I had the following problems on my 94 CTD 2500..
Dim head lights sometimes, even after warm up.
On longer trips the volt guage would read about an 1/8th below the 14 volt mark. It never had any starting problems and read about 13.50 on a Digital voltmeter.
The Overdrive would hunt a lot at certain times
It would never shift down and go past 2200 rpm..
Odd as it seems, I bought a new alternator, I mean brand new and installed it.. Every problem dissappeared, it reads 13.90 now at highways cruise, and if I hit the pedal, it kicks down and shifts now at 2600..
For the cost, I thought it was worth the try and it was. Truck had 196,000 km's on it.

 

Thanks for posting that, my volt gauge is reading right at 14 but I'm only getting 13.3 also having a problem with lockup hunting sometimes, about craped when I heard $312 for a new alt from Dodge, thinking I will go with a lifetime alt from NAPA for $206

 

better to take a chance and nip it in the bud now than be like me. go out when its blowing snow in january and the alt and batteries are deader than a door nail. then having to wait a week for a new alty

 

You might want to check your grounds. I've read some posts concerning poor shifting and dim lighting on the earlier 2nd gens becasue of undersized ground wires leading from the batteries. Just a thought. Kurt

 

My dad, who worked with automotive electrical systems for years always said, and I quote: "When you have an electrical problem always suspect a bad ground first." He was correct. Many problems on my vehicles have been solved by cleaning and tightening ground connections.

 

thats pretty much the first thing you learn when dealing with electrical.

 

When I bought the truck, not that long ago, thats the first thing I did to try and fix the issues I was having, I cleaned all the grounds, even the small grounds from the harness whips, I took a dremel with a wire brush and shined them up, and use new stainless screws..
It was a decision between a new TPS or the alternator, I picked the alternator to do first, and am pleased with the results..

 

Another thing I'd like to add to this discussion is, and this senario has nothing to do with the dodge, a while back I was having a problem with "mediocore" voltage in my s-10 chev, know what I mean, just enough to keep it charged but lights would still dim on occassion.
Went and tried "new" alt.'s from two different auto part places, still the same results. So I found a guy here in town that rebuilds alt/ starters and asked him if he could "soup" up the alt. any, he scratched his head and said " sure", been fine every since, still driving the truck to work, been about 12 years now, had my wife's Le Sabre alt. and now her Honda Accord alt. rebuilt by him. Cheap to, like $40.00 for the bearing side or the same price for the charging side or $80.00 if he did both sides.
He also rebuilt my Honda 4 wheelers starter for $60.00 which cost a little over $350.00 from the dealer

The moral of the story is, if you can find a good rebuild shop locally, I highly recomend it, worked great for me, plus the pulley system will always be correct rather than the pulley's from a auto supply being wrong.

 

I agree on the rebuild. Fix your oem oiece instead of buying trash that passes for new or reman at the chain stores. The local guy here has done 5 pieces for me in the last 2 years. All are working. Besides, I know who to blame if they break.

 

yep, cant beat the small rebuild shops that have been doing it forever, good prices, good customer service, and they're just down the road.

 

I had to put a new alt on my 2001. Went to AutoZone because they had one in stock. Set mine on the counter vs. theirs, no comparrison. Their alt had about half the windings my factory alt did. I went back to the dealer and had them go on locator and find me one. But, at over 150K when it went, I felt it was worth the extra money for the added windings.

 

New alternator did the trick for me