DollyDodge

Thanks all. I have the new spring that goes to the floor board, but I don't have the one that goes from card to the fender. I may try that, and lube as Merle suggests. That second spring looks like a great idea to me. I don't ever remember seeing it on any of the old PH trucks we had though.

Merle, I need to get a better throttle spring, when I let off the gas pedal the rpms stay to high. I thought I had it fixed, but it started sticking again. Normally I make smooth, and quiet, gear changes up and down, drives me nuts when I don't

Glad it is working now, here is another one from the same day. It is a bit longer and has DD coming into Bishop from thesouth and dragging main street.

Merle and Jeff, try it again, it should work. It lets me open it from this forum. Let me know if it works now.

Here is a link to a recent trip in Dolly Dodge, please excuse the gear grinding

Jeff, I will get some videos going someday soon. I have been focusing on getting DD running correctly

Here you go darkrider. I would add more gauges but I didn't want to cut holes in the dash. At one time we had gauges mounted below the gauge cluster mounted in a frame bolted to the bottom of the dash, but it wasn't real easy to read them.

Desotodav, the kick panels I have are just like the ones that came out of my truck, They would looke better for sure if they went to the floor. Darkrider, I put a volt gauge and a vacumm gauge in the radio slot, and had a custom tach built for the speaker hole. I love gauges

Brent, I cut the hole for the dome light. There was now metal strap, just the plastic and the fabric on the center seam. It took qite a bit of measuement to get it in the correct place, at least it took me a while. My door panels didn't have holes for the arm rests either, but I had the old ones to use as a pattern. I sure like the QuietRide products.

This weekend I got the door and kick panels from QuietRide installed. All the interior is now done, except the heater installation, sun visors, and rear view mirror. It looks so cool. As a side not the regulator/charging issue seems to be fixed, she is running like a champ.

I did get the front emblem put on this weekend which is cool

Hi: I will clean the contacts. I pulled the light switch out and looked at the wiring and it looks ok as far as which wire goes to which terminal. I also cleaned it really well before I installed it and it worked well (the switch hadn't been mentioned before). I will look at it again. I also pulled the panel switch and check it. I checked the wiring for the lights, I thought maybe they were shorted somewhere, but I can't find such an issue.

grrrrr.....Things were working well. Drove DD to town (12 miles), pulled the light switch to see how the amps and voltages worked, and poof...the charge stopped working. Went home and parked the old girl (after grocery shopping), when out in the evening started her up, amps were charging. Wanted to see how the lights worked (can't believe how much brighter they were with the generator charging), pulled out of the driveway, and poof....it quite charging. So came home. Next morning (Sunday), checked all the wiring and grounds again everything seems correct. Decided to put a jump wired from the Bat to Arm terminals, and when I did the amps started registering, I pulled the jumper wire off and it continued to work the rest of the day. For sure something is still wrong. Also, when I drove her to town it kept charging, and never shut off, though the volts were at 6. Anyway, here is a link to a video of the gauges when the were all working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adug51J3qr8 Any more thoughts would be appreciated.

Great news, DD seems to be working fine now. I spent all morning doing all the tests you all suggested plus I did all the checks in the manual. Every thing seemed great, except it didn't charge. Grounds were good etc. So I thought, I wonder about hooking the old VR back up, so I took off the new VR and put on the old one, fired DD up and the Ammeter showed a positive charge as I increased rpms, it charges when the lights are on and the rpms are up. It seems good to go. I don't know if the new VR was bad, or in the process of taking everything apart and putting it back together some connection was improved. Anyway, sure is a great feeling. First time in years she has all her parts working and is in soundw mechanical shape. Thanks again for all the help, I learn so much from all of you.

Thanks again to everyone. This weekend I will make a concerted effort to see if I can find the problem. I printed out everything you all wrote. I have a new multimeter (I am not certain my old one was giving good readings), a stack of wires of various gauges and lengths with clips (for jumping), and I ordered terminals to make up ground cables to try that as well. I don't think the new wiring harness itself is a problem. I tested continuity on all wires before I put them on (RIW is really nice stuff, all terminals are soldered not crimped), I suppose the generator could have a lose wire, but I kind of doubt it, but will check; I will make sure all nuts are tight (I redid the heating hoses on my RAM a few weeks ago and everything was great for a few days then I smelled anit freeze, opened the hood and antifreeze was squirting out of one of the hoses - I forgot to tighten the clamp-I know I am prone to miss tightening things My guess is it is a ground issue after reading all the posts. I painted the engine, Generator, generator mount, etc. So I am going to make sure I have metal to metal contact. I checked the ground on the VR yesterday and the mount is grounded but the mounting bolts are not well grounded, I got intermittent conductivity with them and the cab (I didn't clean them before reinstalling, so I will do that as well). It will be a busy weekend.

Hey Merle: Not insulted. I am certain the wiring is correct, but I will check again. I have gone over it a dozen times. Both using the schematics that Rhode Island wiring gave me, and the shop manual. But I will check again. I have been known to mess up even after multiple checks. Mark and Jeff. I did check the wires on the back of ammeter (as that was suggested in the shop manual as well). I even took them both off and connected them together and bypassed the ammeter. It didn't help either. The ammeter (all the gauges) were rebuilt and as far as I know they are in great working order too. The wiring is all new from Rhode Island. I will get this figured out. From my perspective I feel better at least knowing the system worked for a few minutes. We will get it figured. One thing on another note, when I sent the generator to VPW they told me there was a disconnected wire in the generator when they got it. I wonder if the local guy even really checked it for me when he told me it was functioning fine. It is a process learning all this stuff, but DD is near being "healed" up and road worthy. I sure do appreciate all the input you all have given me. As I said above we will get if fixed!

Paul: you were who I was thinking of too who might not like the paint job, but the hood really was getting to be really corroded-it surprised me how bad of shape it had gotten to.

My VR is from Roberts (I think, or maybe I got it from VPW, I forget). I replaced the old Autolite when all this trouble started-I followed the help I got on this forum and it looked like the VR was the problem. Here is the history: after I got the truck all back together every thing was fine except the charging. I replaced the VR, then had the generator checked at a local shop, they said it was fine. I then decided to have both the Generator and Starter (started died on me) rebuilt and VPW. Once they came back and I reinstalled them, the problem of not charging still existed. So that is where we are right now.

Where is a good spot to locate the ground strap from the engine to the frame?

I just had the generator rebuilt. It was doing this before the generator rebuild, which was one of the reason i had the generator rebuilt....grrr, yep I'm going to work on the grounding

Great balls of fire. I am driving home tonight and I start seeing the ammeter jump to positive, then back to 0. Then it went working steady, it came on and had about 10 amps (just guessing) charge, and the voltmeter I installed in her, showed about 6.5 to 7 volts. Way cool if you ask me. At least I now know I either have a wire or ground issue. Amazing a few good bumps in the road made some kind of connection somewhere. I will go through and do the tests suggested today, and put engine grounds on for good measure. I am so happy at least now I knw it can work! Thanks all.

Hey Brent, brand new optima 6 volt

Ulu: I hate to sound ignorant but how do I do a voltage/ammeter check?

tod: I will try that at home tonight. I do not have a ground strap (there wasn't one when I started work on it), but I was thinking this morning that maybe I should do an engine to frame strap. I think I will put one on for good measure anyway.

Well drat, I just tried the polarization Arm to bat term, no help. Drat, drat, and drat.