Can someone help? I need to drive my dart tomorrow
Ok guys a little information here. First thing i did today was check my battery voltage. 13.2 volts with the key off. 12.6 with the key on. Starting, it dropped to about 12 then right back up to 13.5 to 14 at idle. If I rev it it will get up to 17 volts. Sustaining a higher rpm it will keep the voltage over 15 volts. I believe on the highway yesterday I was probably around 17 volts
Relative to the battery's 13.2 or even 14, 17 Volts is high. Power is flowing from the 17 volts down to the 13.2 or 13.5-14 at the battery.
Its related to the voltage regulator. All you have to do is determine if its the regulator's internals, or the voltage it's reading. My guess is internal, but this is easy to check.
The easy check is to clip the positive lead of your voltmeter to the the regulator connection, and negative lead to ground. It should be the same voltage as the battery positive and the alternator output. If it is, then the problem is in the regulator. If its lower, then the problem is in the wiring.
Regulator. If its points style, take the cover off and see if the points are stuck. If so, clean with some fine emery and that may be it. If its solid state, toss it in the trash and buy a new one. With solid state, I've had better than average luck with the
Standard VR128 regulator. Original application is for Studebakers, so it looks and connects a little different. Its also what Mopar Performance used - except Standard's is better quality. For a solid state regulator that looks more original, do a search here; Slantsixdan seems to keep on top of which regulators have better odds of being a quality product. (I keep a spare VR in stock at all times.)
At this point I’m wondering if the voltage regulator should have been swapped once the car got electronic ignition? This is something that I read about
That's something you need to find out from Pertronix. Mopar Performance wanted the electronic (solid state) regulator for their ECUs but that's a different animal. I think its a matter of how well they can ignore switching noise from the points.
When I remove just the green wire from the ALT, the battery does not charge anymore
That's the field wire. Go to
the bottom drawing on my
Charging page. The bottom drawing is a more complete diagram that includes the regulator. Even though its for a '67 Barracuda, the circuitry is about the same as yours.
So here's how it works. Inside the alternator is an electo-magnet. It gets power from the regulator. The more power it gets, the stronger the magnetic field. Hence - the field wire. When this electromagnet spins, it induces potential current in the windings that surround it. That's the source of the power at the alternator's output terminal.
So you removed the field wire, and the electromagnetic wasn't very magnetic.
