If I understand correctly, everthing was working until you changed the voltage regulator, right? If so, then there is a high probability that your current problem is related to that task. Maybe you blew a fuse, or knocked loose a wire. Perhaps you hooked up something wrong during the installation.
You do need a voltmeter to do some testing.
fierystorm wrote:
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/smile.gif "smile")
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Battery voltage is showing 13.1 right now. The wires are all over the place spliced here and there but I doubt all of them could have gone bad at one time, I hope my luck isn't that bad, but its not looking good for the home team at this point.
Chipmunk222 wrote:
Battery voltage is showing 13.1 right now. The wires are all over the place spliced here and there but I doubt all of them could have gone bad at one time, I hope my luck isn't that bad, but its not looking good for the home team at this point.
fierystorm wrote:
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Battery voltage is showing 13.1 right now. The wires are all over the place spliced here and there but I doubt all of them could have gone bad at one time, I hope my luck isn't that bad, but its not looking good for the home team at this point.
Starting to sound like a blown fusible link.
1970 Explorer Class A on a 1969 Dodge M300 chassis with 318 cu. in. (split year)
1972 Executive Class A on a Dodge M375 chassis with 413 cu. in.
1973 Explorer Class A on a Dodge RM350 (R4) chassis with 318 engine & tranny from 1970 Explorer Class A
TreeSeeker wrote:
Chipmunk,
If I understand correctly, everthing was working until you changed the voltage regulator, right? If so, then there is a high probability that your current problem is related to that task. Maybe you blew a fuse, or knocked loose a wire. Perhaps you hooked up something wrong during the installation.
You do need a voltmeter to do some testing.
Chipmunk,
If I understand correctly, everthing was working until you changed the voltage regulator, right? If so, then there is a high probability that your current problem is related to that task. Maybe you blew a fuse, or knocked loose a wire. Perhaps you hooked up something wrong during the installation.
You do need a voltmeter to do some testing.
I'm pretty sure we didn't hook the regulator up incorrectly because it was just a few screws and to plug the wiring connector back up, that was fairly simple really, well, maybe not so simple since now we have nothing. Problem has progressively gotten worse over 2 days, first we cranking but getting no spark, still had accessories and lights, now we have absolutely nothing, and I'm fairly sure, even if we did hit a wire that it couldn't possibly have caused all these problems, I hope.
Griff in Fairbanks wrote:
Starting to sound like a blown fusible link.
Chipmunk222 wrote:
Battery voltage is showing 13.1 right now. The wires are all over the place spliced here and there but I doubt all of them could have gone bad at one time, I hope my luck isn't that bad, but its not looking good for the home team at this point.
fierystorm wrote:
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Hey everyone! Thank you for your thoughts!
Chipmunk, sounds like Eyeteeth might be right. Have you checked your new battery to make sure it hasn't been drained off? If you have a short somewhere it will drain your battery fast.
If you have a voltage meter, you might want to check out various places along the wiring for anything that looks fishy.
Battery voltage is showing 13.1 right now. The wires are all over the place spliced here and there but I doubt all of them could have gone bad at one time, I hope my luck isn't that bad, but its not looking good for the home team at this point.
Starting to sound like a blown fusible link.
Is there a diagram for finding these fusible links, any idea how many there are?
I had an issue with ignition at the beginning of the year, It started, and ran, then stalled and wouldn't restart. It would crank forever, but wouldn't fire. The ignition was putting out a very weak spark. We replaced the ignition module, (I think maybe my previous unplug and plug of wires was an ignition relay?) and it's run fine since. Neither of those issues resulted in complete loss of power.
The ballast resistor wouldn't do that either.
How far away from the battery can you still get 13.1 volts? I assume (oh dear) you're testing right off the battery terminals. Can you get 13.1 from the positive terminal and grounding off the frame?
There may be other fusible links located elsewhere in your wiring system but the main fusible link is in the main wire leading from the battery to your electrical system. The main wire is either connected to the positive battery clamp or the starter terminal the positive battery cable connects to. (If I recall correctly, the main wire on older Dodges are connected to the starter terminal.)
It's difficult to tell visually if a fusible link has blown. Best way to make sure is to use a voltmeter, ohmmeter, or continuity tester. Eyeteeth's suggestion of using a voltmeter will show a bad ground cable, if you don't get a reading (or a drastically lower reading) between the positive battery post and a good ground, such as the engine block. If you get a good reading, follow the main wire to it's first connection and test between that connection and the known good ground.
If the fusible link is bad, I'd recommend replacing it with an OEM link from a dealer or an equivalent part from a reliable source. Making a custom fusible link is tricky because the replacement has to be the right gauge, alloy, and length.
This is what it looked like when we pulled it, for reference:
![[image]](http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll189/LeeannS24/BadFusibleLink.jpg)
'73 Concord 20' Class A w/Dodge 440 - see profile for photo
I've had two vehicles, one Buick, one Dodge, old school trucks, vintage '75-ish. Both of them had wiring problems like described above, nothing worked, or so it seemed. Turned out that both vehicles had two main fusible links; one link would run everything EXCEPT the headlights, and the other link ran ONLY the headlights.
Short story made long, when I bought each vehicle, each owner said he couldn't get anything electrical working (or so he thought). Call me a scammer, but I bought each vehicle at crazy low prices, knowing that the fix would likely be very simple, and knowing that the seller didn't know what I knew.
Moral of the story...Go thru and try everything electrical, figure out exactly what works and what doesn't work. I think that'll really help in troubleshooting this particular problem. Could be as simple as a fuseible link as described above.
JDG