The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Buzzing in the Engine bay

Just cleaning out the garage today, I took Ole Booger out for a spin around the neighborhood. That was MUCH more fun than just backing it out of its home in the garage. Normally when I park it for a bit, I disconnect the battery via the knife switch that I installed a while back. I didn't bother this time.

After working a while in the garage, my wife came out to feed me a pear. While standing there, I heard this faint buzzing in the direction of Ole Booger. I raised the hood to show my wife where I mounted the AOOOgah horn and I heard it again. I bent my head down and listened again next to what I believe is the regulator. It was coming from a small black box mounted on the driver's side up near the horn.

That's the regulator, right? Regardless of the answer to that, why would it be buzzing, or even have power to it with the key off? I had already turned the ignition OFF and removed the key. Hummmmmmm, oh, I mean bzzzzzzzzz, that's interesting.

Rance

Rance,when you hear the noise,remove the neg. Battery cable or remove the plug on the regulator and it should go away.If the noise does go away,have your alternator checked for a bad diode.You do have the old style round diodes pressed into the heat sink in the back of the alternator don't you ? Let me know what you find.You might want to go with a later one wire alternator with an internal regulator and be done with it.

Does the horn work? It could be the horn button or wire shorted or stuck & the relay is bussing with the horn disconnected or not working.

The horn works fine. If it means replacing the alt. then I think I'll just wait till it goes out. I just didn't want to burn something up by ignoring it. I'll just keep using my knife switch. Thanks for the input guys.

Rance