Hi,

I am new to this forum and hope that you all out there can help. I have a 66 fastback, 289 rebuilt by JMC in national City, and now am beginning to get grease under my own nails.

My problem is that My charging system seems to have gone on the fritz. The alternator/voltage regulator has stoped working. I know that a simple way to test whether the alternator is getting a charge is to run the revs up to about 1500 to 2000 and then see if the alternator is generating a magnetic field. That failed, and the ammeter in the car never really went to the positive when I revved the engine. However, it is not possible to see if the voltage regulator has busted also. So I have ordered a new alternator to replavce the stock one. (a 90 amp three wire from NPD), and a voltage regulator. I replaced the alternator and found no change in the ammeter reading (always discharging under load), and the I replaced the transistor type voltage regulator with an early style repro also from NPD. So first question is , is it ok to replace the solid sate version with the older type? Is there any difference if I use the 90 amp alternator? Assuming that both questions come back ok, then I am having difficulty understanding whether I am getting a charge. When I step on the gas, the ammeter moves to the positive a great deal (the battery is nearly charged). Might there be a problem here I am not seeing causing the ammeter to deflect so far.

Any ehlp would be apprecieted

cheers

 

I recently had a charging problem with my car. One thing that helped steer me in right direction was to take the alternator off and have it tested at autozone. It tested good so I looked elsewhere for the problem. Closer examination of thee alternator was that the wiring was completely screwed up (ground was going to stator and the stator wire was not connected). I then fixed the wiring and the system went to 16 volts. I replaced the regulator with a 9.99 Oreilly one and it works perfect.

 

Hey noob, welcome to the site. It sounds like you have a wiring problem. Give it a visual check then get back to us.

 

Hi all,
thanks for the help.

All is well under the hood for now.

Now if I could only get that one bothersome rattle...

cheers,

 

What was wrong? And, how did you fix the problem? Bad rattle huh? Where is it coming from?