64Imperial

My imperial has a 440 in it , Battery is 2 years old did sit alot but its testing good, replaced the alternator thought i had bad diodes cause my battery would drain in 4-5 days, replaced the voltage regulator cause still had a charging problem after i added the new alternator. got it tested again and said voltage regulator fail, so to me this tells me that something before the voltage regulator is bad.

Which wire coming off the Alternator charges the battery? there are 3 wires i believe its the green one but im not sure how the system works cause the cable i thought gos directly to the battery well it doesnt now that i look and think about it ive not traced the wires yet as this is going to be a pain. my alternator has a black wire( the power), green plug and a little ground wire you screw to the alternator its self.

Any advice on what to do next? I originally thought the green wire on the alternator goes directly and plugs into the voltage regulator but the wire colors are different my plan was just to unplug the original wires and just run a new wire and plug them in.

So new alternator, new voltage regulator, new-ish battery its like 980 cold cranking amps, the block is grounded to the firewall all surfaces cleaned to bare metal, my one iffy thing is i ground my battery directly to a intake bolt like it was before but my intake is aluminum now not cast, but i read aluminum actually conducts electricity better than steel, my MSD box is grounded directly to the battery so im stumped. that's basically all the grounds really,

Mouse

Do you have a voltage meter to see if the battery is charging? Also, maybe something is draining it when the engine is off. I had bad batteries before that the stupid testers showed as good on the quick test but bad on the longer test.

64Imperial

I had a slow drain over 4-5 days thats why i replaced the alternator thinking diodes were bad, to find out after replacing everything the battery isnt charging at all... now im having a new symptom idk if its related but my starter makes squeeling sounds when i try to start it, it even free spun just now before it started turning the engine over.

Just took it on its longest trip yet about 8-9 ( 16-18 miles total )miles drove there and back and come home go to start the car and battery wont turn over battery is dead 12.23V. seems to die faster when i drive it further, i've driven it around town and started it up 8 times or so running errands going to the drive through turning it off in the drive through ect before the battery would get low before this time i only started it 2 times but i drove it further, what can cause it to drain faster the further i go? I was also going the fastest the car seen with the new engine ~75 maybe this sped up the drain im normally around 40-50mph

64Imperial

update had my battery on the trickle charger all night and all day on lowest setting 2 am, went to start car car wouldnt start my ignition control switch just clicks cause no voltage to start, tested battery its 12.58v i read something where a battery needs to be 13.48 volts or higher to even be capable of charging??? i think my battery is toast might be the cause of all these problems?

RacerHog

IF it's below 10 Volts when you crank it?.... You can say the battery might be no good. Also sounds like it might be a starter... Starter draw should be no more than hummmmm like 140 amps of draw. Cables and grounds can also cause cranking and starting issues...
As for the charging... you need to make sure the alternator is getting the signal to charge the battery...
Hope that help for some direction?

64Imperial

Just got back my battery was toast, got a new battery installed took it to test the charge on the battery was 83% ( from shelf time) the new test didnt show the voltage regulator as failing how ever shows it it chanrging now i was getting 12.5 amps charge the guy said i am 1 volt short in charging should be around 13.5 amps, what can cause just a 1v drop in charge? cause if i keep running my battery will die again wont it with missing that 1v of charging?

RacerHog

Other than what we have talked about.... Make sure the ignition wire is good. Ma Mopar uses a lot of splice wires off that wire... might try new ignition hot lead to the regulator and see if that helps it out.

A little reading for you...
http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...p-gauges.shtml

64Imperial

okay thanks ill check that out, When you mean the regulator you mean the voltage regulator? The voltage regulator does have a gree wire thats the same color as my green one on my alternator i thought i twas the same wire but looks liek my alternator goes to some kinda box idk what it is and the aprts guy at autozone didnt know either ( not that they know much ) I will add a photo of it, i think my alternator goes steight to that box then comes off some where else some how and goes the the voltage regulator. I did a little test last night with the new battery i charged it up a little and took the charger off, when i went to bet battery read 13.04v its now about 14 hours later i checked it and its down to 12.45v so it has a drain too on top of the charge not being high enough
Was reading that link, very interesting i think my amp gauge on my car dont work it it alway at the same spot will be sitting something like this represents the gauge btw --- Charge iiiii | iIii Discharge the capital I is where mine sits almost all the time it about never moves usually twards the discharge side, sometimes will be in the middle but its never towards the charge side.

I bought everything to do this bypass we will see hopfully this works, maybe my Temp gauge will start working too after this cause it seems to not work either its always on the C, same with my fuel gauge always on E, i even put a new sending unit in the tank thinking it was the prob the old one looked like the titanic lol

RacerHog

I agree... Deal with the charging issue first.. One step at a time... Just a question? Do you have a test light?

And yes... I was talking about the Voltage Regulator...

If the battery has 12 Volts in it with it unhooked after sitting over night... That alright. Dont sweet it for now.

64Imperial

I do not have a test light, and when you say run a new hot wire to the voltage regulator how would i do that? i cant connect it to the ignition wire going to my coil cause last time i had something small as my electric choke connected to it and i lost all spark plug spark. okay ill unplug my car a couple days see how bad it goes down ive had it on 2 amp slow charge

RacerHog

Ok.... Let do this....
1. Check the Dark Blue wire at the voltage regulator, The (I) Side, This with the ignition key on should read 12 Volts. If so Thats good to go..

2. The Dark Green wire (F) should go over to the Field terminal in the alternator (F)... Make sure that is a good wire...

3. (G) on the Voltage Regulator should be grounded to the Alternator.

4. The big black wire should go straight to the AMP gauge.Under the dash.. and have 12 volts all the time.

*Note: The other side of the AMP Gauge

5. This wire is going to be RED.. This wire is will go out to the starter relay.
This wire does have a splice in the wire to feed other power sources, but will worry about it/that later.

Note if all this is in good working order. When you start the car it should charge.

Report Back...

64Imperial

Oh thanks for that in detail helps a lot. I will try that first.

Update went to follow instructions on this, i have no power going to my voltage regulator cause I cut the wire and split off of it, in the picture attached shows, I connected these to bypass the balast resistor cause i dont need it with a non-points system. this Y connects my Blue( ignition ) Brown ( no clue has something to do with the starter cause if you touch them the starter tries to work ) the red wire i added goes all the way to my little red wire on my MSD ignition and Electric Choke as shown in the 2nd pic.

Maybe you see something wrong here? this is the only way i could get any of this stuff to work with out the balast being there I read it steals power I did this trying to fix my spark plugs having no spark problem.

This 3rd picture i added cause I have no clue what it is even parts store guy has no clue has purple, green and a black wire to it

4th picture is voltage regulator and ignition control switch...i think... forgot the name

I tapped on the starter a few times with a wrench it still free spins doing nothing