Bobs91dodge

My name is Bob, I'm from South East Texas, I am new to the site.
I have read all of the post about the early Gen's. charging problems. (at least I think I have) and I have tried to no avail, I Replaced Alt. VR, and added a #10 wire from one of the screws that hold the VR to firewall and ran it to the alt. top bolt that holds the alt. to the motor., then on the other screw of VR I went to the N of the Battery. I am getting at the battery about 14.9 to 16 volts. With the lights and Alt. gauge pulsing. (bright,dim, bright, dim) I Then went to The local Dodge dealer and purchased a Mopar VR for 40 bucks, Still same problem. My next step is to maybe try a diffrent battery. Any thoughts or ideas would be appriciated. I did read on one of the post about checking the A/C voltage out of the Alt, Sorry I didn't really understand what terminals to check from. There are only three back there, I figure the two smallest one's.

91 dodge, 5.9 Stock, 5spd with around 200k miles on it. I have had problems in the past with a fuse link blowing, I cut it out and put an inline fuse holder in place, the fuse feeds 1/2 of the fuse block. I notice that both of the coils are burned open that feed the preheat box. I figured maybe the over voltage played a part? not sure.

Thanks in advance,
Bob

Shovelhead

If your battery is fried, it will overtax your charging system by not achieving a full charge.
Have you battery tested.

Bobs91dodge

I have not had the battery load tested (yet) but I have not had any trouble with starting the truck at all. It shows to have about 12.30 v after sitting for a while. I know its higher than that when I first shutt the truck off. It goes from about 15 + volts down to 13+ volts then levels out around 12+ volts. My next step is the test the battery. The pre. owner said it has done that every since he had it and with a dif battery as well.
Thanks for the reply.
Bob

Lil Dog

I had similar problems with my 89. It seemed intermittant and I could swap out my VR with one in my tool box and it would go away for a few months. I am sorry, but I never did get it totally fixed. ..

Bobs91dodge

Well, I just load tested the battery, Shows to be good. Then I cranked the truck and let it run after a few seconds, 20 to 40 sec's of run time the battery charged back up and the load tester showed the voltage at max scale, pulsing at the top of the 15 volt scale.
So far I have two VR's that came with the truck (replacements) and one life-time VR From local parts outfit, and picked up one from dodge dealer and all are about the same results, some are alittle higher than others. a life-time Alt. from local parts outfit. The guy told me the Alt. I took off tested good, but I was tired of messing with it, So I said give me another one. I should have known better, I changed the pully and had him ck it before I purchased it. and it showed the same thing, What gets me is the tester at the place did not show the results for the diod's test,, showed N/A which is what it said on mine when they tested it. But according to them it passed. Gotta be another way. What gets me, is if I find the Alt. is bad, I have to show them that it is bad even tho their tester shows it to be good.?

Thanks for the reply's,
Bob

Lil Dog

Try cleaning the lead from the alternator to the battery. Mine was bad at the large pin slide connector on the battery side.

I thought I heard of guys using a Delco self regulated alternator to fix it. Or maybe try wirning in a different VR. Like a Nippon Denso or something...

Bobs91dodge

Thanks for your thoughts LilDog, I'll check into that. I have read today about checking the voltage between the alt. output and the pos. post of the Battery, You might be on to something there, I never give it much thought becuase it always bust off with very little turn over maybe one or two spins and she's running. LOL The terminals look good, but looks can be ,, well you know the rest of the story,, I'll make it a point to clean them very good, or maybe even sub a differnt one in temp. to see how it does. I hate the thought of a new alt. being bad. and having to fight with those folks down at the parts house. If I have to go to a int. reg. unit , I'll do it, but darn, I just spent 140 on the life-time unit I got now,,, LOL I know what good is it if it don't work, LOL
Thanks again,
Bob

Bobs91dodge

Well, I cleaned the battery term... and the term.... clamps, NO luck, Then drove down to parts house, Changed out the Life-time war... Alt. For another one. (Still no luck),,, What else is there? battery, wires, VR and Alt. ? At the risk of sounding stupid, Does the Item in the driver side front finder have anything to do with the Electrical stuff on the truck? I think it is just for the preheat relays (Solinoids) But I'm not sure. Any other thoughts?
Thanks,
Bob

Oh yea, I checked the A/C voltage out with a dig, mult.. meter and it shows to be around .24 +/- a little to .27 +/- alittle (up and down) is that too high?
Thanks
Bob

2500

sounds like alt and voltage reg are fine. but don't discount multiple bad units.

a good battery will read aprox. 12.3 at rest.

normal voltage when charging can be 13.8 to 14.2V, but not much higher.

if you are reading consistently higher than this, you are full fielding and need to checkout your wiring. find another CTD to look at and/or a factory manual for correct wiring.

Bobs91dodge

Well, the battery does read about 12.3 +/- alittle at rest, The wire all looks to be factory. ( + added ground wires) I may try and find a new pig tail for the VR, and run new wire direct from alt. to vr with new pig tail?
Thanks,
Bob