Today I drove to the grocery store and all was normal. When I came out of the store the car started normally but the bulb failure, brake failure, parking brake and battery lights came on. I think the temp and fuel gauges read low and the voltmeter read about 11 Volts.

This seemed like an unlikely combination of failures. I turned off the engine and checked the fuses and alternator belt. All look good. Turned the key to run position and all the lights lit up. Started again and the same condition occurred.

I decided to drive home on the battery and in about 15 minuets the 4 lights went off and the gauges read normal. I looked up the wiring diagram in the 1981 green book and it looks like these lamps would light if the alternator failed. Why would it not be wired to just turn on the battery light and how am I ever going to find the fault?