TheWaterman1000

Alt good. VR in PCM bad... I did the external conversion for my 1994 Dodge Ram2500 4x4 5.9L diesel. Followed all the examples and my voltage hovers around 14.3-14.6 the dash gauge is near the far right white line. Some very slight flashing in the dash, figured this was caused by the reg not being bolted down, it is now... The conversion was not difficult. I hooked up all wiring right. I even did a video to upload to youtube when I edit it. Here's what I did.

1. Tested field by disconnection from back of alt. Left hot off alt connected. Ran two wires to bat, started and connected the wire's to pos and neg of the bat. Voltohm showed over 16.7 volts. Alt good. Also did the electro magnet test on the front pulley also.

2. Ran ign pos from the fuel shut down solenoid plug hot wire, green w/blk strip. Using a manual pull kill now. To regulator and spliced it to one of the field terminal wire. Plugged it into the top pin (12:00) in reg looking at it from the front with the pins at 6o.

3. Wired the next filed wire to the 3:00 pin in the reg. Bolted the reg to the fender between the air box and pass battery. Even tested different ground, alt body, alt braket and the neg post on the pass battery. Voltage can change upwards to 15.5 volts.

Now for the major question from the whole explanation above.

Is it oky to have the voltage at or near 14.3-14.6 ? or do I need to look into
a different reg or there's something else I'm missing? Besides everything else is working fine in the truck. Now to fix the check engine lite.
Thanks;
Dave

patdaly

Pretty sure nominal is 14.35V

I wouldn't get excited.

TheWaterman1000

Thanks patdaly. Just the dash gauge is near the white line on the right, over the 14 volts in the middle. I don't trust it much.

gorms

FWIW, I was having a slight high voltage from an external reg. Turned out the switched 12v source I was using was reading about 1v less then what was at the battery, causing it to over charge a bit. Now I have that wire pulling in a relay, with a tap right off the battery for a reference. Works much better now, never goes above 14.5, was getting up to 15.2 or better at idle. Still pulses a bit at idle, but I think that's just a cheap reg (autozone). Good luck.

TheWaterman1000

Gorms, what type of relay did you use? Call me Mr. paranoid, but the little flashing from the dash, headlights,etc is creeping me out. I'm using the hot wire off the fuel shut down solenoid plug. Since that is controlled via the ign switch and I don't use a solenoid now. I've check and rechecked everything I can think of. Still getting voltage spikes. I would like to calm it down. I even ordered another VR to see if maybe I have a bad one. From what I'm reading. What voltage feed do you need to keep the alt output stable at the high 13.5-14.0volts?

gorms

That's the same wire I was using. Problem is the solenoid draws power (voltage drop, normal) and gives a somewhat lower reading. I then used that as a trigger wire for a standard 30amp lighting relay (4 pin) which pulls in a fused wire (10amp, ext. regulator was drawing 4-5amps when I checked it) right off the positive terminal on drivers side battery. I hope that doesn't sound too complicated, I stink at explaining electrical even though it's my profession.

Standard charging voltage is 13.8-15.3, give or take. My rule of thumb is about 2 volts over sitting battery voltage. I also added a seperate ground from battery to the case of the reg., but like I said it still pulses sometimes at idle. Cheap parts I'd think. Good luck!

infidel

The two external regulators that didn't work and I dealt with just needed a better ground.
I went straight to the battery for it.
Worked both times.

TheWaterman1000

I cleaned everything up and used a two strand power cord from home depot so I wouldn't have wires every where. I was looking at the two squarish terminal on the black box that was connected to the alternator. I notice blue,green and some black wires. I thought the blue would go to the ASD. But when I checked the -F and the +F independently there was not voltage. But when I tested the two together with my vohm meter I notice power, hummm.. Could you wire the two terminals into one wire, then run a single wire to the top pin in the regulator, with the other field wire of course. Would I expect a problem doing this? Right now I'm using the fuel shut down solenoid wire for the pos ign.