[doobie23]

ok first off I have a 52 dodge 1/2 ton truck. been a fun project till recently.
drivetrain:
1987 Chrysler fifth avenue 318,auto tranny,steering column, and wiring. the rearend is out of a 1990 dodge Dakota v8. which is fine.

now here is the issue. it had the leanburn system on it. which is junk. I took all that off got vacuum advance dist., 4barrel intake and quadrajet carb. off a running truck. which I installed and wired up temp to get it running. which runs great.

I bought a universal painless wiring harness. which are gm based. since that's the most common thing.
I wired up turn signal switch, fuel gauge, tails, headlights, all of it.

here is where my problem starts. the ignition side. cannot figure out how to wire up the starting and charging.

on back of alt. they a blk 6 ga wire that run to battery.(assuming it charges batt) then they 2 small screws that need wired to voltage regulator.
on my wiring harness I have alt power (red wire) and alt exciter (white wire) where should these go? do I even need them?

also wiring of the switch. I found the plugs just haven't figured out where what goes.
I looked over factory wiring and seen relay do I need to hook that up?

 

[dana44]

Welcome to the forum. Always nice to see someone doing a good project, these trucks are getting harder and harder to find. Mopar made several different alternators over the years, single field, double field, and no field single wire. Given you are now running the "painless" system, one of two things can fix this part of the solution. Look at the wiring setup on the type of alternator you have, make sure the wires go where they are supposed to to make her charge. I will mention this for the two or double field wire alternators because I ran into this problem several years ago, in that it wires like a normal sigle field wire, but the second field wire goes to the positive side of the coil (in the leanburn system it powers all the different sensors in the intake manifold and then to the positive side of the coil, alleviate everything and go direct to the positive side of the coil and she changes, otherwise she won't). As far as the push button on the floor selonoid to the starter, unless you use that starter and button (it is six volt and is an old style to start with, probably not used at all except for looks), wire in your GM switch and be done with it, save a whole lot of hassle.

Good luck and keep us informed, hope this helped.

 

[doobie23]

ok my alt. has 3 wires. 1) goes to battery 2) is fld (+) and 3) is fld(-). it has voltage regulator. which is wired up run is blue wire goes into voltage regulator then green wire into alt. and the other green wire out to somewhere or its a in from somewhere?

also it has the column out of a Chrysler fifth avenue. I wired in the turn signal switch. and even got the key switch to work with starting it. but as soon as it starts it dies. and read something about the relay. which I don't mind wiring up. just gotta figure that out. and not by the repair book. I understand basic wiring and all just cant figure it out in book. type thing. think I missed a lot of the wiring stuff in school several years ago. like 15 plus yrs. ago.

thanks for the positive feedback on saving the old trucks. this truck is going to be a driver and drive everyday as long as it permits me to. next project is 48 dodge 4door (suicide) original flathead, all complete, and even runs for the low price of 350.00 bucks which is scrap value. saved it from crusher.

 

[dana44]

It almost sounds like the ballast resistor is bad, same symptom. Unless you are running points, you should have the electronic ignition control box, which gets rid of the voltage regulator itself.

 

[doobie23]

well see I tried the whole bad resistor thing. but here is the kicker. I can run a wire from hot to one side of resistor and start it by key. I can manually unhook the wire and she still runs . charges. etc. etc. I thought well not getting enough juice while starting to let it run. as long as the key is to start it would run. but you let it off in run position and it would die. that's why I was thinking starting relay. it would send juice to starter and to other things.
if I knew what alt exciter was and alt power was I could probably hook those up. the alt power has constant power even with key off. the alt exciter only in run position.

this is last item. to do. then I can undo it and clean it up with loom and button that up. and drive it.

 

[dana44]

Don't keep a wire across the ballast resistor (I think that is what you are referencing), because yes, it will run as you said, but it will burn up the electronic ignition system, it is supposed to have 9.6 volts max, jumping it makes it 12-13.4 volts, which will burn it out quickly, so, as you noted, it is a test that proves the ballast resistor is not good, the other is running with the key on because it does bypass it temporarily.

 

[doobie23]

yes as soon as it starts I unhook it. plus I also put a resistor in line. that I was jumping I knew the electronics couldn't handle the voltage. at 5 bucks for a resistor ive learned to keep a couple. they tend to go bad.

I think im going to try to hook up the starter relay. that way I have neutral safety also.