dead battery

[gordo1968charger]

last night i drove 50 miles to a cruise,with my lights on,when i went to drive away,my battery was dead,luckily a guy gave me a jump start and it eventually started up,halfway home it died again,needing my wife to come out with a spare battery to get me home.
i mainly drive during the day and battery has never gone flat.
my thoughts were the lights had drained the battery and the alternator was not up to the task.
what alternators are you guys using?assuming the alternator is faulty?
cheers
gordo

[BronzeOnSteelies]

Gordo, if you search alternator(s) on this board there are a lot of recommended alternators from the members.

I would recommend you clean up your bulkhead connector first and do the bulkhead connector bypass described in this article.

For me my batter was only charging at 12.5 volts until I did the bypass wire with a fusible link.
Then it charged at 14.5 volts as it should. No more lights dimming, etc.

I have a factory alt and with this wiring revision it works fine. Puts out 50 amps under load. Since my alternator was stock I used a 10 gauge wire with a 14 gauge fusible link.

http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/electrical.html

Mark   


Mark

[Nacho-RT74]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,33574.0.html

[1BAD68]

I'm on my second year and about 4000 miles with an Autozone $36.00 unit.

[gordo1968charger]

thanks
i ll look into this when i have a bit more time

[gordo1968charger]

checked the voltage at the battery,says 12 volts.not charging,thats with the lights off
i ll get my alternator rebuilt locally and see where i go from there.
do the voltage regulators break?

[bakerhillpins]

Yes, voltage regulators go bad.

[gordo1968charger]

alternator checked out fine,fitted a new voltage regulator and its still not charging
damn you
i think its time for a complete new harness