Charging System

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jun 11, 04 7:20 pm

Am I right in saying that to check the Charging System one puts the Voltmeter on the blue and white wire off the Ballast Resistor?I have had MAJOR dramas now with the Runner,broke down 22 times back from Brooklands.(I love my Jump pack) did not even make it there in the Car!!!!!!Lost First gear as well so its going up to Duncan on Weds morning.I have got a diagram off Moparts and it shows testing from the Ballast Resistor,is this right.

Holly · Post by **Holly** » Fri Jun 11, 04 9:30 pm

broke down 22 times back from Brooklands

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Fri Jun 11, 04 9:42 pm

You want it to charge your battery so the best place to check it is at the battery.

Put your volt meter over the battery terminals. With the engine running you should have about 14.4 volts.

If it is higher than that (or goes up when you rev the engine) you most likely have a bad regulator.

Lower is usually bad connections.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jun 11, 04 10:21 pm

Understand what your saying Dave,I have tried that but the Battery way is saying 12.5 volts across the Battery.....15 volts coming out of the Alt,the Reg is new in from the States,race one which is constant 13.5 Volts,found a melted connection in the Bulkhead wire to the Ammeter,thought this was it but of course it was not!!!!!!! All I want to do is get the P.O.S to Duncans without breaking down and looking at Moparts tech Archive the Diagram they show I have not done if you see what I mean.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jun 11, 04 11:18 pm

or alternator diodes, or worn brushes

i had considered running a separate cable, (with fusible link wire in circuit too) straight from alternator to battery on the Charger, (blimey with a name like that they shoulda supplied 80amp alternators on them!) making a ring circuit. Ammeter would then no longer work (well it might move slightly) but I much prefer voltmeters anyway, ammeters always seem to steal some of your electricity.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jun 12, 04 6:54 am

Sounds remarkably similar to the problem we had on our 69 charger. The battery didnt seem to be holding charge. We had it all checked and everything was fine. Battery was fine, charging circuit was fine - same results as you but on a regular basis the car would have a flat battery. Finally tracked it down to a tempermental cell in the battery that could never make up its mind whether to hold a charge or not. May be worth trying a different battery?

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jun 12, 04 10:01 am

If you only have 12.5 volts on the battery and 15 volts at the alternator then the charging system is NOT connected to the battery. Simple as that.

The bulkhead connector would be the first place I would look but I see you have already found that one.

I would suggest that there is still a break in the circuit somewhere. I would disconnect the battery and run a resistanct test around the circuit to find the break.

Have you got an ameter in the dash and does it do anything? It might be that.

Here is a VERY basic and more understandable drawing of the circuit. It might help.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jun 12, 04 10:06 am

This link shows you how to by-pass the ammeter.

http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical ... uges.shtml

db · Post by db » Sat Jun 12, 04 11:01 am

I've had problems like this caused by frayed engine earth cables, a corroded batt terminal which be fine til you went on a run then would cause loss of power as the corrosion caused high resistance, meaning the batt would charge but not enough to rev properly!

!
I would take each major connection off in turn, give em a good clean, put em back good an tight and maybe a spot of copaslip.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jun 12, 04 11:18 am

Thanks Dave great link,

Another thing that could be causing all my electrical problems!

I have lost all my indicators now, Guy has advised me to look for the relay so I will do that.

I think I am going to have to do something drastic with my wiring, as soon as I fix something, something else goes wrong.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jun 12, 04 11:43 am

You are spot on there Paul. People forget that the chassis connections are just as important as the 'hot' wires.

My wiring has been cut about and modified so much (mostly by me!

) that I need to pull it all out and start again really. Too many crimped joins and odd lengths of mains wire.

That site I linked to gives you some good pointers for wiring the headlights etc too.

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Sat Jun 12, 04 12:33 pm

BratFink. The Relay on the Valiant was up under the dash to the left of the ashtray. On our Oz Mopars there is a single fuse block with just 2 fuses up under the dash. The other week I lost all my rear lights (tail and stops) this was caused by one of the fuses deciding to go high resistance and more or less taking about 5ft of pink cable with it (via the brakelight switch and interior lights and the headlight switch. I will be rewiring the whole car at some point. My car doesn't have a bulkhead connector (luckily) Would the fusible link be a flat inch long piece of metal covered in plastic? If so, I've got one of those. I'll be going here for my parts; http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.co.u ... /home.html
Incidentally, I had a supposed flat battery on the wife's BMW. This was caused by a corroded battery connector. A quick clean and it was fine. (How many people just replace the battery???!!) Use an oxygen free grease to protect the terminals.

TrevD · Post by **TrevD** » Sat Jun 12, 04 7:57 pm

I had similar problems with the duster, spent many hours trying to find the problem but in the end i gave up and fitted a modern alternator with built in regulator , i usea all original wireing , and now charge at 13.8Von tick over and the ammeter works fine

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jun 12, 04 9:13 pm

Built-in regulators are actually not as good as the mopar type remote regulator. They tend to under power the whole system because they are sensing the voltage at the alternator and not in the actual wiring harness which tends to be a few ohms up in resistance.

You should be charging at 14.4 volts you people.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jun 12, 04 9:14 pm

Kev, I have a fuse box under the dash which has about 10 fuses in it. The indicator circuit has it's own fuse in that little collection (most circuits share, according to the wiring diagram), however there is also wires going to the kenlow switch (since disconnected) maybe that is causing the trouble?

I have come to the decision to do the Charger first before attempting the CH Hardtop, I am just getting annoyed with the little bits that keep failing on it, so I want to go right through it and do it all properly.