Alternator Gauge Pegged +40 burning smell

[MoparMotel]

I have been driving my 68 charger quite a bit over the last couple weeks. Yesterday while driving down the road i noticed a burning smell and looked over and saw the alternator gauge was pegged at +40. I pulled over shut the car off and went home to get my truck and trailer to bring it home. When I got home I started it to back it off the trailer and while idling the gauge says +20 and as soon as the RPM's go up from idle it pegs at +40 and the burning smell comes back.

The car is parked in the garage with the battery disconnected right now.


What could the problem be? Bad voltage regulator, bad alternator/battery? One thing I noticed is that ever since getting the motor rebuilt the gauges inside the car have been very slow moving. Not sure if this has anything to do with it or not.


Thanks!

[resq302]

Almost sounds like your alternator is grounding out internally causing it to over charge big time.  Pull the alternator off and bring it to an auto parts store that can test it.  I think Pep boys or autozone have testing stations for them.

[elacruze]

Step one is to find out how much voltage your battery has at rest. If it's below 12 volts, it's highly suspect.
Step two is to find out how much voltage your system has while running. That will tell whether the alternator is charging at a too-high voltage, or if something is drawing too much current at an appropriate voltage.

Too much voltage=probable regulator.
Too much current ok voltage=probable battery.

If you find that the voltage is ok in the running system (14.5v or so) have the battery properly tested at a shop with the proper test equipment. If it's not the battery and you've changed no other electrical devices, you probably have a short-to-ground.

[tan top]

 with all or any of the above going on !

check the wires at the back of the amp gauge also might of started to melt /short or loose 

[histoy]

You might want to check the bulkhead connections.   My '64 Belvedere did this one time.  Excessive resistance in the connections caused overheating, and the plastic in the bulkhead melted around the connections.

[skip68]

Yep.  Bad connections create heat.

[elacruze]

Poor connections do create heat, but they interfere with current-if the connections were the root cause rather than a symptom of, then the ammeter would not show a high current.

[MoparMotel]

Thanks, Those are all good points that I will try and check out this week. My dad thought it was possibly the battery, the one that is in the car now is about 6-7 years old but still seems like it holds a charge fine.

[y3chargerrt]

6-7 year old battery=replace it.

[elacruze]

6-7 year old battery=replace it.

Battery is the usual suspect when overcurrent. You're fortunate a 6 year old battery can still supply the dome lamp.

[MoparMotel]

Just checked the battery, Feb. 2005. The place I bought the last battery from has them in stock I am going to try and get a new one in this week and see if this corrects the problem.

[W4ATL]

I did not hear any results from your testing but it sounds like the voltage regulator. I had one fail that caused high current as you describe. I replaced it with and electrical one that looks like the stock mechanical from Year One P/N RX346.

[MoparMotel]

I am going to take my time this time and try to figure out my other wiring problem. It seems like ever since I got this thing back from having the engine rebuilt the gauges move very slowly, wiper motor got stuck on I had to disconnect it, temp gauge reads 230 instead of the 185 the car normally runs, and the alt. gauge fluctuated back and forth before sticking to +40 on Saturday.


I want to see if I can get everything working correctly. Somehow I have a feeling the guy crossed or didn't plug something back in correctly because all of the above things started happening when I got the car back. He tried working on it for 6 months to fix it but didn't fix a dam thing.

This is my other thread:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,66409.0/topicseen.html

[BigBlackDodge]

Make sure the regulator has a good ground to the firewall.


BBD

[A383Wing]

make sure your ground strap from engine to firewall is there also...

sounds like your overcharge is faulty regulator