a few questions regarding interior lighting and charging

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twin_euros

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 6, 2011
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First a little back story. Car is an 86 cutlass with an 82 231 v6. Manual everything although i have made some improvements (map light mirror, stereo system, etc.). I do have my big 3 upgraded to 0 gauge also. A few years ago after reading thru some info on here, i swapped in a rally gauge cluster, and then i found a cs144 alternator at a salvage yard. Bought it and immediately had it tested at autozone. They said it worked but was only charging at 74a. No biggie because that was still better than my factory 70a. Went to napa a couple days later and bought the adapter wire with no resistor (at this point im not sure if that was the right 1 because my cluster has the voltage gauge and the charge light and they both work). Alternator has never charged great, but last saturday, i installed leds in all my cluster lights except the turn signal indicators. Later that night i noticed my turn signals would flash with the headlights off but not with them on. Drove it around for a couple more hours that night and by the time i got home the battery was so dead the radio would cut off when i hit the brakes (amps are hooked up right now but i blew my sub box apart so the subs are out til my new box gets built and the amps are barely drawing any power). I came to the conclusion that either the leds were causin problems or the alt had finally died. Did extensive testing that night and as far as i could tell, the leds werent the problem. Had a spare 120a alt rebuilt yesterday and put it on today and it still wont hardly charge. Thought it might be the charge wire (+batt to alt post) and my old 1 was too short anyway so i made a new 1 and theres no change. Also jiggled all my grounds and theyre all tight. Cant figure out the problem. All i can think of is maybe i have the wrong adapter wire and i need the 1 with the resistor, alt is still no good, or leds are causing a problem. Is there anything im missing?

Also having a problem with the rally gauge conversion. I did it to my 86, an 87 i used to have, and an 84 a friend of mine had. Shortly after doin the conversion on all 3 cars, we got this really loud squeal from inside the dash that i assume has somethin to do with the speedo cable since its the only thing in that area that spins. Has anybody else had this problem and if so how did you fix it? Any help is GREATLY appreciated...
 
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