Anmeter spiking

[AmadeusCharger500]

Just put in a rebuilt engine. Did engine break in and all was good. Seemed to charge fine. Just before taking it to paint shop I decided my regulator wire ends needed replacing, blue and green wires, at the alternator. Drove it to the paint shop and noticed the anmeter spiked all the way to the right when I press on the gas and stayed severely to the right at idle. Now 2 months later I picked it up, Yeah New paint . and had a nervous drive home. I tried wrapping the wire ends with tape thinkin maybe they were shorting but didn't help. So drove it home and the dam thing was smoking behind the dash.

So where do I start?

[Nacho-RT74]

removing cluster, replace ammeter isolators around studs and tight nuts

check bulkhead terminals too.

if ammeter was full charge, mostly sure batt was some discharged

[AmadeusCharger500]

I cleaned the bulkhead terminals best I could. What should I check them for?

[Nacho-RT74]

dunno, I usually remove terminals from bulkhead to clean them up and use a sand paper to polish a little bit. Thne BEING SURE is correctly placed on bulkhead, Is not weird to have inserted on cavity by with tab loosen and when plugging the male, simply leaves the cavity.

However where exactly did come the smoke ?... you could get loosen ammeter studs and that burnt the isolation sheet.

it could be anything though, but I will look at those to spots first.

[y3chargerrt]

Samething happened to me. It was the connections on the regulator. I soldered on a new connector and it worked perfectly.

[AmadeusCharger500]

Is this the isolator you're referring to? The studs did not seem loose. The smoke was coming from behind the cluster in the upper right hand corner. It was hot to the touch right at the anmeter. It did not smoke on the 30 minute trip to the shop. But the guy had it for 2 months pulling it in and out of the paint booth and It smoked the entire 30 minute return trip.

[AmadeusCharger500]

Explain furthur y3. I suspected the regulator wiring first. Its old and has many cracks, thats why I replaced the terminals at the alternator.

[John_Kunkel]

The green wire supplies a variable ground from the regulator, if the green wire or its terminal finds a ground it will send the alternator into the full charge mode.

[Nacho-RT74]

yes, thats the insulator I was refering. I can't think on the paint guy guilt, juts was something it does happens on old cars at any moment.

John told how does work the double field and elect reg system and is something to work on.

will need to check further in to the ammeter gauge area and wires arriving to.

Everybody will tell about get rid of the ammeter. If you ask me is not necesary but allways is something to be checked on a resto job.

[Sixt8Chrgr]

I had the same thing happen to me and my VR was bad. Also check the battery and make sure it did not boil over and screw up your paint job. The over charging situation also fried my battery.

[AmadeusCharger500]

How do I replace that instulator? and should I try to replace the entire length of green field wire?

[Nacho-RT74]

Good question!!! I found somebody told me the name of that material... started a thread about that in electrical section but duinno remember if here or the 3rd gen board ? LOL. ANYWAY I will check INSIDE the cluster too.

you can replace the wire if you want but did you check IF ACTUALLY YOU NEED to replace it ?

[Nacho-RT74]

found it!
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,52968.0.html

[AmadeusCharger500]

Ok, now that my stupidinternet is back up (malware crash), I can follow this again.

So I replaced the broken masonite piece with what I thought worked. Let me explain to see if I may have fixed one problem. I used the ends of plastic concrete anchors, cut them to fit perfectly over the stud and bevel into the console to isolate them from contacting the sides. I then added a 1/8 thick rubber washer before attaching the 1st nut. reatached the wires and remaing nuts. I bound each wire with electric tape in place of the thick rubber isolators that had cracked from heat. I also found a bare spot in the one wire and taped that completely. I started the car and the anmeter went to normal charge mode (Yeah!!) as I let it run for a few minutes. Unfortunately I come back out to the garage the next day, start the car and the damn needle is spiking again (Boo!!).

Heres what I've done to recheck things.

1. try using another regulator_didn't change anything
2. Test the main black wire going to the alt to make sure there it is not being grounded.
3. Test continuity of the green wire and it is good.

So what now? Could it be a problem with the alternator? Or am I still looking for a problem behind the dash?

Thanks.

