So the valiant was on jack stands for over two weeks waiting for the correct idler arm, that means the Dart was put into everyday service. Well the voltage regulator went out so I pull the one out of the Valiant put it in the Dart. I finally get the Valiant done so I put a voltage regulator in that I found in the tool box that seems good. Turns out this is the one that cooked the battery in the Dart on the way to mason Dixon a couple years ago. I had opened it up and found electrodes that looked to have had some shmutz in the gap. I cleaned it out and kept it. I made a delivery to Allentown this evening (60 miles round trip) got about half way there and its dark, raining and all the sudden the belt starts screaming, the lights get super bright and the gage pegs to the charging side. as I am driving the needle jumps all around, goes through periods where it isn't charging at all, things start to smell hot.
I get home and turn the key off car keeps running.
I pull the - battery cable and field wire from alternator and it finally shuts off.

What should I check first?

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positions reversed, i would start rewiring everything in the car, once insulation that is already old and worn starts to get hot enough to smell, you are asking for a fire

not at all helpful, try again.

Why do people waste time replying and not answering the question asked?

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That is incredibly odd, and a little scary.

Given that you said you smelled burning, and that you know the VR has cooked things before and seems to have done a stellar job of doing so again, I'd look at your ignition switch first, and the wiring to it. This is off the top of my head after a long day, but if the car kept running after the key was switched off, something may have cooked within that circuit wiring wise so that the contacts that needed to move to shut the car off, well, didn't. If that all looks good, I'd trace the wiring through the circuit to the point of disconnect to see if anything cooked to the point of shorting in a bad way.

As for the VR... could be a good time to get a replacement? However, I'd hesitate to even re-install the known good one you have for testing purposes until you've had a good and thorough look at the wiring and the components in between. Cooking smells are only good when it's food, and even then that's only about 90% accurate.

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Stephanie and NEV nailed it.

You know the ignition circuit has melted to the point that it is bypassing the ignition switch. How do you know this? It keeps running after the ignition s shut off, supposedly cutting power to the ignition circuit.

Now the question is where is the short in the + feed for the ignition? you have it shorted to + somewhere.

Honestly, I would start by unwrapping the engine bay wiring harness and looking for melted and/or hardened and/or blackened wires. Start with the wires going to the coil and the ballast resistor, but don't stop there. You have a positive feed melted into the positive feed for the coil, but that short could be anywhere. You might have melted the ignition switch itself.

The suggestion to begin preparing to rewire the car is actually what you should be expecting to do. If you get lucky the over voltage damaged only one or two circuits, but who knows what was fried. You really should expect to pull apart all the wiring and could very well need to replace it all.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Then, when you're done with what NEV, Steph, and Reed said to do, remove that particular voltage regulator from your car, beat it into a pancake with a large hammer, and throw it away.

Don't just untape and pull wires apart. Do it surgically. When you get to the area that's melted together, you're going to have to know where each of those wires went originally, so it has to be dissected carefully.

Roger

I got under the dash and hood and couldn't find anything melted or brittle. I pulled the ignition switch and traced all the wires wiggled some stuff, plugged the ignition switch back in and everything operates normally again.

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You might not have found it this time around, but the damage is there. It's waiting for another opportunity to "get" you. By chance, did you take a good, strong whiff of the alternator? It might be what you were smelling that started this thread.

Roger

I would put a battery cutoff switch and a fire extinguisher in the car. And probably a new ignition switch.

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Joshua

The most likely place for hot and ignition wires to contact is right were they go into the ignition switch plug. If jostling them around temporarily cured the problem that's probably where it started. It will probably reoccur if you don't trace down and separate all the places where a hot wire could contact the ignition or coil wires. You need to heed the precautions about fire and destroy that regulator too.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

and did you check the firewall connector? how about the wires to the ammeter? and the headlight switch that has now had 40 years to age and now had 2 or 3 times the normal current run through it?

its your life, but i would hate to see a 70 valiant burn up out of laziness