Anmeter spiking

[elacruze]

...I check from end to end and it shows as, not sure what the term is "complete resistance no circuit"

...But perhaps I should be thinkin about a new harness.

I guess I'd measure that against the appearance of age damage, previous owner meddling, and cost of new harness. If it's one wire, you know it was meddled with, and you know the resistance is too high, you should be able to eliminate sections of that wire as good/bad, and fix the immediate problem. Then at least you can drive it while you decide what to do permanently.

Eric

[gschmidt211]

Do this:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

[elacruze]

Do this:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

I heartily second that. My instrument panel is at Redline gauges being restored, and I'm having the AMP changed over to Volt.
Still, a short-term resolution must be found if you're going to drive the car at all before switching over.

[Nacho-RT74]

make the MADELECTRICAL conversion won't save the REAL deal

[AmadeusCharger500]

Umm was that at yeah or neah from you Nacho? I guess I need to find the source of the problem 1st.
Im reading the article again now, very interesting.

Few new new things. I tested resistance on the blue wire and it was not good. Ended up totally split under some tape. Soldererd in a connector and its good now. Stilll not fix problem. I test resist from Body ground to all wires. I am finding the Black wire behind meter is showing 0.005 to body ground. This does not seem good to me so I disconnect from alt and try to trace it back. Disconnect bulkhead and the short to ground appears to be only between wire back of firewall to anmeter post. This would be the black wire.
Am I correct to assume this should not have continuity to ground?

[gschmidt211]

make the MADELECTRICAL conversion won't save the REAL deal

It will keep your dash from melting and is an easy afternoon job.

[Nacho-RT74]

make the MADELECTRICAL conversion won't save the REAL deal

It will keep your dash from melting and is an easy afternoon job.

check this and you will save all the problems still get a nice working gauge, reading, safe, and accurate CHARGING STATUS.

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




The ammeter is NOT the problem, just probably a weak point IF YOU GET another problems around. But IS NOT the cause.

[Nacho-RT74]

ok, some testings and checks...

you can get a ground reading somehow with blue wire cause because the REGULATOR is grounded. Circuit runs like this:

ign switch blue wire ( positive )-----bulkhead-----splice to everywhere (ECU, Ballast, Reg, choke, Brush at alt )-----tracking up to alt brush blue wire------Field brush----rotor---THE OTHER BRUSH ( what feeds regulated ground )---- green wire---- regulator---- chassis ground


SOOOOO, if you try to test the blue wire with ground, YOU COULD GET SOMEHOW A THEORIC SHORT with ground.

Same about bulb... Bulb IS A SHORT THAN NEVER BLOWS, because there is not air, and is calculated to get heat.

If you test between the brushes ( just the brushes ) YOU WILL GET continuity. depending on alternator year, you can get between 5 and 15 ohms reading... thast because rotor is a coil, and both ends are both brushes

A reason to get power but not enough juice, and that produces weird spikes COULD IT BE ALSO THE DIODES BANK ( no matter wich pole ) making the rectifier circuit is lowered on capacity. Also a damaged stator, being a stator is  triple coil, each end getting one positive and one negative diode to recitfy ( converting from alternatin current to direct current )the power.

sorry if i'm not good as I would like trying to explain, but as you know is not my mother language and techincal parts are quite often hard to explain.

BLACK WIRE TO GROUND IS NOT GOOD.... that is the FULL BATTERY POWER. should it have TOTALLY ISOLATED.

Note that you can get some ground reading at black wire is some switch is ON ( lights or whatever ) because even the battery power is "grounded" when you turn on some device.

Somehow a low ohms like that is not normal. Be sure you test all the wires without anything working or turned on...

Remember also that even I consider myself not really bad with electricity I'm not an expert and I can be wrong anyway. Funny part is that I have the FSM and never read the testing procedures LOL

[AmadeusCharger500]

Cool yes I stopped worrying about the blue wire. I figured it was just part of a loop I just didn't understand. I had the battery pos cable hooked up when I did that test so that makes sense.

