Driving home in my 88 22re 2wd auto pickup and had some strange electrical problems, the charging light was coming on along with the brake light in the dash, I notice this happening when the revs were higher like when you take it out of overdrive or turn the heater fan off, put in back in overdrive and they go out again, revving the engine they come back on again, it's running over 13 volts while driving but when I switch the driving lights on the volt guage flies over to zero then back to 13+. turn the engine off at home, try starting no dash lights no start, put trans in neutral same thing, put back into park, keep trying the key until the dash lights come back on engine starts up, now it's back to normal but I wanted to get ahead of this thing and look into what's going on and what parts it might need, any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Have the alternator tested. It's been a long time but I remember the brake light and charge light coming on when the alternator went out on our late 80's Toyota trucks.

 

Thanks aztoyman. doing that today.

 

I Confirm this when you have a charging system problem.
If you have a digital voltage display, normal charging voltage ranges from 13.5 to 15.1 volts

 

Thanks RAD. I have an update, after all the weird malfunctions the truck is right back to normal again, turning the key on shows the usual dash lights, truck starts right up runs perfect, next summer when it's off the road it's getting a new alternator, if the old one hangs in there I'll keep it as a spare.

 

Thanks for the update. Dead end threads suck. Kind of weird for it to start working again. Possibly very worn brushes. They lose spring tension when they are almost down to a nub.

 

Makes troubleshooting tricky but I'll have the old one checked out see if it's worth keeping/rebuilding, Happy New Year aztoyman.