I am pulling my hair out on this one i really am...... My alternator was shorting itself out and voltage regulator fried so both were repaired and replaced. But when i go to use anything else electrical (brake lights,head lights, reverse lights...) the ammeter dips and the car starts to run rough and wanna die! The battery is fully charged and showing 13.4volts and all connections are clean including bulkhead. So what am I missing here? Thanks

my 1969 charger with the 1971 up alt and reg was running rough well it had a stumble IT was the optima battery it was 4 years old IT would start it but did not have enough for the ignition. put in a new INTERSTATE battery problem solved.. I also put brand new grounds on both cly heads to fire wall . and cleaned all grounds my

That makes sense but my battery is only 7 months old and all my terminals are clean with good grounds, this is why its such a headache.

Any other areas I am over looking that could cause this type of problems?

Sounds to me that it has no amps out of alt. You need both amps & volts. Have it load tested running for both.
Leo

Sounds like either the alt or regulater is not working.

Do you have the original style mechanical VR? If so, was the gap set?

Thanks for the responses guys, actually the old alt was shorting itself out so I got a replacement Alt that was rebuild and bench tested with a new voltage regulator which is a newer solid state unit. Should i bring it back and have it tested again? this was only tuesday that i got it.

Will they test it on the car to see what is going on?

The car barely wants to idle, i dont think i could even bring it there to test it, gonna have to pull it out and bring it.

At idle with no load the car should be charging between 13.6-14.4 volts DC. If the volt meter does not read between 13.6 - 14.4 volts DC the charging system is not working. You will need a volt meter to check this as the ammeter [in the dash] measures current not voltage.

You have not indicated that you checked the voltage while the car was running...

Double check your ground wire from the motor to the body.
Also.
Loose connection at the back of ammeter guage??
Or guage itself is taking a dump??.
When it shorts out completely,yer on foot with nooo power to anything.
Remember that the ignition is powered through the - side of the guage.
Here's a simple test.
Run a jumper wire--with a fusible link- from the BATT stud from the back of the alternator to the BATT stud at the starter relay.
Car should purr like a kitten and ammeter guage should read normal.
This takes a huge load off the ammeter guage.It may not be 100% accurate but will still flicker with the signals,etc.
Should your alternator short out again,the fusible link will pop instead of frying your car.
Hope this helps.
Been there...did the fire extinguisher thing.

Sounds like ammeter or ammeter wiring going south on you here too.

With the engine idling the stud on the alt is showing 14.3 volts, with the headlights on it goes to 13.8, I tried running the wire from the batt stud on the starter relay to the alt stud and it definitely seemed to help out but this is only a test right? I cant leave that wire on the there and drive with it right?

Check the voltage at the batter with the car running. If you get the 14.3 then the charging system is working.Are you sure the battery is good? New doesn't mean good. Have it load checked at the parts store.

Yea its 14volts at the batt when the car is running and i actually work at a marine parts store and tested the battery at work and it all checked out %100 health.

How can i pull the gauge cluster to inspect the back of the ammeter gauge? Because honestly thats the only other place i have not checked yet.

O okay than i guess i can try it like this for a little until the next problem rears its head. I have some 10 gauge wire on it now but could i get away with 12 gauge? only because i have a spare inline fuse for 12AWG wire.

Bulkhead connector contacts clean?