Electrical Issue with Spirit R/T

[89FerrariShelby]

Hey Guys,

Appreciate all the help thus far. Hoping to iron this out quick and be able to tear around town suprising people with the speed of the Spirit R/T. =)

In the video below, you will see how far the battery guage dips when I put on the headlights. And as they stay on it just keeps dropping. I'm thinking it is the alternator, but someone mentioned it might just be the ground for the guage pod, but I cant seem to find it. Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can find it. The guage also jumps in time with the turn signal when I take a turn during the day.... hopefully this is a simple fix, as its the only remaining issue I am aware of with the Spirit.

Any help is greatly appreciated as always!

[Turbo Joe]

if you have a volt meter (Fluke or even a craftsman one) test the battery while the car is running and see if you maintain proper voltage 13.8-14.2 range when you turn on lights or what not.. if it drops then the alt. is most likely weak and isn't putting out the charging amperage needed.
Also check the battery to see if it still has proper cranking amperage too with a battery load tester. autozone will usually test your system for you for free.

[89FerrariShelby]

Thanks Joe. Sounds good. I will head down there. It did it before this, but it has been sitting for 10 months and I had to jump it the last two starts.

If anyone can tell me where the ground for the gauge pod is I think that might be the cause of the jumping gauge, but probably not the lack of charging. Might be 2 issues

[iTurbo]

I'm thinking weak alternator. Remove from vehicle and bring to NAPA to have bench tested to rule that out. You could also measure the voltage going to the brushes to see if it is increasing as you turn on more accessories. If I remember right, with no load, you should see about 5v at the brushes (field) terminals. With everything on (load) it should be about 10v.

[89FerrariShelby]

OK.... so I am supposed to be working from home.. but it's July 5th... I don't WANNA!!

Did some diagnostics with the voltmeter, and I'm a bit perplexed.

On the battery....voltage stays constant at 14.8 with or without extra draws.

On the alternator... it's a little difficult to get anything on the terminals with all the hoses in the way....but I was able to get readings of about 5 volts when everything is on, and the volts seem to jump all over the place when the extra draws are off, but it goes as high as 10 and as low as 3, never really staying in one place...

Any chance all of this could just be because of a bad ground for the dash cluster?

[iTurbo]

Possibly a worn out set of brushes in the alternator would be my guess, although when that happened to me, the voltage display in the cluster would go apeshit.

[cordes]

OK.... so I am supposed to be working from home.. but it's July 5th... I don't WANNA!!

Did some diagnostics with the voltmeter, and I'm a bit perplexed.

On the battery....voltage stays constant at 14.8 with or without extra draws.

On the alternator... it's a little difficult to get anything on the terminals with all the hoses in the way....but I was able to get readings of about 5 volts when everything is on, and the volts seem to jump all over the place when the extra draws are off, but it goes as high as 10 and as low as 3, never really staying in one place...

Any chance all of this could just be because of a bad ground for the dash cluster?

http://www.minimopar.net/charging.html