1987 245 DL, flickering instrument cluster lights

[myspv]

some of my gf's instrument cluster lights were flickering, and she said that the idle seemed off. i wasn't there to see if and i haven't been able to replicate the problem so i'm not 100% certain, but she said that she thought the lights that lit up were battery, park brake, and light failure warning lights.
so, a bunch of things ran through my head (i.e. wires shorting, alternator failing, voltage regulator ...)
with visual inspection i could see any problems with the wiring harness or any other wires. (i didn't dig into the dash)
my next suspect was the voltage regulator. i checked the alternator and it was putting out 13.45 volts, so that's fine but maybe the problems is intermittent. i decided to pull out the voltage regulator and i saw that the brushes are pretty worn. do you think this is a sure indicator of my problems? one of the brushes seems okay, but the one towards the outside is worn to below 5mm on one side. i'm sure it helped that i cleaned off all the grime on this thing for the photo!
any thoughts on the aftermarket voltage regulator vs. Bosch?
Here's hoping the image uploader worked:


for larger photo go here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/261 ... ba36b6.jpg

[billofdurham]

That brush certainly needs replacing and could be the cause of the battery light coming on. I don't know if it would affect the other lights.

Bosch v Aftermarket? Looking at the prices on FCPGroton's website Bosch is not much more than the aftermarket. If it is the original Bosch alternator I would go with Bosch.

Bill.

[myspv]

i just went ahead and ordered the voltage regulator. eeuroparts had it for even less, and fedex ground gets it to me the next day.
installed it this morning. so far so good.
thanks, guys. i just wanted to hear what your thoughts were.