electrical problem?

[Mercedes Fred]

I am having some problems diagnosing an unusual problem where my instument panel dials (fuel gauge, oil pressure etc.) will flicker like its not getting power; i experienced tghis problem before where the dials would flicker wildly plus the 'srs' light would come on, but i had the alternator rebuilt and this problem disappeared.
this problems seems to occur whjere i have the headlights and ac on at full power, but i tried parking the car and turned on the defrost, the ac, the lights, the wiper while at low idle and no flickering occured...is this a fluke or is it some kind of bad wire shorting out etc.?

[Benzmac]

I would start in the alternator area. I wonder if the alternator rebuild was done correctly?

[JDUB]

It sounds like the diodes in the alternator are bad. That would cause the flickering, but no other apparent problems. A quality rebuilt will probably do the trick. The alternator is functioning but may cause problems in the electricalsytemif it is not corrected.

[Mercedes Fred]

what would an ideal rebuild of alternator entail? they repainted it, which was nice, but i dont think it fixed it.

must add one qualifier though, the driver side door was mashed in by a little old lassie with lots of insurance while it was parked on the street. it will cost $2000 to fix, but as its insurance, i dont care...however, theyve ordered the part etc and im driving it mashed while waiting so i wonder if theres a short in the door thats causing the problem?

[Mercedes Fred]

The alternator was checked using a device which measures the amount of charge going to the battery, and without a load it was about 14.75 and fully loaded at 12.5 at idle. The rebuilders said they replaced the diodes and they were confident they did a proper job; however, they noticed that at idle the charge would vary by 3/10ths of an amp(?) like from 12.7 -12.4 and they wondered if a clogged injector was causing the engine rpm to vary, as this variance would disappear as the rpm were increased. they replaced the volatge regulator as a precuation and i put some cleaning agent into the tank.

Is the idle rpm supposed to be contant, or will there be some variance, if so, by what %'age should it vary?