I have a 70 SS with a 396 and I've changed my alternator, voltage regulator, and condensors, but can't seem to keep a charge on my battery, it's a diehard and it's new. I've checked the wires that run off the alternator and the starter and nothing seems to be grounding on anything, but my gen light won't shut off and if I keep my car running for more then ten minutes my battery will die. Any advice? I'm wondering if changing out the wirring harness is my best bet?

I wouldn't change out the harness. That is a very drastic thing to do. You need to take out fuses and disconnect things (like the alternator) until you see the current stop draining from the battery. You can do this with a current meter like a Digital voltmeter. Harbor freight or Radio Shack sells them, but in general they only go to 10A.

You can also get an amp clamp type probe that goes around the wires from the battery and it will tell you how much current is flowing in the wire. The wire that has more than 30 miiliamps (0.030A) is the one you have to trace to the problem. Amp clamps generally have more measuring range so you can go beyond 10A. I believe Harbor Frieght has these too.

I use Fluke, Agilent or Tektronix DVMs because they are high quality instruments that will last 20 years or more, are calibrated and made by American companies. The Harbor Freight and Radio Shack ones are not calibrated, but they are close in their readings, cheap but made in China by Companies you never heard of and my already be out of business. For 3 to 5 dollars what do you want?

Ron

Ron

Thanks I'll give that a try. I forgot to mention that the person who had the car before me has jerry rigged the wires beyond recognition so i've had wires melt and smoke. I was using the windshield wippers one day and the motor to the blades was smoking pretty bad so I had to disconnect the power to the motor, and that's why I was considdering going with a painless wirring harness and just replacing everything, but if I can keep the battery to hold a charge I'd just do that for now.

Oh, then I take it back. If you can"t follow the wires properly in the car you can't fix it very easily, it generally takes more time to fix, piece by piece. It may be better to replace the entire harness especially if it has been burned in more than one place.

You don't want a fire after you put a lot of work into your car.

Ron

If you have burnt up wires already, I would go with the Painless. I used Painless in my Elky, I think the hardest part was taking out the old wire, but the new one was so much better, color coded with fuse block, and spare slots for acc.


64 ElCamino
68 Buick Riviera
84 Corvette
04 GMC 2500
02 Solan (texas) rollback 18'

This may not be what you want but ypu can get a one wire alternator and install it, NAPA part number 2134013. You simply install this part inplace of your original alternator, run a large 10 gauge or 8 gauge wire to the positive post on the battery from the only post on the back of the alternator and your in buiness. This set up will leave the charge light on in the dash but you can wire that off later. This set up is internally regulated and self exciting. If you want more infor on how this works I can tell you, I did this on a car with wiring problems and it worked great,

You don't have a battery drain problem, you have an alternator not charging problem. Although I personally am not a fan of the one wire alternator, I think Jason's recommendation for the one wire alternator in your case is right on. The one wire will eliminate the hassle YOU are having with the external regulator and associated wiring.
I would however run the main wire from the alternator to a distribution bus or the horn relay bus, whichever is being used in your case. Then a smaller wire size connects the bus and the positive of the battery.
The mentality here is that the alternator should provide power to the load and a portion shall be supplied to recharge the battery after starting.
Squido

The car had that done to it and I changed it back to the original alternator with external regulator thinking the wires had been crossed somewhere and that's why I was loosing power, but no luck the alternator won't hold a charge.

Do you have a digital multimeter or a meter that you can use to test voltage with some degree of accuracy?
Do you have any idea if the wires connected to the alternator and the voltage regulator are hooked up correctly?
At the very top of the page click on TECH, then technical series, then sceoll down to alternator changes or change outs. Most of the colors of the wires depicted in the drawings should be the same as yours. Check the wires on the alternator and the regulator are the right colors on the right terminals.
Squido try this link. http://www.chevelles.com/techref/ftecref14.html

In general the chargeing works a follows :

Wire 1 from (-) battery_________________________________ ***
Wire 2 (-) output on gen______________________________/ \_ (-) LAMP lits
Wire 3 (+) Ignition power_______________________________/--(+)****

Wire 2 is to be connected to Wire 1 just an inch before wire 1 connects
to the lamp. So now the lamp will light when ignition is on, engine of and

no crank.

Starting up the engine makes the generator to produce energy / power,
and what happens is that wire 2 connected to the generator and attatched
to Wire 1 just before the lamp, (with ignition on but engine NOT running),
now becomes (+) positiv.
So with (+) positiv power on both sides will turn of the lamp.

Wire 1 from (-) battery_________________________________
Wire 2 (-) --->(+)output on gen_______________________/ \_(+) LAMP dont lit
Wire 3 (+) Ignition power_______________________________/--(+)

If you have the schematic steps abowe in mind, it is a lot easier to come
to the right conclusion how to repair the system.

I have the wires hooked up right now, and i'm getting a multi meter put on it tomorrow to see if i'm running 12 amps. I also started it today, and the gen light was still on, and the ground wire off the neg post grounded to the fender well started to smoke and melted pretty good.

Sorry about me not being :( clear enought to make it work for you. My explination was in general, how to think when trying to solve the problem.

Since the relay is not built in the alternator as in todays cars, you have to take the incomeing 12 V thats will make the ch. lamp on the panel to black out from the chargeing relay.
It is the relay that do the "thinking" so do not connect directly to the alternator. The alternator only has one mission, That is to produce power all the time WITHOUT thinking. On the relay that is the smart one. The alternator is only doeing the dirty work. On the relay there are 4 connections and one of them are supposed be ground / negative when engine / alternator is off. Once starting the engine, one of the connections on the relay are suposed to get + positiv. This is the connection that will make the lamp n the panel not to turn red
The relay is constructed to handle the currenprtiont being produced, just to portion it to make the lamp on the panel not to light.

all vehicle charging systems are based on the "GENERATOR." newer ones are internally regulated and the older ones externally regulated. ALTERNATORS can only be found on chrysler products, as it is a copyrighted trade mark of their system.
sorry..... just tired and feeling cranky