars But nothing on this problem , thats OK thanks for all the help in the past Good Club !

[Zedrally]

Has to be an earth problem.

Check the earth strap from the body to the battery.

You didn't mention if the light circuit has been upgraded?

If your running relays and have taken the positive directly from the altenator then you will experiance dimming lights.

HIH

[2ManyZs]

I think the part that has people afraid to hazard a guess on what could be wrong is the fact you've had so many things happen at once that the problem could be most anywhere....

Did you do the single wire GM alternator conversion according to a wiring diagram? I know I've seen one somewhere for the conversion, but it might take some scrounging to find the right site again.....:stupid:

[2ManyZs]

Well, I can't seem to find the diagram I thought was posted somewhere... but I did find this thread on HybridZ. Seems no one likes the one wire GM alternator and most prefer to use either the GM internally regulated, 280ZX internally regulated, or the Maxima alternator in their Z's.

If you read through the thread, maybe something will sound familiar with something you may have in your car.

http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=305&highlight=gm+alternator

[Mr Camouflage]

What happend to the dog?

[3RDZ]

Thanks for the responces! i beleave this to be a internaly regulated gm single wire alt , its connected from the alts battery post to the pos battery post vea an battery cable off a diffrent car its the starter cable{selinoid to starter} from that car, i also have the groud cable from the same donner running from the ground on the alt to the neg battery terminal,both cables were clean and flexable ,the old white/red cable is also on the new alts battery terminal to give power to the amp gage and the rest of the car. i relocated the old groung cabel to the body{the ground from the old alts body } the only upgrade to the lights were splicing new wire were it had melted, hada major short in the loom from the old vreg plug till about as far back as the starter real mess! a note on the whit/red wire ,every thing seemed to work except the amp gage,weather it was connected or not, the responce on the gage is nominal, only showing slight discarge with the lights on,and barly showing charge with them off ,it shows far less discharge that the old alt did, i also put in a new battery, my old one had been charged every night for 3 weeks so i could get to work....and home at night on a humanitarian note the dog was hurt but left with its ouner under its oun power have seen it since well back from the road seems to be fine,,, im going to try adding a stap from body to neg battery terminal now , will post the resalts thanks again for the help!

[3RDZ]

opps sorry didnt know there was a conversion diagram , i connected it the way it showed on the daigram fron the factory box diagram, looked straight forward ,,,i should have know ! that the z would need somthing diffrent! this whole incedent seemed to throw the whole car out of wack .and do a fare amount of body dammage wich ive already fixed, i went for a ride last night , with very dim lights , but she ran stronger than before valves realy needed ajust,carbs too, still not perfect, first su is in need of rebuild but it runs ok for now

[3RDZ]

way cool who would have thought! well the ground strap form battery to body seened to do the trick , i have lights all the time now! bright like im afraid they are gona pop!! its been a while since i had normal lighting thanks so very much i thought i had solid grounds! ran a 4 gage cable from the neg post on the battery to the passinger side strut tower that did it!now i just have to figure out my carbs !idels sweet but under load sounds like a vw bug pulls like it too oh well one thing at a time will keep you all posted AND thanks again, man that had me stumped!