I isolated the black wire groung.  Disconnect at firewall from engine harness and disconnect from back of ampmeter. Still is reading as grounded. In one of those diagrams I see the black wire has factory splice to ingition and front lights. Not sure how to isolate where ground is coming from but only thing I could do simple is disconnect ingition harness. It reads not grounded but remaning section of black wire is still grounded. Oh and Battery negative and positive is disconnected when I do these tests. So somewhere between firewall and ampmeter end is problem?

[AmadeusCharger500]

I read through that page NAcho, and I'm wondering if I need to fix this ground problem before tackling the parralel wire setup.
Thanks,

Heath

[Nacho-RT74]

make the upgrade now won't affect on the result. You can if you want beging the upgrade now you are working at charging system

Remember make the upgrade INCLUDES new or upgraded alt. Thats the main reason to run the paralel wires. HONESTLY 80 amps alt IS ENOUGH. I run AC ( mainly low speed ) and halogen lights with stock lates 70s 60 amps ( around 10 amps more than stock earlier units ) and barelly gets discharge when stops at traffic light ( brake lights ) I got happy, but 80s is the best and will keep safe everything. 105 amps is not really necesary.


get continuity on black wire inside the cab could it be ANYTHING and even normal being all stuff is conected... remember you have domelight and doors open for example. That could give you continuity throught the bulb ( that doesn't mean a short )

as stated LOT of stuff can give you that reading:

-broken diode inside alt.
-one stator coil lead broken inside alt.
-ANYTHING loosen inside alt
-damaged regulator.
-bad ground at regulator
-damaged wires to fields
-loosen/damaged bulkhead terminals ( specially big red, big black and blue wires, specially the black one )
-starter relay nut loosen ( dirty terminals )
-ammeter terminals loosen/dirty

[AmadeusCharger500]

I have just replaced the alt in all this trouble. I believe it is 75 amps. I gotta reread the directions now

[Nacho-RT74]

I believe it is 75 amps.

I would like to get one stock unit like that

[AmadeusCharger500]

So all I need to do is run a parallel wire from alt stud to amp meter?
Not sure where the relays go since at one point it appears you say they should only go on the alt side and then another instance I think you say the battery side.

Is the whole process just running a parallel black wire from the alt to the stud and adding a relay?

[Nacho-RT74]

relays are for headlights upgrade and blower upgrade nothing to do with charging system beaside take the main power from alt side at ammeter. BUT THAT is a diff stuff from the charging upgrade.

parallel wire from alt to ammeter and from ammeter to starter relay stud with another fuse link in the middle

[AmadeusCharger500]

I just made the parallel wire running from alt stud to anmeter stud. I attached both new wire and old black wire to alt stud and only new wire to anmeter stud. Was just tryin to so if that did anything and it Did Not.
So 2 questions at this point.
1. Do I reatach original black wire to back of anmeter along with new wire?

2. Do I attach new wire from starter relay with new fusable link but also keep the old one in place?

[Nacho-RT74]

yes because:

1-the only way to feed from the new wire the splice to all the car what is STILL ( and allways will be there unless heavier modifications ) located on to the original wire running to ammeter from alt, is getting them, new and old wires, together on to amm stud. So if you don't splice both together in to amm stud, ALL THE LOAD THE CAR STILL WILL SUCK will be passing JUST BY the bulkhead terminals. The deal with this is not only charge the batt is also feed the car demand, safelly and with "headroom"

2-If that wasn't a problem and still you don't make it, both will be hanging around and would need to be isolated. why isolate them if they still can work the same as a reinforcement ?

3-More wiring to that function is better because all toghether will hang more load. The extra load will be running safe through the new wire without weak terminals so no need to worry about the bulkhead terminals.

4-extra wiring running to starter relay will support also the extra charge load in case of a really low charged batt.

[AmadeusCharger500]

Very good I understand now. I also spent another few hours doin problem solving and Finally fixed the spiking anmeter.