My 83' Miser D150 was not getting any charging voltage to the battery and the gauge on the dash was not reading any charging from alternator. A trip to advance and got a new alternator, the salesman gave me one that had 2 pulleys on it but said it would still work just use the back pulley. I went home and hooked it all up, started the engine and i saw a puff of smoke come from the alternator. The + battery terminal stud on the back of the alternator had melted off and the voltage regulator looked like it had burnt. So i made another trip to advance and got a different alternator that was supposedly the right one this time, and a new voltage regulator. Hooked it all back up and smoked 2 wires by the starter relay(driver side inner fender under hood). Cut back the 2 wires and spliced in some thicker wire(10 gauge). Started it back up and everything seemed to be working flawlessly. Gauge was reading right and voltmeter measure 14.6 volts while charging. got about 1/2 mile down the road for a test drive and engine dies from no spark, and wires from the alternator all the way across the firewall back to the starter relay and into the cluster of wires going into the cab and under the dashboard were smoking and flaming. I have no idea what to do from here, should i just rewire all the charging system from scratch? This is on a mud truck and i want to keep everything as simple as possible. The wires that burnt were in a harness so there is multiple wires in it. And i have also lost power to my coil, engine will turn over by key but no spark. Any ideas???

and the first time the wires burnt out before i spliced in bigger wire, i also lost power to coil.

the wiring on these trucks was shoddy at best when new, and they corrode easily. As a mud truck, yours is probably corroded to the point resistance has built up and the wires are acting like the elements in a toaster!

The 10 gauge wire on my Miser flat melted because of this. I used a basic wiring kit from www.killbillet.com, but there are others that work well and are cheap. Basically, I ripped everything out and started over.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

OK, you burned 2 fusible links at the starter relay, replaced them with 10 gauge wire and wonder why the wiring caught fire? Just wanted to get that right before proceeding.

Chances are you have a short somewhere. It very well may be under the dash. If the truck were mine I would pull the under-hood harness from another truck and depending upon the condition of the under-dash harness maybe that harness too. What I would not do is reconnect the battery until the pre-existing wiring fault has been found and corrected. Also replace the 10 gauge pieces with fusible links lest you want to repeat this work multiple times.

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Joshua

Well i am going to rip out the whole charging/ignition-leanburn wiring as i am going to use this opportunity to do HEI upgrade. can somebody please tell me how to rewire alternator extremely simple. All i need it to do is charge the battery right it doesnt have to be pretty. THANKS! i have 2 field wires and a positive terminal and a brand new voltage regulator.

The battery terminal from the alternator can go directly to the battery positive, but this will bypass the ammeter. I recommend adding a volt meter to monitor the charging system. Both field wires go from the alternator to the regulator and one also goes to switched 12V. If you look at the regulator connector you'll notice two wires from one terminal. That's the side that goes to the switched 12V.

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Joshua

Okay, so i can run a wire straight to the + side of battery, thats simple enough. Now the field wires, so if i do not want to use a volt meter(ill check with my multimeter) how would i wire it up to work? I dont understand what you mean by "switched Power"?? im sorry im just not a wiring guy ha.

Hi dirtydodge56, I think the problems you describe, and the reason for them in the first place, has been fatal for many Mopars up through the years. To solve them yourself, largely depends upon your willingness to read and learn! This stuff doesn't come easy, but take one step at the time and take pics and ask questions, and we'll try to guide you.

1) Get an original electrical manual or at least a correct wiring diagram for your truck.

2) There are about 20 pages with links to threads here in the forum's electrical section, sit down and look through them, a quick read will show you there are other members before you that had similar problems, the solution may be described there already.

The discussion in this thread deals with some aspects of your problem. There are also many links you can follow there to get some insight into an electrical system in general.

I don't like to point you away from the forum, but follow this link to madelectrical.com and read ALL the articles in the Electrical Tech section, they have some relatively good explanations to how a basic electrical system is set up, and some suggestions on how to deal with them, and how to improve them. Most of the stuff is related to GM cars and trucks, but they have had the same problems, and you can easily adapt some of the principles to your truck. This link to the same place deals with Dodge truck electrical problems specifically.

Olaf.

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Aspenized