I can't get my 61 Valiant to turn over. I can start it with a jump and it will run fine, but if I remove the positive cable even for a second, the car stalls out. If I turn the car off it will not start again. My battery is fine - I just had it checked, My alternator is fine -just installed a new rebuilt -just had it checked and I'm sure the voltage regulator is fine. This is driving me crazy. Any ideas??

It is normal for the car to stall when you disconnect the battery. You are breaking all the electrical circuits in the car when you do that. If the car continues to run when you disconnect the battery THEN you have a problem.

Have you replaced the battery cables? They can fail internally and have enough flow to power things like dome lights but then fail when a high amp load (like starting) is placed on them.

Actually, that is incorrect. If the charging system is working properly, the engine should keep running, when the battery is disconnected. It is running on the voltage from the alternator. That said, it is never a good idea to disconnect the battery on a running car. The alternator voltage can increase to a dangerously voltage, and burn out bulbs, radio,or other electrical devices, if they are turned on.

On newer computer cars, this most likely would ruin other expensive components.

It sounds to me like you have an open circuit between the alternator and the battery. Possibley the ameter or the bulhead connector.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Yup. Gotta give this one to Charlie. He's right. The arc (electric "snap") when undoing the cable is a hell of a surge and yes it can damage components; that arc can also cause the battery to blow up, among other things, for the same reasons that you are not supposed to smoke around a battery. (Hydrogen gas in the area, from the charging process) And if youre holding that terminal in hand that can mean a nasty burn or other damage from flying shrapnel (battery case, etc)

Run a 10-gauge wire from your alternator's output (B+) terminal to the battery positive terminal. Does the engine stay running now?

(By the way, did you keep the old alternator when you installed the rebuilt, or did you trade it in as a "core"?)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Whoops. Okay, I've been spanked. Sorry. I need to go back and read my shop manuals again....

'sright. In fact, when Chrysler put alternators on all their vehicles for 1961, as a publicity stunt they drove some great distance (can't remember from where to where) with no battery in the car to show off the alternator's ability to provide significant voltage at idle and low speeds. The previous DC generators couldn't do that.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I traded in the core. Don't tell me I've made a mistake. I've had enough bad news lately.

If the engine stays running, you'll know you've got a fault in the A-1/A-1A circuit that runs from the alternator's B+ output terminal, through the firewall, through the ammeter, back through the firewall, and to the starter solenoid where it connects to the battery positive terminal.

I asked about the alternator core for a couple of reasons: All the '60-'69 alternators are directly interchangeable (and '70-up alternators, too, by making one additional electrical connection), but the 1960-'61 alternators used a physically different housing from the '62-up alternators. The difference is in appearance: Compared to '62-up alternators, the '60-'61 units have half as many cooling fins on the case, about twice as far apart from each other. Since my only '60-'61 alternator got thoughtlessly discarded by someone who had no permission and no good reason to do so, I was hoping you'd kept it so I could offer to buy or swap for it if you didn't care about the appearance (assuming the one you took off was the original type) — number one.

Number two, the "remanufactured" parts available at parts stores are overwhelmingly unreliable junk; it's <i>much</i> better either to buy a new unit or have a worn original unit bench-rebuilt by an expert.

At the very least, try to avoid buying any more "remanufactured" parts, no matter how flowery the warranty might be; they tend to decrease the overall reliability of the car significantly and can result in endless frustration replacing defective part after defective part after defective part.

You've got the immediate task right now of figuring out why your car won't run, but you will definitely want to take a step or two back on that alternator you bought, even if we disregard the reliability problems with "remanufactured" components: The original alternator on your '61 Valiant was a 30- or 35-amp unit, and that's what the car's charging system circuitry was designed and built to handle. Over the years, as electrical equipment levels increased in new cars, standard-equipment alternator output increased. Alternators in this same housing were available with output up to 60 amps through 1969 — top-of-the-line Imperials needed more charging capacity than bottom-of-the-line Valiants — and up to 80 amps in later years.

All of the remanufacturing outfits I'm aware of offer just two alternators for all 1960-1969 Chrysler-built vehicles: a 60-amp unit with a single pulley, or a 60-amp unit with a double pulley. This would be a big enough problem on a '64-up car that had half-decent protection against circuit overload, but your '61 has none at all. There's no fusebox, and there's no main fuse or fusible link. An overload sustained for more than a couple of seconds will mean a very quick, very destructive electrical fire.

So, in all likelihood the alternator you were sold is something of a time bomb in your '61. It fits and works (for now), but let there be any situation that would tend to draw a lot of current, and you are courting serious disaster. Some such situations can be anticipated and avoided — you don't give jump-starts, for example — but some cannot. You leave the lights on, and whether or not you need a jump to get started again, the alternator's going to be pouring current into the battery at as high a rate as the battery will accept...which will be a greater rate than your circuitry was designed for. Your battery develops a dead cell, same deal; the alternator will pump out as much current as it can.

You can avert the overload situation by backing off on the alternator choice, and installing one with a lower maximum output (new ones are available, and lower-output alternators of this design tend to do a better job keeping up with demand at idle and low engine speeds; the tradeoff with higher max output is poorer low-speed charging), and by upgrading the charging system wiring in one of several ways — the 10ga wire between alternator B+ and battery + is one such way, though it means your ammeter won't function. The separate but related issue of circuit protection ought to be addressed even if you weren't having charging system problems; see this thread and this one.

(...and after all that, what're the odds the parts store still has your core in the barrel in the back?)

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Okay. you've talked me into buying a new alternator. I think I've been able to track down what I need online, but can you point me in the right direction when you get a chance. I've made plenty of mistakes buying parts and and these days I like to sure I'm buying exactly what I need.
I'll post a couple pics soon.

You can get a new alternator from Old Car Parts Northwest. Ask for a 41-amp Chrysler alternator; tell him Daniel Stern sent you, and tell him it's going on a '73 rather than a '61. He doesn't have any of the pre-'70 alternators. The later alternator fits right on the car and works correctly if you just ground one of the new alternator's two field terminals (your original alternator has just one).

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.