Alternator and electrical basics with a multimeter
1. Put the battery on a charger. Driving around on battery power is running it down. I know, that's obvious. Less commonly recognized is what will happen when the altenator is asked to recharge a battery that is very low. Supplied at 14 volts from the alternator, the battery recharging will draw a lot of current for a relately long period of time. The ammeter will show this, but there is not a lot that can be done about it. if you're ever stuck in this situation, kick the engine down to slow idle as soon as possible. The alternator will max out and help save the reduce eating the wiring and battery.
2. The ammeter always shows discharge because its in the battery feed/charge wire. Even though it says "alternator" on it, it does just what you obderved when the alternator is not working. Schematically the wiring for your '65 looks like this:
Notice where the ammeter is. When the alternator is powering the ignition, headlights, wipers, current will flow directly to those items. The only current that deflects the ammeter is coming from or going to the battery.
3. Photos and Illustrations of the Alternator parts and what they do are here: Identifying Chrysler Alternators (1960-1976)
Rebuilt alternators have a tendency to come with higher draw rotors (field) than original. This is true of both square back and round back. Revised squareback came that way originally. Avoid these if at all possible. Your car was not built to have that many additional amps going through the ignition run circuit. Also the regulators seem to have more difficulty controlling the field.
1. Put the battery on a charger. Driving around on battery power is running it down. I know, that's obvious. Less commonly recognized is what will happen when the altenator is asked to recharge a battery that is very low. Supplied at 14 volts from the alternator, the battery recharging will draw a lot of current for a relately long period of time. The ammeter will show this, but there is not a lot that can be done about it. if you're ever stuck in this situation, kick the engine down to slow idle as soon as possible. The alternator will max out and help save the reduce eating the wiring and battery.
2. The ammeter always shows discharge because its in the battery feed/charge wire. Even though it says "alternator" on it, it does just what you obderved when the alternator is not working. Schematically the wiring for your '65 looks like this:
Notice where the ammeter is. When the alternator is powering the ignition, headlights, wipers, current will flow directly to those items. The only current that deflects the ammeter is coming from or going to the battery.
3. Photos and Illustrations of the Alternator parts and what they do are here: Identifying Chrysler Alternators (1960-1976)
Rebuilt alternators have a tendency to come with higher draw rotors (field) than original. This is true of both square back and round back. Revised squareback came that way originally. Avoid these if at all possible. Your car was not built to have that many additional amps going through the ignition run circuit. Also the regulators seem to have more difficulty controlling the field.
