not sure at this point if its more than one problem but this is so far : 1972 dart 318 auto daily driver , mostly stock or close to it . in january , there was rotor punch-through . items that were replaced around that time that i can remember were : cap , rotor , points , coil , wires , plugs , alternator . ran great after that for a few weeks with ammeter gauge showing normal . then soon ammeter gauge would fluctuate between a somewhat charge when accelerating to somewhat discharge at idle . it would go back to center after a short time until went back to idle . then it would start over . soon after this the ammeter showed just slight discharge only most of the time . sometimes it would go halfway to charge side , but only for a short time , usually a few minutes or a lot less , then back to slight discharge . i checked all that i could at that time . everything pointed to a bad alternator . it was a rock auto bought REMY remanufactured . had about 300 - 400 miles on it . it took it off brought it to advance auto , they tested it twice , failed twice . i sent it back to rock auto , the sent me another remy rebuild as a warranty replacement . that worked great for about a week or so , charging as normally should and as the car had been for 20 years . week two , it went back to the same slight discharge as the other . again it would go only very occasionally to halfway or so to charge side , then back to slight discharge . i ran a bunch of tests again , i did the alt field out directly through jumper right to battery ground , got no voltage difference in the battery multiple times , once the wire sparked and started charging , then it didn't . since it was acting the same as the other alt , i took it off , had it tested at autozone ( advance' tester machine died ) and twice it passed . now i know that they can't really test it under full load , and it was working intermittently already , so could still be bad . since it and the battery ( battery tested good at store ) was out of the car . i decided just to test continuity at various points , just to see if some of the wires have it . not that it means anything , but i don't know too much about electrical . so , the alt main hot wire to the positive battery cable end had continuity . both wires from the Voltage Reg had cont. to their respective field wire connectors . and the neg cable as well end to ends . reinstalled alternator . by the way , i have been testing things with 3 - 4 different VR's , 1 that was on there , 3 new or NOS . also does not mean they are good . sometimes warmed up , but not always . so with key on , my notes say sometimes battery voltage or close to it on both fields , most times battery or close to battery voltage on the input field and 0 or 003 on output fieldd terminal . one time while running had 0 volts on out , turned car off , waited 3 to 5 minutes , turned key on got near battery volts on IN and OUT , the same , then started car got battery volts on IN , got ZERO on out . next these were tested twice . KEY ON - input = 11.90 output .05 to .06 / car running , fast idle - input 12.20 output .06 - 0.7 . - another VR ( key on 11.01 in / .58 - .60 out / running 12.16 in / .15 out ) yet another VR ( key on 11.80 in / 3.91 out ! running 12.18 /in .08 out ) then jumpered alt output to battery NEG - there was no change . i added a eyelet wire from the regulator to a bolt coming out of the heater blower motor on the firewall , hoping this would help ground things . that had continuity . i removed the negative battery cable to clean up the grounds , the one from the block and the one on the radiator support area . put that on and no change , but i quickly realized i did not fully tighten the ground on the radiator support . i tightened that up , it then went to full charge , pretty much close to the 40 on the right of the ammeter gauged . i was worried that might be too much , so i shut the car off . i then quickly restarted the car and to my surprise , it was back at the usual slight discharge . two days of messing , battery still at 12.62 . at this time i noticed the headlights aren't working right ( they were previously ) when you pull the knob out . most of the lights come on , not the headlights , but at one point were dim . but stuff that should not . the fender mounted turn signals on , the dash lights inside all on plus the high beam light and both directional lights . turn that off and on some lights would go out , but most on . weird . maybe screwing with the grounds did this , i don't know . digging the hole deeper . i removed the negative ground again and reinstalled , no different . you know something is wrong when you see both fender mounts on at same time and stay lit . today . as per an old post . i removed the negative cable from battery , test light between that and post , no light . then voltmeter . it read 10.88 on the Vdc scale , but that was before i realized an aftermarket radio was hooked up to a fuse , drawing power , after i removed that . the volts would read close to 1.00 but quickly drop to .77 - .65 then slowly go down .01 every few seconds . i started pulling fuses . after each one exactly the same result . then as per an old post from from 67dart273 , i tested positive battery to alt blue field ( i assume connected to the alt ? ) - got 1.43 ( post said over .2v to worry . though i thought it was 2 not .2 so i went on to the next test ) and i think the IGN feed from ballast to positive - i got .97 if the ign feed is the one on the left . then started car the ammeter needle went close to 40 again ! i checked NEG to VR case ( without it warming , because of the full charge i did not want to wait ) and was over 13 and fluctuating ( maybe 14 , i did not wait , i shut it down . minutes later i restarted it , ammeter back to slight discharge again ! now a steady reading NEG to VR case 12.77 which is close to full battery voltage right now ( post said over .2v might be bad ground ) plan was to go get a ground strap for the engine to firewall , but i just realized it failed the first test . i just did the positive to alt blue again and got .91 and the ballast to positive got .77 this is on a craftsman meter on the Vdc scale , set at the 20 . i am getting pretty lost here , thats why all the info , not sure what to do now . i started thinking ignition switch , but don't know how to test . the lights i have no idea . could something have burned up the alternators ? the headlight switch ? this is all i will get to until after Carlisle , i hope some of you can make it out there this weekend . i was hoping to have an idea of what i need so i can maybe buy some of it out there . thanks everybody . buy the way i really don't know **** when it comes to electrical . i am trying though . and i wrote this after three full days in the hot sun , so some details missing or possibly off , like my brain right now .
