charging blues

[Patronus]

correction: from pos of battery to green wire prong?

[Patronus]

I still only get 12.5v Guess I will just run the old alt. since its the only time I have any + reading on the dash gauge. I have a friend with a 71 Demon and he ran a large gauge wire from alt. stud to pos of battery, would this help me?

[Nacho-RT74]

yes from batt to green wire prong, that makes a bypassed regulator

what about ammeter reading with regulator bypassed ?

try to rev it up a little bit

have you tested the output directly from alt post instead batt ?

[Patronus]

no change, just -5

[Patronus]

12.5 at battery, 12.2 at alt. and never any change at the gauge with the new alt.

[Nacho-RT74]

welll I it think worths try change the regulator, but weird being you are bypassing the reg with that wire.

AND CHECK the bulkhead plugs and ammeter studs!!!! Dunno why I think there you could find some problem

[Patronus]

I just wanted to give thanks to Nacho and you guys for trying to help a brotha out. Looks like both my alternators are wrong. Check this out though, the newer one was bought at least a year ago during the resto. NAPA says they will exchange it for the single field they had to dig up in Minn. So thats cool! I dont like having a crappy old charging system, but lets face it, this shit is $$$! Someday a nice modern one wire, amp gauge bypass and that headlight rewire and I'll be set. 

[Nacho-RT74]

I was afraid to say a bad alt being new, but everything was pointing out to that... or bad contacts somewhere. The full field test getting just that juice was a definitelly THE test for it.

no need for gauge bypass but its on each own

[Patronus]

Here's something I dug up: http://www.4secondsflat.com/regulator_tech.html
Im going to upgrade to Elect. VR, yet I cannot find the wiring harness, Nacho?

[Nacho-RT74]

with that regulator you won't need to go to dual field or modify harness... thats an electronic reg based on single field system. Its a plug and play job

[FLG]

From the pic its clear your not going for an OE look, so why not get rid of all that external regulated stuff and just go with a 1 wire GM alt? Also tends to eliminate that idle charging issues with these mopars. Also if things go wrong its a heck of a lot easier finding a parts store with a GM alt than a mopar alt.

[Cooter]

From the pic its clear your not going for an OE look, so why not get rid of all that external regulated stuff and just go with a 1 wire GM alt? Also tends to eliminate that idle charging issues with these mopars. Also if things go wrong its a heck of a lot easier finding a parts store with a GM alt than a mopar alt.

Amen...

[Patronus]

Sure FLG, Im down. I have this alt. and I dug up a elec. VR, but you're right, I should probably get rid of that crap. Im not too sure on which one though. Which amp would you guys recommend? Also, Im assuming I can just modify my brackets? (I will also upgrade the wiring)

[Nacho-RT74]

any delco alt will be better than the originals ( even the 60 amps ones LOL ), just for ONE REASON, the winding design ( Delta kind ) is able to capture more magnetic field so will have more power at less RPMs what is the originals alts will have ever.

In stock form our cars doesn't need more than 60-70 amps source. Even with headlights upgrades halogen or HID and stereos. Demand is increased with cooling fans, when an 80-90 amps will begin to be mandatory.

you can CHECK the "no need more than 60/70 amps REQUIREMENT in our cars" ( being stockish ) thruth, simply reving up the engine and turning all the stuff on car, and will notice the stock alt ( around 50 amps ) feeding the full capacity will show practically center needle at amm, as far battery is also full or close to that.

In both cases charging wiring upgrade will require to be upgraded proportionally. Parallel up to ammeter, or ammeter bypass, at your choice. As I have told ammeter bypass is not really required as far everything is sourced from the right side and the source ( alt ) is stable, being just critical in case of an alt fail, what anyway if it happens reduce the electyrical load ( tunring of any accesory ) is mandatory no matter what alt, batt or existing or not amm, up to get to a place to fix/replace without damage the batt once is death.

in any case, if you will replace to a higher amp make the 80-90 amps jumps it adviced thinking on future upgrades. An 80-90 amps alt won't mean will feed 80-90 amps, will mean IS ABLE to feed that. The alt allways will feed JUST THE CAR DEMAND. You can get a 300 amps alt but if car demans just require 40 amps, the 300 amps alt will put out just 40 amps. A 300 amps alt will become dangerous on a death battery though, what will suck all what the alt is able to give, and not dangerous for the alt, really for the wiring and contacts

[Patronus]

Well, I had the new VR and dug up the old harness, so I will try that newer alt. again. Just to see since I have the parts...
The old reg. has grn/blu wires and then grn FLD wire, how should I hook up the new one, it has a grn and blue. Thanks

[Patronus]

This is probably not worth it I know... 

[Nacho-RT74]

you mean to convert a single field on to a double field system ?

( and of course both brushes isolated from chassis )

Brushes are cheap

[A383Wing]

from what I have heard & read...converting one of the old style single field alternators to a dual field may not work all that well.....I heard that it don't charge as good as the "square back" OE style dual field ones

am I wrong?

[Nacho-RT74]

yes I think you are wrong LOL.

alt capacity is fairly the same between round and squarebacks alts, the diff is the electronic regulator is more effective.

He will be recoverting back the dual field setup on a 70/71 roundback he had converted to work like single field.

the extra advantage on squarebacks is the diodes keeps cooler on them by design

[Patronus]

I keep getting grounded readings on both the green and blue @ the alt, Im still only getting 12v..
I may be done with this. Thinking: http://www.summitracing.org/parts/PWM-74191/
If I run this, its just a wire to the battery and then no more external VR? Will I still need the ballast resistor?

[Nacho-RT74]

ballast resistor is for ign system not charging system.

are we sure regulator is getting 12 + volts from ign switch?

dual field you should able to test 12 volst between both wires ( green and blue ), single field you should be able to read 12 volts bewteen green wire and ground ( with ign key in RUN )

this is really weird. If you full fielded brushes ( one with + and the other with - ) on back of alt, there is not option, something wrong still with alt

[Patronus]

Nope. I just tried a square back off another car, its still only 12v...
its not the alt, its not the VR, amm gauge, firewall connector, cables, grounds, its a mopar.

[Nacho-RT74]

did you full field this new one ?

have you tested directly at alt stud ?... make the test without hook up the main wire to the alt ( isolate the wire for safety )

[Patronus]

yeah, on that alt. I did isolate the other field wire and soldered a tip on. I just checked it w/o the main wire hooked up and its less than a volt. running.

[Nacho-RT74]

damaged alt, there is not other one.

shorted or broken windings on rotor, shorted stator ( stator is hard to be broken ), some of the diodes banks... there is not some other reason. You have not other search than inside the alt

It could be the brushes tracks at rotor, unsoldered or broken tabs from rotor windings