Electrical Glitch, is this bad??? (quite long)

[Jan van de Wouw <Jan@xxxx>]

Hello everyone,

Since my daily driver (an old Ford Escort) has a fuel leak I decided to take my
DeLorean to the movies this evening, everything went fine untill I got halfway
back home...
I had to use my High beams to signal someone from the opposit direction, as I
did this, my Radio cut off, the Tach mad a full 360 spin and the engine
heldback, followed immediately by a backfire (logical I guess, probably no spark...).
As I didn't trust this I tried the Highs several times more and it did exactly
the same, voltage dropped to about 8 Volt, then rose back to 11, at this point
the radio came back on and the high beams stayed on as they should, releasing
the switch only made the voltage go back up to 13, signalling made it drop again...

When I was at home I parked my car and tried it again several times, both at
idle as well as with some throttle (about 1500rpm, couldn't revv too much: it
was 23.30h allready) stayed the same, so I'd thought I'd check tomorrow. Put out
the lights, released the throttle and turned the ignition off.
This made hell brake loose... Well actually just my alarmsystem going off, but a
120dB siren in between houses makes a lot of noise! I finally got the alarm to
shut up (I HATE emergency-powered sirens), drove out of town -so I wouldn't get
into a fight with the neigbourhood- and tried all again.
NOTHING!!! Everything worked as it should, alarm, locks, tach, lights, EVERYTHING...

I'm totally at a loss what this could be of could have been. I know (I've read
the manual) the alarm probably went off because of the voltage-drop: this is a
tamper-protection in case anyone tries to disconnect the battery or siren. I did
not see the BATT-light come on (light is in working order) and I DO have power
from the alternator: my voltages rises and drops with the RPMs.
The battery has power since even with the siren going off the remote on the
alarm still worked and I was able to start right away (when trying to get away
from an angry neigbour (he's an ^&%$^#%# anyway, so I don't really care about
him, but even more what he might do to my car)).
Turning the ignition to I made the alarm shut up (the way it is supposed to
according to the manual).

So, what do I know?
- the car seems OK, since everything works now.
- my alarmsystem works the way it is supposed to.
- the battery connections are in place and firmly seated
- I HATE the sound of my siren and makes my ears hurt ;-)
- The tach can spin over 360 degrees without breaking...
- there is SOMETHING WRONG, but I don't know what or why!!!

This last one is my trouble; does anyone have any idea what could have or can
cause this?
I really need to know this: I didn't dare put on the alarm after the argue I had
with the guy from across the street, so I put a surveilance cam on it, but
that's not an ideal situation...

Please help, where should I check first?

Thanks in advance, hope I can get some sleep after this.

JAN van de Wouw
Thinking Different... Using a Mac...
Living the Dream... Driving a DeLorean...

#05141 "Dagger" since Sept. 2000

check out the Delorean-Files at:
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