A 12 volt draw on battery from a one wire alternator

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Good luck Dont get intimidated and post back any "glitches."
 
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Ok did what you said. Got spark and ammeter pegged out. Measured voltage from field terminal to ground and was getting 12.6 volts same as battery. You said it shouldn't have not over 6 amps right. My thoughts are alt is charging so run new wires over to vr and check it.
 
You lopped off the most important part of the photo, LOL. Put one probe (black) in the normal "common" connector at far bottom right.

Put your other probe in the "10A" (10 amp) connector.

BE VERY CAREFUL and do not short anything to ground. An ammeter is a SERIES device, and you will blow the internal meter fuse

Hook battery.........alligator lead.........one field connection........other field connection........one meter lead.........ground remaining meter lead

See? this puts everything in SERIES meaning "all in a row." The current goes THROUGH the meter. Turn the pulley and look at the meter. Turning the meter revolves the slip rings and "averages out" the reading.

a28312d5-7b99-4fc9-8e3f-2f8fb530a9f4_1000.jpg
 
67Dart273 said:
You lopped off the most important part of the photo, LOL. Put one probe (black) in the normal "common" connector at far bottom right.

Put your other probe in the "10A" (10 amp) connector.

BE VERY CAREFUL and do not short anything to ground. An ammeter is a SERIES device, and you will blow the internal meter fuse

Hook battery.........alligator lead.........one field connection........other field connection........one meter lead.........ground remaining meter lead

See? this puts everything in SERIES meaning "all in a row." The current goes THROUGH the meter. Turn the pulley and look at the meter. Turning the meter revolves the slip rings and "averages out" the reading.

a28312d5-7b99-4fc9-8e3f-2f8fb530a9f4_1000.jpg
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You also have to switch the dial to the 10amp position, as current is measured in amps.
 
And as soon as you are done that test, remove positive lead and put it back to the other test port. My buddy smoked more meters than i care to count. He blows fuse then foil wraps it. Creature of bad habits. He doesent touch my meter. Yours is a nice unit, wouldnt want you to damage it.
 
Just disconnect the battery every time you park the car, or install a drag racing battery on/off switch.
 
Ok I put the meter in amps and doesn't read anything on the field to ground. Other field is connected to starter relay. What should I do next
 
Majestic said:
Ok I put the meter in amps and doesn't read anything on the field to ground. Other field is connected to starter relay. What should I do next
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Did you move the red wire to the 10A socket?
One side of field to battery positive, other terminal to meter in 10A setting and red wire in 10A socket, black wire on meter to alternator housing.
 
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Tooljunkie said:
Did you move the red wire to the 10A socket?
One side of field to battery positive, other terminal to meter in 10A setting and red wire in 10A socket, black wire on meter to alternator housing.
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Yes that's what I did and showed 0
 
YOU MAY HAVE THE METER set for AC amps instead of DC, read my post below this one..........


It sounds like the rotor/ brushes have a problem. You know how to read resistance?

Put your meter switch 2 clicks to the right of "OFF" which is the "ohms" "omega" sign

Hook your probes back to the "Normal" positons, that is, the black bottom right common, and the red at top right.

Touch the two probes together and verify the meter reads "close to zero" resistance.

Now disconnect all wires from the two field connections. Measure from each field terminal to ground. You should read infinity........same as if probes are hooked to "nothing."

Next put the probes on the two field connectors, you should read a quite low reading, maybe 2-4 ohms or so.

If not, either the brushes are bad, the slip rings are dirty/ greasy/ other, or the rotor winding is bad
 
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ALSO you should check your meter to make sure a fuse is not blown in the amp (current) function. Set the meter up for current/ amps as before. READ the meter destructions and MAKE SURE you are set ofr "DC" current and not AC

It appears (read the book) that you must press the orange "sel" button to select one/ t other

Hook your probes up as before for current, the switch in the 10A position, and hook from a battery plus......one meter lead..........out other meter lead........to a tail lamp.........back to battery negative. You should be able to read the lamp current
 
Dial two clicks to right from off setting.
Wires connected to two connectors on right of meter, red to red and so on.

With the wires off brushes(field connections) do an ohm test, take photo of reading.
 
Well that is reasonable. I'd say there is something wrong with your meter ---or blown fuse--or you had it set up wrong---or simply were not making connections

ALSO try turning the pulley as you read the resistance reading. Maybe it's an intermittent connection.

