Markzilla88
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I’ve got a 72 Demon with a 360 in it I’m working on. I’ve owned the car for 4 years now and this has never been a problem up until 2 months ago.
I first noticed the battery (duralast) was leaking battery acid out the top ports where you would top the water off, which tipped me off to something new being wrong. When I took it out and cleaned out the engine bay, I started looking for culprits. I found my blue field wire running to the back of the alternator had rattled itself off the field post on the alternator. I’m not sure how long it had been like that, but to that point I had only driven the car twice this year since pulling it out of the garage where I knew everything was correctly in place.
I put the battery on a tender and topped it off (didn’t need much distilled water), I retightened and reconnected the blue field wire to the alternator, and started the car to start measuring voltage to make sure everything was fine. The car now was giving the battery 14 volts at idle and up to 18 volts when throttle was applied.
I have read many threads about what to do, so I cleaned all the connectors in line, cleaned the bulkhead connectors very diligently and put dielectric grease on for good measure. I have cleaned the paint off the casing of the mopar VR and ensured a good solid ground. I also added a grounding wire from the VR to a carb mounting stud. In addition I also added a ground strap from the intake manifold bolt to the brake booster mounting stud on the firewall to help. All of these grounds measured as a good ground on my volt meter.
I then tested the car out to see if this helped or fixed the problem. It has not.
I have tried 4 different voltage regulators and they all produce the same problem. 2 of them are mopar VRs and 2 are Napa parts store VRs.
I checked the alternator as well and it appears to be working as it should. I also put a replacement 60A alternator on there just to check for good measure, and the problem still remains.
Some other tests I’ve run have been put key in the ignition position and tested each field wire while disconnected from the alternator. Battery voltage was 12.4 V with ignition on, Blue field wire reads 11.6V, Green field wire reads .4V.
I also tried briefly disconnecting the field wires from the alternator while car was running. Battery remained at 12.5V. As soon as I reconnected the field wires it went back to charging 14V at idle and up to 18V with any bit of throttle.
With the car running, inside on the dash, the ammeter reads right in the middle at idle, but any throttle causes the ammeter to spike to +40.
It seems like the alternator is doing it’s job charging, but the VR or VR system is leaving the door wide open allowing all the juice the alternator is making to flow to the battery without restriction.
I’m stumped and need any assistance I can get here. Thank you all in advanced.
I first noticed the battery (duralast) was leaking battery acid out the top ports where you would top the water off, which tipped me off to something new being wrong. When I took it out and cleaned out the engine bay, I started looking for culprits. I found my blue field wire running to the back of the alternator had rattled itself off the field post on the alternator. I’m not sure how long it had been like that, but to that point I had only driven the car twice this year since pulling it out of the garage where I knew everything was correctly in place.
I put the battery on a tender and topped it off (didn’t need much distilled water), I retightened and reconnected the blue field wire to the alternator, and started the car to start measuring voltage to make sure everything was fine. The car now was giving the battery 14 volts at idle and up to 18 volts when throttle was applied.
I have read many threads about what to do, so I cleaned all the connectors in line, cleaned the bulkhead connectors very diligently and put dielectric grease on for good measure. I have cleaned the paint off the casing of the mopar VR and ensured a good solid ground. I also added a grounding wire from the VR to a carb mounting stud. In addition I also added a ground strap from the intake manifold bolt to the brake booster mounting stud on the firewall to help. All of these grounds measured as a good ground on my volt meter.
I then tested the car out to see if this helped or fixed the problem. It has not.
I have tried 4 different voltage regulators and they all produce the same problem. 2 of them are mopar VRs and 2 are Napa parts store VRs.
I checked the alternator as well and it appears to be working as it should. I also put a replacement 60A alternator on there just to check for good measure, and the problem still remains.
Some other tests I’ve run have been put key in the ignition position and tested each field wire while disconnected from the alternator. Battery voltage was 12.4 V with ignition on, Blue field wire reads 11.6V, Green field wire reads .4V.
I also tried briefly disconnecting the field wires from the alternator while car was running. Battery remained at 12.5V. As soon as I reconnected the field wires it went back to charging 14V at idle and up to 18V with any bit of throttle.
With the car running, inside on the dash, the ammeter reads right in the middle at idle, but any throttle causes the ammeter to spike to +40.
It seems like the alternator is doing it’s job charging, but the VR or VR system is leaving the door wide open allowing all the juice the alternator is making to flow to the battery without restriction.
I’m stumped and need any assistance I can get here. Thank you all in advanced.