Charging issues on a ‘64 Valiant...
I agree with 67Dart273.
Lets break it up so maybe it will make sense to you.
Field is short for electro-magnetic field. The rotor has copper windings that are the electromagnet. It turns on when current flows through them. The voltage regulator controls the current by opening and closing the connection, or a middle setting where it lets some current through.
The regulator with the triangular plug opens and closes the connection to ground.
The original regulator opens and controls the power going in. Ground is permanent.
I did a 1 wire Fleet Bypass on the Ammeter.
Don't know what you followed here.
Fleet wiring did not bypass the ammeter.
It split the load before the bulkhead and the battery feed/charge wires went through a grommet.
Bypassed the bulkhead for blue IGN 1 that leads to the ballast.
OK. So the Ign 1 goes through a grommet. That's fine.
I switched the old 2 wire mechanical voltage regulator for a 2 wire electronic one with the triangle plug. Now the voltage with car running is at 12.45. If I turn on high beams, radio, etc, it drops to around 11.95. Now the battery shouldn’t be charging?, but I have been able to start my car 5 times now and run all accessories for ~5 minutes. Before when a regulator fried on me and it wasn’t charging I could only get her to start once after using a battery charger. Appreciate any input.
OK. Now you know the alternator field either must get power from a positive switching regulator, or
the field must get the power from ignition 1 and the second field terminal must go to the triangle of a ground switching regulator.
Before you start the car again, put the battery on slow charge (2 amps if its a manually controlled current).
Even though you can't monitor the charging with the engine running (since there's no ammeter) its bad for the alternator and the battery to be recharging a battery that is very low.
