Ok so i have a charging problem that is driving me crazy. I have put a new alternator and voltage regulator in it. Whats happening is at idle the alternator is charging fine in park 14.7v about 30 amps but as soon as i turn the headlights on the voltage slowly starts going down until the car dies. Also when i out the amp clamp right on the alternator power wire i get a correct amp reading but as i move the clamp further away from the alternator the reading goes down all the way to zero when i put it right next to the battery. Also to note i did the ground mod by adding a ground from the voltage regulator to the alternator then to the battery.

Did this problem start before or after you put in the "new" (? probably parts store "remanufactured"?) alternator?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I was a problem before.

OK...then there's probably a wiring issue at work. Do you have the wiring diagram for the car?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Yea I have a manual with the wiring diagrams.

OK...time to trace down the problem, then. The charging circuit is pretty simple. It's likely the problem is in the alternator's control circuit (all wires to the regulator, and between the regulator and alternator). Note that the 14.7v you're finding isn't "fine", it's definitely too high. It sounds like the regulator is not accurately seeing the actual line voltage.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

This sounds odd. When you turn the headlights on and it dies, does it take awail or does it do this instantly. If it does it instantly I would guess there is a short somewhere, or the battery itself is toast. If it takes awail I am guessing its not getting a good charge to the battery. In that case I would be checking the main hot wire that goes from alt to battery. If I am thinking right that hot wire goes through the bulkhead of the firewall & runs through the amp meter in the dash. I have seen these meters go bad.

A good quick and dirty way to check this is to run a exturnal wire from the hot post of the altinator to the hot post of the batter and see if it charges correctly. If it does charge right then its a good chance of being the wire, bulkhead connector, or the amp meter itself. If its the amp meter you can take one of the wires loose from the meter ( they bolt to two lugs on the back of the meter) and put it on the same lug with the other wire. Basically just connecting those two wires together. Ofcourse your meter will not work anymore but it will charge if thats the problem.

But do the quick and dirty test with the extrunal wire first to see if something is wrong with that circuit. Just dissconnect the main power wire from the altinator when you do this test incase there is a short somewhere.

I have seen that main wire coming off the altinator get corroaded bad enough that it cant pass the amps needed to feed the system. Most of the time when it gets that way you can cut the wire open and it will be green inside, or burnt a dark brownish color inside of the wire.


Ofcourse knowing that you have good working parts to begin with is a good place to start. Like getting the altinator,reg, and battery tested off the car at someplace like AutoZone or such.


Jess