Yesterday my amp light flickered for a while and then came on solid red. I pulled over and didn't see anything amiss. The belt was fine, the wires looked okay, and the fuses were okay. The radio, fan, turn signals and headlights worked okay.

I drove home the remaining 75 miles with only one strange occurance (besides the amp light being on and wondering where the power to spark the plugs was coming from for all those miles). After getting off one interstate and onto the next, there was a fan belt type squawk when the car got up to 75 mph. I backed down to 70 and the squawking stopped accompanied by the amp light going out. After exiting the interstate the amp light came back on with no attendant noises.

This morning I:

1. Connected a voltmeter across the battery terminals and read 12.6 at idle. Increasing engine speed did not increase voltage.

2. Marked and removed the Df D+ and ground from both generator and voltage regulator. Continuity was fine on all three wires.

3. Checked fuse #1. The existing fuse was intact but the fusable link was broken slightly. Installing a new fuse had no effect on the amp light.

4. Jumpered Df to chassis. Connected voltmeter between D+ and ground. Started engine. Voltmeter read 1.7 at idle and ran up to 2.5 with engine racing.

5. Took off voltmeter. Removed fan belt. Connected D+ to battery positive. Generator obliged to spin evenly and quietly but started to slow down considerably after 15 seconds or so.

6. Rechecked voltage between D+ and ground. Read zero volts. Thought I had burned out something. Noticed fan belt still off. Replaced fan belt and got same readings as in #4 above.

I replaced the brushes about 18 months (15K miles) ago.

Do the results above indicate that the generator is a goner?

Thanks,

Joe M in WV