Charging question/problem

Jims68 · Post by **Jims68** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 8:20 am

I hooked up my wiring harness and the ALT gauge is showing discharge while the truck is running. I had put on a brand new voltage regulator. Now, as far as I remember, when I started the engine in the "parts" truck before I did the engine swap, the ALT did work. That was a 1970, so the reg is different. I checked the VR and I had a HOT wire on the IGN side, and it is also HOT on the Field side. I am assuming that the wiring is OK with those results. OR, should I pull the VR off of my 69 RoadRunner and try that to see if it is just a bad new VR? The service manual isn't really any help, as you would need all of this MOPAR test equipment. HOW, do I do a "bench" test on the VR, OR the ALT?

Jim

Jims68 · Post by **Jims68** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 11:49 am

Well, I tried 2 more Alternators that I had, and both of those didn't seem to be any different than the original. So, I looked some more at my wiring, and I really couldn't find anything wrong. SO, I took the alternator off of my 69 Road Runner, that I KNOW works, and NOW, I have a working charging system on my 68 Dodge! WHO would have thought, that I would have 3 BAD alternators laying around! Oh well, time to go to the parts store!

Jim

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 3:31 pm

Jim, are the alternators that didn't work by any chance two wire models? You need to ground the bottom field connector if your 68 is still using the original style regulator and one wire setup.

Jims68 · Post by **Jims68** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:12 am

Russ, that was my problem with 2 of the alternators. They were 2 field wire jobs. I did have a single wire alt. that didn't work, so... I suppose that is just a bad alt. I took BOTH of the 2 wire alts. and I ran both of them on my 68 with a ground wire on one of the fields, and they BOTH worked

which is good news, as now, I have an extra good alternator, AND, it will probably last longer than the $28 rebuilt one I was going to go buy. Fortunatly, I didn't get to the store yesterday to buy one. Thanks for the 2 wire tip!

Jim

mesman · Post by **mesman** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 4:18 pm

I may be way off, but I had the discharging problem on my '67. It took me a week to find out my fuse box had lost ground! I cleaned the ground connection and my problem was solved. Hope yours is as simple.

Jims68 · Post by **Jims68** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 12:37 pm

Thanks Mesman, but the field wire was the root of my problem. I have read in past messages where someone had a fluctuation of voltage, possibly that was his problem with a bad"ish" ground on the fuse block. Good point!

Jim