I'll be the first to admit, calling me 'poor' at electrical work would be a compliment... Thursday, on the way home from work, I stopped at a stop sign and the car died. No biggie, thought I, until I hit the key to restart... and was greeted with a mere 'click'. Installed an alternator and voltage regulator from my friendly local NAPA. The car fired right up, and ran great... for about 60 seconds. (As a side note, I had my old alternator checked out, and it tested good.) I poured over my wiring diagrams, and traced wires today. I replaced a sketchy looking fusible link, but everything else 'looks' okay. My cheapo "Craftsman" analog multimeter shows 12ish volts at the main lead on the alternator. But none of it is getting back to the battery (which was new 3ish months ago). How about the ammeter, you ask? I don't remember the last time the needle moved. Temperature gage too, for that matter. Gas gage was actually working again, until about a week ago.

On the off chance that it's not a separate issue, I have an oddity in the headlight circuit, too. (Figuring this issue out is how I intended to spend today...). Every now and then, for no apparent reason, the headlights will go out, at which point the turn signals and high beam indicator light come on solid. Sometimes it's just a momentary blip, once it was a couple minutes. Tried a second, known good headlight switch, with no luck.

Sorry for being so long winded, I've tried to explain everything well. Thanks for any tips, tricks, and constructive criticism.

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Check your connections real good. Look for signs the either of your battery cables being hot (melted insulation). One of the culprits can be the chassis ground.
Go ahead and take a look at your amp meter and see if you have a wire burned off.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

The alternator's output (B+, biggest) terminal is electrically common with the battery's positive terminal. If you are reading "12ish volts" there with the engine running, the alternator is not charging; line voltage at alternator B+ or battery positive should be above 13.3v whenever the engine is running. If not (no difference at this location whether engine running or not), and the voltage regulator is new, and even the previous alternator tested fine, then there's something the matter with the wiring between the voltage regulator and the alternator, and/or between the ignition switch and the voltage regulator. Do you have the Peterson and Stockel books as well as the factory service manual described in this thread?

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

Frank - Chassis ground being the engine to firewall strap? That was new when I installed the motor a few months back. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the ammeter on the instrument cluster's printed circuit board, not wired direct like on my older Mopars?

Dan - Yes, I was reading the same at both the alternator output, and the battery. However, the battery was fresh of the charger... 12ish, 13.3v, my birthday present meter showed a little above 10, a bit below 20. Same as it showed on the 318 in my truck. My NAPA man's electrical systems tester, when connected to the battery, didn't register any input from the alternator. I was tracing wires today, and didn't notice anything alarming. Two heads are better than one, so I posted here to clear my mind while I kept tearing things apart. No to the other books, but yes on the FSM.

Oh yeah, I don't think I specified. '76 Dart Swinger...

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That's one. You should also have two leads from the negative side of the battery on the '76...one is the fat main wire that goes to your engine block... the other is a blackwire, that connects behind the grill to one "screw" and a lead wrap connection that ties in all the grounding for the headlights...if these wires have become brittle and loose ground for a bit...you'll get all your dashlights lit at one time among other things...

check the connections from your voltage regulator two...I had to install a new crimp connector on BV's field wiring as one of the leads had become brittle and hadn't quite broken off and intermittently the alternator would either charge really well or take about 30 minutes to make up for starting the car....

-D.Idiot

This is the one that has bitten me a couple of times. No charging intermittent start/die, etc. Installed a "new" double 12 ga wire and everything worked. (73 Duster and 74 Duster) 66 Dart was main Black to block.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

W.r.t. your headlight problems - I've seen a lot of Mopars develop a high resistance at both the headlight switch and the hi/lo switch and start melting the connectors and switches. If it's bad, you'll need to replace the switch *and* the connectors.

Well, well, well, now me too. You're saying that little screw that was loose could be my whole problem (The big black wire to the block was fine)?! Wow, I really don't understand electrical...

You nailed it. I had replaced the switch previously, but I had the cluster out today, and could easily see the connector was melted...

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Put in headlamp relays so the problem will not happen again.

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

Don't worry, Dan. That's on the to do list for both my rigs. Do you offer a multi-car discount like the insurance companies do?

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I don't like to get commercial on the board here, but I do make things easier for Mopar owners whenever I can.

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

Dan- Sorry, I wasn't trying to put you in a hard place. I was merely trying to lighten my own mood... I had already planned to send you an email when the time comes.

Okay; the grounds are tightened, but charging problem persists. VR connections are not brittle or loose. (f.y.i. per your other thread Dan, mine is on the fender on the passenger side, maybe 6" in front of the firewall.) I pulled the instrument cluster out, and everything looked okay. I replaced some bulbs, and cleaned all the connections while I was in there.

Where should I go to find a decent digital multi-meter? Medium priced, preferably.

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Not only am I learning to work on my car, I'm learning to let someone else work on it. That is hard for me. Anyway, dropped it off at my local shop this morning. Traced everything down, and determined it to be a bad voltage regulator. They replaced it, but to no avail. So they double checked everything again, and came to the same conclusion. So in went another voltage regulator. And finally all is well.

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I don't know what brand of regulator you/they used, but there are issues with the BWD brand. The case is not connected internally, so the regulator does not get a ground. Standard motor products knows there is a problem (I called them about it, after finding 5 bad ones in 3 different part stores), and they told me they changed suppliers. However the bad ones are still on the shelf. They were never pulled.

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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

Oh wow, thanks for the tip Charrlie. These came boxed as NAPA, but next time I'm up there I'll be sure to see who the supplier is.

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