The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Hello All,

Finally in the home stretch. Put a low amp charger/tester in, and all is working. Had a couple of things I wanted to clarify. First, is the alternator wiring. There was an exiciter wire (blue 914 in the painless kit) to one of the field studs on the alternator (I have a 2 wire alternator). This is just a home run power source, correct? The old wiring just used a jumper to the blue ballast wire, correct? With the key in run on the low amp tester, I looked for voltage with a voltmeter at this field lug and got a spark. Should this have happened?

Second, there is a small three wire connector that exits from the steering column along with the ignition and turn signals connectors. I thought it was for the hazard wiring but it was not. Any ideas what this is?

Planning to put in a real battery and retest everything, then start her up. Any other tests I can do to make sure I figured all this out?

Thanks again for all the tips!

It might be my age but I can't follow what you are saying about the field wires on the alternator.

The field wires for the alternator come from the voltage regulator. The blue wire is basically just battery voltage and is in parallel with the input to the regulator.

The other field wire is green and only goes to the regulator. The regulator works by switching this green wire on and off to ground in order to regulate the alternator output.

If you are using the +ve from the ballast resistor to feed this circuit, then make sure you use the full battery voltage side of the resistor and not the coil side.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply.

I do have the green wire from one field on the alternator directly to the regulator, so that seems fine.

What do you mean by "... The blue wire is basically just battery voltage and is in parallel with the input to the regulator". How is it run in parallel? The painless kit had a "home run" igition switched / "battery voltage" wire (they called the alternator excitor). I connected this directly to the other field on the alternator. I am questioning if this is right, as it sparked when I tested the voltage.

The way the car was wired was a battery voltage line directly to this field alternator point.

Thanks again, I hope I am describing this correctly.

- rich

Hey Dave,

Looked at the painless wiring again, and the factory wiring. I think that the battery voltage line going to the alternator field wire, also needs to power the regulator too (in parallel, right?). So the battery voltage has to be shared by the regulator and the alternator field wire?

Painless does not show an external regulator in their diagram, I think that was my mistake. Painless just shows the 914 excitor/batter voltage wire going to one of the field alternator lugs. Then they show a jumper from the second field lug directly to the big lug (black wire). Since I have an external, I am trying to wire it into this model.

Thanks again for the help.

My Painless kit showed that diagram perfectly, I'll see if I can find it and post it up.
It describes making sure the two electronic reg wires stay apart from each other.

Thanks Adrian, I think I found my error. I was powering the regulator with a wire that was the not 914 excitor wire ( I was using the 920 blue, similar to the factory). I see that the alternator and regulator need to be powered by the same wire. Was this my mistake?

Please let me know if this is what you see.

Thanks again Dave and Adrian.

- rich

If you look on page 9 of the install manual you'll see a clear diagram, figure 7-1A.
It clearly shows wire no. 914 from the ign circuit spurring off to one side of the volt reg before going to one if the alt field terminals.
The second slt field terminal has a wire going straight to the other terminal of the volt reg.
No disrepect intended but I'm a little confused as to how you read it any other way in all honesty

Just missed the diagram entirely . Thanks for the fix.

Ahhh that would explain it all then eh?

Yeah, was trying to do from memory, not the best plan.

Thanks again.

SUCCESS! Wow, what a difference, starts and runs much better, no road test yet, but idle is much smoother. 2 - 3 volt increase under the hood, very nice.

Changed out the ballast resistor. Was measuring 1.6 ohms of resistance, swapped in the one with the painless kit which measured .6. Voltage at the coil went from 5.3 up to 9.3. Had another mopar ballast that was "new" but also measured 1.6. Acceptable is .5 - 1.0, right? Any better brand to buy?

Thanks again Adrian and Dave, your help was greatly appreciated.

Literally, everything on the car works, from the horn to the map light, to the courtesy lights, etc!!! Dimmer switch is a little crappy, any way to clean those up? I imagine those are hard to find and $$$$$

Thanks again

- Rich