Electrical system worked well on the freshly rebuilt 914 when put up for winter last year. New to the car was an alternator and Bowlsby wire harness. Voltmeter always read 14 volts give or take.

I had all the locks rebuilt over the winter and of course this included a new ignition switch. The good one not the Chinese knock off prone to issues.

Reassembled the locks and was able to start and drive the car. Ah that is fun !! Problem was the volt meter read 8 volts. When I got home after a 20 minute drive I left the car in the driveway to cool down. Went to start it back up and it wouldn't turn over. Checked new battery, a red top Optima, and the charge was low. Started right back up after recharging but voltage gauge reading still reads 8 volts. Using the turn signal moved the gauge during the relay click. All lights work and find no blown fuses at the panel. Turning on the head lights takes the voltage reading down to less than readable on the gauge (on the car). Their bright. Checked and confirmed with hand held meter the 8 volt reading at the gauge. The 2 connectors to the steering column are attached as is the connector to the starting switch. No pushed out terminals are seen.

I know the World brain trust has seen this before. I can't locate the issue even after perusing the wiring diagram. Help Please !!!!

You cannot trust the volt meter. Us a good volt meter at the battery. The fact it discharged shows there is an issue. Measure with the car off and then with it running. Rev the motor a couple of times before measuring. There should be 13 to 14 volts when running. Check battery connections and grounds.

check all your grounds are clean and secure.

Check voltage at the battery while the car's running.

Car is highly unlikely to turn over with only 8 volts. As noted above, check voltage at battery with car running.

As an aside, I always showed low volts on the center console, and flickering needle with brakes applied or turn signal on. That all went away when I installed the JWest fuse/relay panel. So that indicates poor connections on that panel.

Battery voltages are 12.2 steady state at rest and after starting the car its 13.4 Volt. Gen light goes out and stays out when car is at idle.

Dissasembled and cleaned engine multi ground point, headlight grounds both of them, transaxle strap ground and the Fuse panel ground. Volt meter still shows 8 volts when engine is running. This is confirmed by a VOM check at back of gauge being 8.4 volts. Guess I'll go and check some other secondary ground points.

If I had decided to keep my center console I was going to run a wire under the center console directly to the battery to know for sure.

Decided to dump the console so it became moot.

Just checked it on the diagrams, and the center console voltmeter measures voltage between the S9 fuse on the panel (from the ignition switch) and ground wire "10", "ground connection engine compartment". I'd suggest checking voltage at and across fuse S9 and then changing the ground wire to something close on the chassis itself, maybe one of the console mounting lugs.

Found the culprit. In chasing down ground connections I located the T1a connection within the console and found the ground wire connection unplugged. Fixed that and we're back to normal voltage readings once again.

Thanks GregAmy for the lead, The other evidence of this loose ground to be found here was that the clock was no longer working. Thanks to all the others who also helped out as I was stumped

All is right in the world of 914 now except for that exhaust leak that I need to attend to today. Back to the garage