Not running right.

[magicr]

I've been having some idle issues with my Challenger, so I gave it a tune up, and reset the timing, it seemed to idle better, and seemed smoother under speed. I went to a local cruise tonight and when I left a friends house to head over it died at idle in drive. Started right up, and had to feather throttle to get it going, but it smoothed out at freeway speed. I looked down at my gauges and noticed my alt gauge pegged at full charge. Made it to the cruise, and car ran like crap. Barely made it home. I did notice that when I was headed home at night that all the lights were wigging out, dash lights, headlights etc. and the alt gauge too.

I'm running the original control box, and I don't think the voltage regulator has ever been changed, are these my possible problems?   

[MEK-Dangerfield]

It's not your ignition box. I would suspect the voltage regulator first. They need to have a good connection to ground, so make sure of that first.

[Chryco Psycho]

Sounds like you definatly have some electrical issues , if the regulator is not grounded it will cause an issue so start there , it has to be tight on the firewall & the holes are often stripped so the reg is loose . You could have a carb issues at the same time with the high alcohol content in the fuel now

[magicr]

I checked the voltage regulator, it's nice and snug against firewall. Should I try a new unit? Also I noticed that the ballast resistor is not tight to the firewall, could that be an issue. Where I live I use non ethanol Premium.

[Chryco Psycho]

Ballast is no issue tight or not .

[MEK-Dangerfield]

Ballast is no issue tight or not .

 
   

The voltage regulator is the cheapest link in the chain to replace, after that I'm thinking alternator.

[magicr]

Thanks for the advice, I installed new voltage regulator today and it seemed to be back to normal. Gauge is positioned right where it should be. This weekend I'll give it a workout, and see if it stays good.