I picked the car up the other day and drove it home. Low and behold, the temp gauge and the speedometer worked on the way home and all of the idiot lights lit up in position two. I asked my mechanic about the charging and he said it was showing 14v at the alternator and 13.8 at the battery when running, so am I right to think the alternator is charging?

I went down yesterday to change the plugs and the oil and, once again, no idiot lights and no gauges working. I'm beginning to think it's a ground issue but I'm not sure.

Also, you have to turn the key to position 2 and back off about 4 times and the car will start right up. If you don't do that, then it will just crank forever and finally start but be bad flooded. I'm thinking that sounds like a fuel pump going bad so I've got a new fuel pump (external) on the way and new fuel filter just to change it out too.

 

I'd look into the ignition switch, the plastic part under the part where the key goes. The symptoms you mention are often caused by that switch.

 

I'm feeling thoroughly defeated on this one. The alternator was not charging so, on Saturday, I went down to work on it. The exciter wire really wasn't long enough and I had to attach it at an angle which bent the "spade" a bit. I thought that might be the problem so I spliced in more wire and a new spade and made sure it was cleanly attached. No dice. I also checked the ground at the alternator and at the block to make sure the connections were clean and secure and that the wire was in good shape. Nothing. While I was under the car, I checked the exciter wire where it runs under the crank case. It and several other wires are in a "sheath", but the sheath looks unbroken. I then took the gauge cluster out and made sure the connections were good and clean. Put the cluster back in and voila! All the lights came on as they should and the car was charging. I turned the key on and off several times and everything continued to work as it should. I put my tools up and turned the key again just to see: car started right up, all idiot lights worked, and the alternator was charging.

I shut the door and locked it. I haven't touched the car since. It hasn't been moved or messed with in any way. Today, I sprayed the bolts holding the fuel pump and filter carriage with Blast to let it soak as I planned on changing those later on this week. I got in the car to start it and it's deja vu all over again. No idiot lights, no charging.

 

I still think your ignition switch may be faulty, causing this intermittently.

 

I got a switch to change out, took the gauge cluster out again, but couldn't get one of the screws to come out on the switch (it was getting dark so I ran out of time). Put the gauge cluster back in and it started charging again with all idiot lights lighting at the proper time. I tried it probably 10 times with some time in between to see if I could get it not too work. I went back to it today and, again, no lights and it's not charging again. Nothing was touched between yesterday and today. While it may very well be the switch, I don't understand how both times I've taken the cluster out, it's started working but doesn't work by the next day.