Sudden Voltage Drops

1973 Chevy ElCamino 383sbc w/ accel DFI
The car has undergone many drivetrain combinations over the years and has very little factory anything still on it. The current wiring was done by the last owner and its mostly a GM harness, but I dont know what its from and certainly doesnt follow stock routing and it definitely has a bunch of add ons . It was working fine until recently when this started happening.
Cant have what both ways??
"all you do is throw money at it" Huh? What, because I bought an Optima battery? I had a coupon, and I needed one anyway, so.....?
 
Johnatthebox said:
1973 Chevy ElCamino 383sbc w/ accel DFI
The car has undergone many drivetrain combinations over the years and has very little factory anything still on it. The current wiring was done by the last owner and its mostly a GM harness, but I dont know what its from and certainly doesnt follow stock routing and it definitely has a bunch of add ons . It was working fine until recently when this started happening.

Cant have what both ways?? POST #1 AND POST #16

"all you do is throw money at it" The question was AND IF Post # 20
Huh?
What, because I bought an Optima battery? I had a coupon, and I needed one anyway, so.....?
Click to expand...

Did you need it(battery) for this car or another? Did you have the old battery tested?

Have alternator checked. Diodes could be bad or rectifier.

Take the hot wire off of alternator and see if it does anything funny without it. Car should still run OK on just the battery.

Isolate problem by pulling fuses and see if problem stops. One fuse/circuit at a time.

Not trying to be controversial, just giving good sound advice from experience.
 
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Sorry it took so long to report back on this. There were several culprits working together it turns out.
There was a butt connector hidden under tape in the wire going from my alternator to the battery that had wiggled looseand was only still touching a few strands of wire. As the car woulds bounce around the wires would make and break contact causing the voltage regulator to keep trying to compensate. It wouldnt happen with the car sitting still, so it was hard to diagnose( for me anyway). Also my brake light/liscense plate lamp wires had rubbed on my frame and were grounding out....
 
thanks for getting back and posting the cause
 
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