Ramcharger electrical troubles
Thanks all! I spent about half day on it today. My plan was to bring it in the garage but when I went to start it the battery had 0.0 volts. I left the interior light on. Learned this after hooking up the battery charger. Actually kept tripping the breaker in the charger until I turned off the inside lights. Which led me down the path to look at the lighting circuits. Pulled headlight switch cleaned the terminals and put it back in. Also Found really corroded passengers headlight plug. Cut it back, replaced the wires about 8" into the harness where the wires were not brittle. Added an extra ground wire for that side.
After I did that I tried starting the engine. Nothing with the wheel tilted all the way up. Lowered it down slightly and fired right up. Checked battery voltage and it's not producing. Tried adding a ground to the alternator. No change. Swapped voltage regulator. No change. Swapped to the original alternator and nothing. Swapped to newer regulator and slightly charging 13v. I can pull the field wire off with it running and it sparks and engine changes tone/rpm a little. I am going to get my alternator tested and go from there.
I will say that now the flashers, headlights, brake, and turn signals on they are working as they used to. I am not confident that I found the source of the problem. I still need to replace the fusible links since I ran out of time to work on it. I think I will pull the ignition and headlight switch and replace them as well.
Thanks fellas! I am going to keep at it and hopefully find the source for the problem soon!