Overcharging

Took the Herald for a blast the other day. As it lives in a small town and the next settlement is 70km away, most trips are only to the supermarket or hardware shop. That's not far enough to warm it properly, so every week or so I take it out of town and make damned sure it is warmed properly! In overdrive it'll do 90mph, at which point the handling gets light and wobbly. Hypothetically, officer...

When we went out last week we got caught in a rain shower, the first time it's seen rain in a while. I noticed that the wipers were two-speed, which seemed funny because they're not. Every minute or so they started flapping much faster, sadly not always timed to moments of heavier downpour. Eventually I thought to look at the voltmeter and sure enough, when the wipers speed up the meter reads 15V; when they slow to normal speed the volts are back to 12V or so.

So it looks like the alternator's regulator is on the way out. Pity, it's an A115 off my old Range Rover, and copes with two electric fans plus 100W high beam headlights. I'll see what state the GT6's alternator is in, but it won't have the same output.