Electrical/Alternator glitch?

[BowieTercel]

Hey guys. New to the forum. About two months ago, I purchased my first Tercel: an 84 4WD Tercel with a rebuilt 4a engine in it. Been working on it and replacing things as needed.

Took it out for a drive tonight and things got a little wacky. Even after it had warmed up, I kept stalling. Started to head back home and pulled over to check under the hood. I noticed that when I turned the wheel drastically, the rpms dropped, as if the power steering was affecting my rpms. Turned on my emergency lights and only the right light was blinking. Turned off the emergency lights and then my turn signal wouldn't work at all. Then after turning the car off and then back on, the headlights wouldn't turn on.

Any thoughts as to what the problem might be? Gonna look at fuses tomorrow to see if I blew anything.

[Ridlbox]

How old is the battery and voltage regular

[BowieTercel]

Battery is pretty new. Not sure on the voltage regulator. Gonna check voltage this morning and I'll report back.

[dlb]

sounds like the alternator is dead and not charging the battery. put a volt meter on the battery while the car is off. it should read 12.5 V when fully charged. if it's lower, that tells you it has not been getting charged lately. then start the car if possible and put the volt meter back on the battery. it should now read about 14 V. if it's low, the alternator is not charging the battery.

i'm totally unfamiliar with the external voltage regulators that came on some of these cars so you might want to investigate that too before replacing the alternator. check the FSM or do a search here on how to check it.

[BowieTercel]

Turn signals started working again in the morning but then went out again and then worked again, so I waited till yesterday afternoon to check the voltage. When the car was off it was 12.5 v and when it was running it was 13.5v. Seems like an electrical issue. But I checked again today and everything is working. Part of me wants to get in there and start checking wiring, but I might wait until I have another weird episode (which crossed fingers I won't). Any thoughts as to what might have caused it?

[Ridlbox]

The next time you go under the hood to check stuff out remove your ground wires and check that all of your wires are not corroded at both contact points the block the battery the engine firewall You also must check and make sure that your wires are not loose in anyway dirt and watercauses corrosion and bad connections

[irowiki]

You will need to check first to see if you have an internal or external regulated alternator.