1984 L body 4 door wiring question...no charge

[ATaylorRacing]

So Matchbox burned up wires at last years last race...got it all sorted out. This year I stick in a battery and smoke more.. It will start and everything works but no charging. I removed the alternator and checked it out...good charge.

It MUST be a fusible link? I know that 4 wires go forward from the rear of the car into a rubber roughly V shaped rubber thingy (a bit smaller than a 25 cent coin) and 2 red wires come out. Depending on how you hold it, L to R the wires are: Two greyish, then a red, then a orange. I know that the inner greyish one was a fusible link to the interior because it was replaced late in the 1980s....is one of the others relating to the charging issue? Do the 2 greyish wires go to the red wire exiting the rubber thingy and the other 2 going in come out to the other red wire exiting? Regular grocery items are what you may possible spot on the Food Lion Ad (https://www.weeklyads2.com/food-lion/).

BTW, anyone sell wiring harnesses for these? Under hood is all I need.

Brad P is coming over to help when he can, but it would be nice to have things worked out ahead of time. I will be racing the Cheap Skate today and so far looks like a 90% chance of rain.

Thanks all.

[tryingbe]

1. Is there connectivity from the alternator positive to the battery positive?
2. Is there connectivity from the alternator negative to the battery negative?

Get a multimeter and start from there.

[iTurbo]

I would look at the alternator field wires. They are usually dark green or blue and are made of fusible link I believe. If one of those burns up it will result in no charging.

[TheCanadian007]

Check for continuity as tryingbe said. There's also an external voltage regulator on the firewall that sets the charging system voltage. The alternator field wires connect to the regulator and it toggles ground to the negative field terminal to control charging voltage. These do go bad from time to time and either cause full output (15+ volts) or no output (12v).
http://cgwrr.com/Mopar/Voltage-Regulator/Voltage-Regulator-Diagram.jpg

[ATaylorRacing]

I had replaced the regulator a few days ago and am waiting for a bit warmer and dryer weather later today. I will rewire the fusible links next since this was the general area smoke came from.

[ATaylorRacing]

So yesterday I was in Kokomo, IN and talked a bit to one of my wrenches about a 2.4 efi swap into a non-turbo Neon and remembered that one of his co-workers used to work on the Matchbox back in the early 1990s. I asked him about that junk of rubber thingy that has 4 fusible links going in and 2 red wires out. He said that they all get connected in there...all 4 come out as both red. Got home and cut off the 4 links and 2 red wires...spliced them all back together and....dah dah...it now charges! The wiring looks like absolute hell, so later today I will redo it all in a more permanent state, rather than everything twisted together and held in place with electrical tape...might even wire in some other type of fuses just in case.

[ATaylorRacing]

Drove it to the track yesterday and it ran perfect....not me though...lost by .022 second round (8:30 at night) when weather was cooler...headwind died down...and 200 less feet of altitude....dialed too quick and Matchbox ran what it did all day long...nice and consistent, no mater what other cars do in better conditions. From our first pass in the morning until I lost my ET spread was exactly .05....throw in a couple of test passes last October and the spread was still .05...just as if I never left.