charging system
 

I need some help, I have a 72 dodge dart swinger and I can not for the life of me find out why it wont charge. I have replaced the altenator, battery, voltage reg, balast, ignition switch, checked all the wires for ground and contenuity and it still will not put out a charge, I have even replaced wires. I can not figure it out! Am I missing something I have had techs do some looking and still nothing, it will start and run. Please help

are you sure its not charging? maybe your warning light or guage isn't working and it's the sending unit. does the battery go dead after a short length of time?only other thing i'd check is the wiring harness in the engine compartment and under the dash. if you replaced everything else with new parts it has to be in your wiring harness. good luck.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, the Batt does go dead, I have replaced wires and gone through the whole charging harness, the gauge does show what the battery has for a charge. any other sugestions? I am all out of them.

can't really think of anything else. you've pretty well covered all your bases. did you check your alternator to make sure its putting out some power? the only thing you can do is to check the charging system circuit with a test light. there has to be a broken wire somewhere if you changed every part of the system and it still doesn't work.i had some problems with some mopars over the years that the battery went dead for no reason. turned out to be the starter believe it or not.

The starter? Wow that is weird I think I will end up just replacing the whole harness i will let you know what comes out of it. Thanks for your help. What was wrong with your starter to make it not charge?

I ment to ask you how you came to your starter for your problem?

i had checked everything else in the car to find out why the battery was going dead and it was because the starter was draining the battery with some sort of dead short in it. i changed starters and everything was good. this was done after i had replaced obvious parts in the system to find the problem.are your ground straps on your engine etc. making a good ground?

i took a walk to my shop and got a motor's auto repair manual to see what it said about alternators not charging, heres what it said.......

1.drive belt loose
2.brushes sticking
3.open charging circuit
4.open in stator winding circuit
5.faulty soldered connections at output terminal stud
6.rectifiers open circuited

low output
1. grounded stator
2.shorted rectifier
3.voltage regulator faulty

i would also check all the fusible links ( weakest point in the harness) to make sure one isn't burned out. you can't tell just by looking at it if its burned or not.you have to test it.other than those suggestions i can't think of much more..good luck and i hope you get the problem corrected.

check for charge by letting the car run then disconnect + battery cable if the car shuts of not charging so it would be in the wires. i had problems with my fusible links. sometimes my car would start and other times it wouldn't do anything. but nothing speaker wire and electrical tape can't take care of.lol

wiring
 

thats right...all you have to do is find the problem and the fusble links would be one of the first things i'd check.

if your battery goes dead, i would be checking for a draw in your electrical system. if your car starts and runs, it seems you must be sending something to the battery. do you have a battery charger? i would charge the battery, then check for a draw- you can do this by disconnecting the negative cable at the battery and connecting your test light in series between the neg post and neg cable. the test light should not light- if it does you have a draw. do this test with the ignition off. if you have a draw, unplug fuses one at a time until the test light goes out- the problem will be in the circuit that fuse is for. it sounds like you might have wiring problems.