Charging woes... troubles,heres what I have done.need more input

[268RTs4ME]

1974 ...Amp meter barely above nothing, took three (3) alternators and had the tested at auto zone all good, theses are 65 amps alternators, so I went ahead and bought a new regulator. put every thing back on car, same thing..so a did the nacho rewire from one of his wiring diagrams coming off the back of alt. stud with 8 gauge wire ran into and spice off of black alt wire about a inch back (soldered) and staryed car  again, still same thing, so was readiing this forum about others charging problems, and someone said to ground one of the fields (green wire) hook up, so I did you could here the motor pull down from charging, now amp meter is working, discharging at idle but charges up to middle when I give it gas, when I unhook grounded field, goes back to nothing, I have check grounds on block, block to body, battery to body. regular, etc.,anybody have any ideas on where I need to go from here? Do I need to take my fuse box down and check all connections?, or what, I been messing with this for 4 days and it gets old, any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Nacho-RT74]

check for diodes on back of alt... if one is blow, that could it be a cause for low charge....the diodes banks ( positive and negative ) are visible from outside.

if you unhook any of the field wires, alt will stop to charge. If you ground one of the fields and keep unhooked the blue wire ( no matter wich one as far you don plug the blue wire on to the grounded field because will short ) then you will be bypassing the regulator, so supposelly getting max output from alt. You could also unplugg regulator pigtail and ground there the green wire terminal, keeping the fields plugged... is the same result, but on that moment will be testing the green wire too for continuity.

Wires needs to be clean and tight everywhere INCLUDING BATTERY SIDE of ammeter up to starter relay ( red wires ), because loose wire will give you a bad ammeter reading. Check bulkhead, terminals etc...

Did you made the complete upgrade up to ammeter and then up to starter relay stud ? or just made the black side wiring ?

[268RTs4ME]

This is a factory ralley dash with ampmeter, upgrade the black wire off of alt to 8 gauge, left original wire on also. hook hot from batery to back of alt stud to make sure had current went inside with test light and cureent is coming thru original black wire, turned on ignition and current coming from red wire or bulkhead side. I have done everything but take bulkhead loose, and check it out.

[268RTs4ME]

Did not do complete wire up grade, just the black alternator side.

[Nacho-RT74]

advice, make the complete upgrade, because if not you will still overcharge the red side to charge back the battery when that happens. True you will be feeding the car from alt safer, but still won't charge back the batt safe.

[268RTs4ME]

What gauge wire do I need to do the bulkhead side? I believe you said 10, any chance you could e me the diagram, and thanks very much for your help. right now the only way I am showing a charge is with the green field wire off and the field grounded with a jumper wire, I am charging at about 1/4 up amp meter until I give it rpm. Thank you lbtthatsme@yahoo.com

[Nacho-RT74]

then you got the answer... damaged regulator, damaged green wire OR bad ground at regulator... regulator takes ground signal from chassis and send from there once regulates thats signal. Two wires fields are regulated by negative being positive constant coming directly from Ign Key ( blue wire ).

Yes, 10 is good enough to red side of wire, specially if original wires are still working. Use a fuse link too. 16 gage is enough really if you ask me, but 14 is what MaMopar recomended on its diagrams.

16 is also the stock one on original wiring.

Try to get an alt able to charge at iddle, THAT WILL BE THE BEST upgrade ever. You can use one of those kist available to upgrade same alt you actually have or get a newer alt from a newer Mopar... ( from 76/77 to 80s ) will be a plug and play job, CHEAP, and still will original look or very close.

[268RTs4ME]

Have done a complete upgrade on alt wiring as per your diagram, 8 gauge on alt stud up throught gromlet and soldered on back of black alt wire about and inch back, done wiring on batt side from starte relay with 12 gauge and fusable link and soldered to red wire on back of amp about an inch back. unhooked green field wire and regulator, jumped off of batt, to green field wire and with test light have current running up to reg green wire so should be good ground. hooked back up, turned on ignition and have current going to blue field wire from ignition. everything hooked back up, start up amp meter is about 1/4 above discharge, when i rpm amp goes up to middle, never on charge side. I have went over every grond from batt. to motor ,to body, cleaning all. have also hooked test light up to battery pos and stuck on reg, lights and shows ground, test light to block lights and shows ground, can even stick test light to body and lights up with good ground. This is a new regulator, and just had alternator tested at autozone, while i watched, showed good, this is a 65 amp alt, date plate show 60 amp alt from factory. auto seem to be holding charge, but amp meter still not up on charge side, what are the odds of an amp meter being bad?or do you still think I should get an higher amp, alt, if so what amp should I be looking for, this is ac car pw, cruise???

