Un-converting a Powermaster swap

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Jarlaxle

Jarlaxle

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The PO swapped my Duster to a Powermaster-I never liked it, and now, it seems to have failed. Question is essentially: is the charging harness separate, or would re-wiring the whole underwood be necessary?

Factory Amp gauge is already gone.
 
Jarlaxle said:
The PO swapped my Duster to a Powermaster-I never liked it, and now, it seems to have failed. Question is essentially: is the charging harness separate, or would re-wiring the whole underwood be necessary?

Factory Amp gauge is already gone.
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I stand to be corrected here but going back to the original setup shouldn't be that hard.
Here's the setup. Most of the wiring is probably still wrapped up in the harness.



1712867099830.png
 
All you need is a pair of ring terminals for the field wires and the plug for the voltage regulator. The plug is a bit of an odd design, but it's readily available through most parts stores.
 
No ballast resistor, PO installed an MSD Pro-Billet. (Which I'd also like to flush.)
 
I realize this doesn’t solve your issue, but Powermaster makes both 1 wire and factory style Mopar alternators that use an external voltage regulator. It’s a brand, not a style of alternator

I assume you’re talking about a 1 wire alternator, and switching back to one with an external voltage regulator.

Do you have an aftermarket wire harness in the car? Because a lot of them are set up for 1-wire alternators. If you have an aftermarket harness adding an externally regulated alternator might be a very different operation than adding one back into a stock harness that has a one-wire alternator installed into it.
 
72bluNblu said:
I realize this doesn’t solve your issue, but Powermaster makes both 1 wire and factory style Mopar alternators that use an external voltage regulator. It’s a brand, not a style of alternator

I assume you’re talking about a 1 wire alternator, and switching back to one with an external voltage regulator.

Do you have an aftermarket wire harness in the car? Because a lot of them are set up for 1-wire alternators. If you have an aftermarket harness adding an externally regulated alternator might be a very different operation than adding one back into a stock harness that has a one-wire alternator installed into it.
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PO rewired the engine bay and installed the awful 1-wire setup (Powermaster 75191), I'm not sure if it's an aftermarket harness or he did it himself. (I think the latter, going by the receipts I have.) The stock wiring looks fairly simple to redo, if necessary-assuming I cannot find a stock harness.
 
Jarlaxle said:
PO rewired the engine bay and installed the awful 1-wire setup (Powermaster 75191), I'm not sure if it's an aftermarket harness or he did it himself. (I think the latter, going by the receipts I have.) The stock wiring looks fairly simple to redo, if necessary-assuming I cannot find a stock harness.
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Does it still have the factory bulkhead connector? If it does your best bet is probably just to buy a new engine harness and not worry about sorting out all the PO’s shenanigans.

There’s nothing wrong with 1 wire set ups. It does the same thing as the external voltage regulator, the voltage regulator is just internal. And power master alternators are decent too, I have a standard external voltage regulator version on my Challenger that was there for most of the 70k miles on that car. And I had a standard one on my Duster up until I installed a much improved American Autowire harness, which required a 1 wire alternator. So now it runs a 1-wire power master.
 
72bluNblu said:
Does it still have the factory bulkhead connector? If it does your best bet is probably just to buy a new engine harness and not worry about sorting out all the PO’s shenanigans.
Click to expand...

Yes, though the ammeter is long gone.

There’s nothing wrong with 1 wire set ups. It does the same thing as the external voltage regulator, the voltage regulator is just internal. And power master alternators are decent too, I have a standard external voltage regulator version on my Challenger that was there for most of the 70k miles on that car. And I had a standard one on my Duster up until I installed a much improved American Autowire harness, which required a 1 wire alternator. So now it runs a 1-wire power master.
Click to expand...

Mine was awful. Quality is dismal (mine is totally dead after 5 years and <10K miles-local shop that specializes in hot rods will no longer install Powermaster due to quality problems), voltage regulation is awful. Temperature compensation is nil. Also, as I have found, the only fix shrot of rewiring seems to be dropping a few hundred dollars on ANOTHER expensive, poor-quality Powermaster and hoping it will last more than 10,000 miles.
 
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