IVR problem?

hey all,
while warming up my TC (and letting the battery charge) i noticed my odometer slowly climbing while just sitting there, then the speedo and tach needles started to shake (not wildly). is this an IVR problem? or should i get an old priest and a young priest and a gallon of holy water?

Whenever my battery voltage was low the speedo on my 86 would "sputter" from 0-10. When I took off or raised the Idle it would go back to 0. This has been my first indicator of battery or alternator problems, or even a loose fan belt.
HTH
Mike C

not really a sputter, just shaking. new battery fully charged, but seeing as it sat awhile i started it and let it warm up when i noticed it, and its the trip odometer that is climbing about 1/10th a mile every 10 sencond, strangest damned thing i'ev ever seen

Seen this a few times before. Electrical noise causes this. Possible causes of electrical noise: Bad alt (usually one phase shorted / open), bad / corroded major power or ground connections (batt cables, engine - frame ground, batt ground, etc). The problem is NOT the IVR, as the IVR only controls voltage to the temp, oil, and fuel gauges, and not the speedo and tach.

FYI, it isnt uncommon to see the speedo make a little "jump" each time the turn signals flash, even when everything is working correctly. Even this can be eliminated by putting a 4700 or so microfarad capacitor between the cluster 12V supply and ground to act as a noise filter.

My speedo jumps when I step on the brakes. That's better than the system sentry

Remove your instrument cluster and clean off the the connections on both the harness plug and cluster. A good pencil eraser works wonders for doing this. I had two cars that did this and it was because of poor connections. It also helps to bend out the terminals ever so slightly on the harness connector so they mate with the cluster better. Hope this helps,

Alex