[Nacho-RT74]

if batt is full, the ammeter will keep on center. The ammeter shows power coming or going from/to alt. As far batt doesn't need to be rercharged, then batt will never ask for power and ammeter will register NO POWER going to batt because no need for that.

Now if you are getting discharge quite often, then when reving up alternator should get back that power juice more less for the same time the batt got discharged ( unless the charge side reading was higher than discharge what in that case will take less time to get to center again ).

is hard to get a bad ammeter UNLESS studs are loosen inside from the buss bar what is part of the ammeter inside.

what I still don't get is why you attached the extra wires to the existing ammeter wires ? it was better simply crimp/sold an eyelet terminal to the new wire and attach 4 WIRES to the ammeter studs ( 2 each side of course ). With extra nuts if you wish.

Is there a chance you attached reversed the parallel wires and that could it giving you a wrong read ? dunno, just thinking.

[268RTs4ME]

I have two reds and two blacks (original) on back of ampmeter, I hooked two reds up to R and the two blacks on other post of ampmeter,unless one of the reds goes on black side, actually one red and one red with white strip, I figured this to be ignition wire. maybe meter hooked up backwords, but I put the reds on the R side.

[Nacho-RT74]

is on that way... both red togethers to red side of ammeter and both blacks to the non labeled stud.

anyway I was just thinking around.

is NOT GOOD to make this but quite often is necesary... if you disconect the battery, car engine keeps running ?

[268RTs4ME]

Yes can lift off battery positive cable and still runs, the only thing I have not done is take the bulkhead apart, but with bypassing around it should not be the problem. So it is not my field wires,with ignition on blue is hot, I unplug green field wire, unplug regulator hook hot wire to green field wire with test light have power through green wire at regulator. have cleaned and double check all grounds. Hook test light up on pos. battery cablel touch body lights up, touch motor lights up, touch regulator lights up, that tells me everything is grounded., I have even run a ground wire to dash cluster in case it needed to be grounded, and to steering column ground. Still shows 1/4 way up on discharge side of amp, with rpm goes up to almost middle, but never on charge side of ampmeter...I am at my end on where to go to next?

[Nacho-RT74]

when you have engine off and everything off... amm needle is RIGHT IN CENTER of gauge ?

needle is a loosen piece with kinda a magnetic counterweight ( thats what really moves when power is going through ammeter buss bar inside ) attached but not necesarilly FIXED to needle. The needle could it be out of center againts the counterweight

[268RTs4ME]

With nothing on... amp meter is down to D (discharge), is not settting in middle. do you think I have a bad amp meter. or is there a way to correct it?

[Nacho-RT74]

heheh then WE GOT THE ANSWER... ammeter should stay by default in the middle with everything off. Of course when you open doors or ANYTHING is working, will show a slight discharge ( with engine off ), but once inside the cab, and door closed, should stay JUST RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE



can be fixed because we know as a fact IS working. The hardest part is remove the cluster... then dissasemble the cluster and get the ammeter out, checking for the matching positioning between needle and counterweight... is EEEAAASY. The problem as stated is all the job related to get there.

will be also a good chance to check for ammeter isolators conditions, tight studs inside ammeter etc...

[268RTs4ME]

Ok took mpmeter out of cluster carefully, adjusted on back until hand was in the middle of gauge. reassembled. hand is in middle of gauge started car now is staying over charged, think I might need to find a new meter?

[FLG]

If you want just grab a nut and bolt and put both wires together (make sure you heat shrink it and/or tape it well, they are live) and get an aftermarket voltage meter, maybe hidden out of sight if you think it might be an eye sore.

[Nacho-RT74]

OR you are really overcharging somehow.