Again.........try this. .........hook the field terminals to battery power and you should see a small but visible spark as you connect / disconnect the terminals in subdued lighting. Hell, LOL.........most of the time I can HEAR that.

This MAY BE the crux of your problem. You might want to tear the brush holders apart and examine them. "Something fishy"
 
Majestic said:
Did the switch thing for a while. Why wouldn't you just fix the problem? That gets old and pretty embarrassing if you ask me.
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Yeah I know I was kidding around. Problem is, unless you are really good with multi meters and understand automotive DC circuits, trying to troubleshoot by reading all these posts looks frustrating, I would go nuts. I happen to have been trained in both automotive as well as avionics, so its almost second nature, I was just suggesting a " no headache " solution to the problem, as well as a quick no brainer fix.
 
One of my pastimes was installing remote starters,for many years. When i went to work in a dealership, i was electrical troubleshooting/diagnostics and accessory installation.
Eyes not so young anymore, back and neck not so bendy so not so much time can be spent under dashboards.

The second nature thing,the repeated explanation can sometimes wear thin. So you find it frustrating because its difficult, others find it frustrating because its easy.
I can neither fly an airplane nor tune a piano.

We are getting somewhere, if it was down the street frome me, i guarantee it would be fixed,and showed you how it got fixed.
 
Quick update and question. I replaced some of my wires that were frayed and got my wiring diagram and traced all my wiring from the bulkhead. I noticed the wire I thought went from alternator field wire to the voltage regulator ignition (Center pin) was actually supposed to hook up to the AC compressor. Mechanic that hooked up my AC ran a new wire up to around my selector levers from compressor. I traced the original wire to some sort of relay under my dash next to AC. Anyway back to Alt. Should I run a wire from the Alt fld to the voltage regulator or just ground that field? I ran a new green wire from the other field to the side pin on regulator. I also ran a new wire from Alt-Battery over to the starter relay with a fusible link. I'm leaving Black wire also that runs to Ammeter for now until I do the Madelectrical update. Will that hurt anything?
 
If im not mistaken, the ground is the control (reg) side of the field. Its been many years since i had to troubleshoot or rewire a mopar charging system. 8 years,wired a regulator into a computerized 90 ram.
 
Majestic said:
Quick update and question. Should I run a wire from the Alt fld to the voltage regulator or just ground that field?
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I don't know what you ended up with

.....Your alternator has one or two field connections? ONE means the field is grounded, and to use a 69/ earlier regulator

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TWO field connections means use a 70/ later "flat" regulator like you showed in one photo

THIS GOD DAM SOFTWARE DID IT AGAIN!!! HOW DO I EDIT THIS CRAP WHEN I CANNOT SEE THIS CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And of course what you started with is an aftermarket thing hooked to the alternator

SEE THIS!!!!!! THIS IS YOUR DAMN NEW IMPROVED SOFTWARE!!!!!

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"I think??" you are using the 70/ later regulator and an isolated field alternator (two field terminals?)

Then this is the basic diagram. Again, the VR flange MUST BE grounded well

The important thing here is "IGN 1" (ignition 1) which is your ignition "run" power coming FROM the ignition switch. This is the dark blue that ORIGINALLY fed your old regulator AND the ballast resistor. THAT power goes as shown on the diagram to the regulator terminal marked "I". NOTICE that also branches off and feeds either of the two field terminals

The "F" from regulator goes to the remaining field terminal

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TOOK ME 5 MINUTES AND 16 TRIES TO EDIT WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SIMPLE TYPING MISTAKE BECAUSE THE DAMN STUPID "IMPROVED" NEW SOFTWARE HIDES THE URL SO YOU CANNOT SEE WHAT YOU DID WRONG. THANKS!!!!! STUPID NEW IMPROVED SOFTWARE!!!!!
 
Well darn ran a wire from alternator to starter relay with 30 amp fuse. I left the wire running to ammeter alone. Ran another field wire to the ignition wire on voltage regulator. Tried testing it as recommended by voltage regulator instructions by leaving it unplugged and running test lead from green connector pin start car and then ground test lead. Now car tries to start but wont fire.
 
Yikes. I don't know what you might have done. It's always hard when wiring has been changed here and there
 
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