ok heres the story...last week i noticed my car(86 Z28) had a sort of whiny sound, so i figured the alternator needed to be replaced soon, no big deal. so i drove it to work and it was fine. after work i go out to my car and when it started i heard the same whiny noise, a little louder this time. So i'm driving down the road and my car sounds like its about to stall out, and all the gauges get dim like the alt is about to die. so i shut the a/c off figuring that will put less stress on the alt so i can get home and when i do that my headlights flash bright blue like a cops and then go out. so i pull the car into a parking lot and shut it off. as soon as i shut it off something under the center of the dash goes "POP" and a little spurt of smoke rises up through the dash. what the hell? so i get out and notice that my parking lights still work, my brake lights still work, dome, gauges, everything except my headlights. also the radar detector that was plugged into the cig lighter wont work. the car now runs fine, still with that whiny noise, but i did notice that the voltage is up in the red around 18. does anybody have any suggestions? i'd like to try to do this myself instead of paying the shop.

 

sounds like your voltage regulator is gone to heck. so i would suggest a new alternator