[73chgrSE]

Damn now mine started doing it too. What's going on? Solar flares? It spikes pretty hard when i accelerate. Not smoking though.

[b5blue]

Keep in mind what ever you use must not melt...at all! A hunk of circuit board, with printed circuit scraped off would be good.

[Nacho-RT74]

thats what I was to say, rubber pieces are not recomended to the ammeter, because IS NORMAL they get some heat.

then...

inmediatly after you start up the engine AMMETER NEEDLE WILL GO TO UP FULL CHARGE, is normal, untill batt gets fully charged again from the start up discharging. Depending on alternator, will take couple of minutes or 15-20 minutes. Alos depending how much time you were cranking the starter motor.

some good reading here:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,33574.0.html

only I can tell is be sure everything is properly tight, clean and plugged. Check bulkhead big red and black wires. Use dielectric grease if you can, Polish/clean terminals. Good grounded regulator... everything as usual.

RECENTLY I fixed an ammeter. STUDS inside gauge where loosen from gauge an that cause LOT of problems.

[RAC95054]

I had a similar problem, and it ended up being the insulator on the *alternator* was loose, causing the pos terminal to intermittently short to ground.  Until it finally fully shorted and blew my fusable link.  If oyu haven't checked/replaced the alternator, try that.

-Russ

[AmadeusCharger500]

So I should check to make sure it did not melt inside? Ok Good idea on the circuit board will that really work?

[b5blue]

Yup check they get hot. It should they are made for taking some heat. Try radio shack maybe....if it will hold up to a soldering iron your OK.

[AmadeusCharger500]

Found a replacent masonite buffer from a donor console. Still spiking. Its funny though Im curious about how it acts. It spikes all the way to the right beyond the viewing range when rpms go above 1000. Once rpms go below like around 800 its just over to the right about 3/4. Btw battery has been totally recharged and it starts easy so this is not from starting. I'm gonna try changing the alt next I think.

[y3chargerrt]

I had a similar prblem recently. Ended up being a bad wire connection to the regulator.One of the 2 blue wires on the ign connector fell off when I tugged on it. I resoldered in another connector and it works great.

[AmadeusCharger500]

I've changed the alternator. Nothing happened. I'm now testing continuity from all the wires to the alternator and ground. Do I have this right there should be no continuity between any of the 3 wires black, green, blue, and a ground source on the body?
Because there is on the blue wire.

[elacruze]

I've changed the alternator. Nothing happened. I'm now testing continuity from all the wires to the alternator and ground. Do I have this right there should be no continuity between any of the 3 wires black, green, blue, and a ground source on the body?
Because there is on the blue wire.

You should be checking the Ohms reading on those wires, not merely continuity. From end to end including terminals, something has a poor connection if you find more than .5 Ohm.

A continuity test will not tell you if the circuit can pass any significant current. If you find high resistance, you can measure each section of circuit separately to find the sore connection.

One outside possibility is that if you're using a wet cell battery, you could have an intermittent short in one of the cells. I don't put wet batteries in anything anymore, the quality is so poor you can virtually gurantee a failure in 3 years or less, even on a daily driver. Wet cells never did like storage, and they're made so cheap now that a single complete discharge will sometimes ruin one. I use AGM batteries in everything anymore. (Optima is most common) they last much longer without discharging on the bench and tolerate discharge much better.
Additionally, they don't blow up or spill acid in your car.

[AmadeusCharger500]

I use an optima redtop on this car. I was actually checking with ohms (not the electrical genuis here) from the 1 end of the blue wire to ground and I was getting .065 on my meter and thats from the blue wire still attached to the regulator but disconnected from the alternator I checked at the alt end other end. I check from end to end and it shows as, not sure what the term is "complete resistance no circuit" Hmmmm this wiring harness is startin to make me think it needs replacing. This whole problem started when I replaced the ends on the alt side of the green and blue wires due to cracking insulation. Now I unwrapp the regulator side and find it is junk spliced into the blue wire connected to the ballast resistor. There are like 3 or 4 blue wires spliced together in this one place. Granted this car ran fine before the engine rebuild and even during breakin. But perhaps I should be thinkin about a new harness.