just put in a CS130 Alternator. Seemed to but charging a little high when I first started the car last week, but was not moving. This week the gauge is jumping all over the place, and I do me jumping. It jumps so much you can hardly read it.

Any idea what I should look at to stop this from happening. Should I wire the gauge in differently (or how is it suppose to be wired)

How do you have the gauge wired?

When I hooked it up I just used what was on the other gauge the guy had put in before I brought the car.

Can you tell me how it should be wired and maybe I might be able to figure it out from there. Or at least it will give me a starting point.

I would connnect the gauge to the IGN terminal of the fuseblock. Make sure the gauge has a good ground.

Thanks, I'll try that.

It appears my problem was a ground. Gave it a new ground and it stoped jumping. Now all I have to do is find out if the gauge is right as it reads 18+ volt when running. When I switched the car off it was reading 10+ (which it used to go all the way back to 8). Disconnected the battery think it was draining but it made no difference. Are the moving parts inside apt to being bent, causing me this problem? It an autometer gauge.

check the voltage readings at the battery and see if they match your readings on your autometer gauge.
david

Ummm... perhaps a silly question but do you have your voltmeter wired to an ignition hot? If you have this wired up to an ignition hot it should go to zero when you turn the key off. Key on with engine off should show around 12 and running normal around 14.

Now if you have it wired to an unswitched always hot circuit then it will cause some small current drain from the battery. Might not be a good thing over a longer parked period of time.

Another thing to look at is electrical demands. I get a pretty fair voltage bounce with a CS-130 when my electric cooling fans turn on.

I'll have to check if it's hot all the time when I pull the dash apart, But the last thing I did was unhook the positivefrom the battery and it was still reading 10+ volts. Also have not changed anything from last year accept the alternator and the wiring that goes with that. Nothing in the dash.

I'll have to check if it's hot all the time when I pull the dash apart, But the last thing I did was unhook the positivefrom the battery and it was still reading 10+ volts. Also have not changed anything from last year accept the alternator and the wiring that goes with that. Nothing in the dash.

Reading 10 with the battery disconnected is very abnormal. I do not think I would trust that guage anymore myself. Not without some kind of validation that it is not totally out to lunch.