battery and points connection?

[xs29bb1]

Hey guys - I hadn't gotten around to swapping my Mopar battery out (to just use if for shows), but it hasn't been in there very long.  Anyway, car had been running fine - went to get gas and when I tried to leave, the battery was dead.  Out of the blue. 

So I get a jump, and start driving her home and within less than a mile the car starts shaking like crazy at any higher RPM.  A minute or two later she starts backfiring.  I nursed it home for the remaining 2 miles.

I guess the points and/or condenser is shot (although that's pretty new too), but it's really odd that it happened just a couple minutes after the battery died out of nowhere.

Any ideas what may have gone wrong.  Should I just swap out the points/condenser and change the battery?

[mhinders]

Start with putting in a fresh battery and check that the charging is working.

[xs29bb1]

Thanks.  I think I'm good.  The more I thought about it, it was just too coincidental.  I swapped the battery and everything is fine.  I guess the battery went completely to zero all of a sudden and didn't get enough voltage to the coil.

I ran the car around town, got the revs up a bit and she's running smoothly.

Now I'm going to just make sure I'm getting the right voltage w/ the car running to make sure the alternator is doing its job.  Other than that, I think it's fine.

Thanks again.

[xs29bb1]

OK, well my battery reads only 12.5 volts w/ the car running, but the alternator reading is way above that (looks like over 30V w/ an AC component).

I guess my regulator is shot?

[xs29bb1]

swapped the regulator - no change.

I read 12.5V at the battery w/ the car running, even when I rev the engine.  So I'm now figuring it must be the alternator, but isn't a reading of 30V just insanely high?  How the heck can it read that?

[rt green]

13.5 minimum at battery when running.

[xs29bb1]

13.5 minimum at battery when running.

Yeah thanks, I'm clearly not getting enough voltage at the battery.  But when an alternator goes, is it possible to read a voltage of 30V at the alternator?

[A383Wing]

no.....but what's happening is that there is a break or bad connection between alternator & battery.

The battery is not being charged....now that you have thrown parts at it and not fixed the problem, I would suggest getting a voltmeter out and start checking wires & connections starting at alternator and working towards the battery

[Charger RT]

probably connection at firewall has burned. many threads on this connection. If the alternator has been swapped to larger output it melts the connection faster.
Tim

[rt green]

if one of the field wires is grounded the alt will go "full field" and keep  building voltage. pretty much taking the regulator out of the picture and turning the alt on full blast. I'm guessing that's how you got 30 volts.

[A383Wing]

but he's not getting it to the battery....there is a break somewhere in that wire from alt to battery...the regulator does not see a charge being made, so it keeps upping the alt output.....he's gonna burn something up if he doesn't find the problem.

Or he can just run a wire from alt to battery and see if it stops charging high volts

[rt green]

youre right. I must not have read the post close enough. sorry