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Don't get me wrong. I believe what everyone is telling me. It's just that I thought modern electronics would have things a little more regulated. Based on the explanations given, it sounds like my headlights might see 13-14V after starting the car and turning on the lights to drive at night. Then, after driving for a few minutes, the voltage would gradually drop to somewhere around 12V again because the battery by then had achieved a full charge.
Maybe I expect too much from the electronics in these basic cars and maybe I think too much. I always thought that electronic things LIKE a non-fluctuating voltage, mainly because it makes the bulb (or whatever) last longer.
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couple things, first of electronics have tolerances. There is a max and min that they will operate in. In the appliences in your home usually work in a range of 100V to 130V. Some things that tolerance is extremely small but with other things that tolerance is high. An MSD ignition for instance will work in a voltage range of 5 volts to 18 volts.
As to voltage changes causing things to burn out prematurely that is only if the changes are rapid and extreme and if the parts were not designed to handle it. In other words, lets go back to that classic car I was talking about in my last post where the headlights dim every time the stereo thumps. In that case the drop from say 14V to 12.5 V in rapid succession is going to be hard on the lights. However it will probably only slightly shorten the lights life as they are desigend to have fluctuations.
On the other hand gradual decrease will not heart things at all. As the regulator does its job the change in voltage will not instantly go from 14V to 12.5V it will take time and do it slowly. All these parts were designed to be in a system with some changing in volts. like I said before as you turn on accessories the voltage will change, but also as speed changes voltage will change. I am sure on a new car that is computer controlled voltage being constant is important but on these old cars it is not an issue at all.
