I searched for that ground for the inst cluster. I think I saw it. Looks like a silver strap. It attaches close to your diagram but I can't get to it without taking that cowling off that surrounds the steering column below. Looks easy enuf but my back is killing me for some reason and contorting to mess with that right now isn't in the cards. I'll give it a couple days and go back in.

 

And my Bishko 1993 FSM showed up. Now I have something to read!

Worked with a guy (Bill) about 15 years ago. An inventor, brilliant, yet stupid. Bill could take anything to 90% perfect then leave the last 10% for someone else. He subscribed to, "that's close enough". Anyhow, he was telling me one day that when he and his wife retire for the night they'll lay in bed for an hour before turning out the lights. She'd be watching the boob toob or reading a novel. Bill would read manuals. All kind of manuals. Chemistry, electronics, mechanics, tools, machinery, appliances, name it he had it. Stacks of them. He kept a stack next to his bed and that's what he would read every night. OK, Ralph collects manuals. I get it. And I get reading manuals for fun. Heck, I'll be reading my new FSM in the days to come. But reading them every night before bed? And about stuff that you're highly unlikely to ever use? Maybe that will be the person I turn into. But I'm not there yet.

 

Well, to put a ribbon on this topic, I found my problem to the dancing voltage gauge and flickering lights. At least it appears that way. I'll call it good next time I take the truck out for a drive but sitting in the garage it looks good. I have some silicone adhesive on a rack bellow that had two real small cuts next to each other from when I was bolting in my control arm bushings so I don't want to move the truck till the silicone cures.

I went around the engine compartment and removed, cleaned, and reattached every ground point I could see whether it had anything to do with my problem or not. Satisfied I got as many as I could, I went to close the hood and noticed both field wires to the alternator were off. They had broken off the ring terminals. Obviously, I knocked them off poking around. Got to thinking they should not come off that easy. Anyway, I put new terminals on, reconnected them to the alternator and my gauge quit dancing around. Can't be certain if cleaning my grounds or reconnecting those field terminals was the answer but thinking it was the latter.

So it would seem RalphP's Step One in "All Things Electrical" has bailed me out.

UPDATE: Took truck out for a test drive. Voltage gauge is steady as a rock, no needle dancing, no light flickering. Problem solved.

 

OK, I'm taking the ribbon back off on this thread. In my previous post I outlined some issues that I thought solved the problem. But a week or two later it has reappeared.

I'm addressing this to Hey You because he sorta started me on this path some 20 months ago but I welcome input from anyone.

Brief History: A few months back my dash voltage gauge started dancing around a bit. Headlights and dash lights would flicker a bit. As I described in the previous post I thought I found the culprit. A bad connection at the alternator. I reworked the connection and that seemed to work the next several times I took the truck out (I don't drive much) but the gauge is back to dancing and the lights flickering. I was at Advanced Auto Parts store today picking up some stuff and, while there, I had them throw their fancy scope on my car. They automatically check the battery, starter, and alternator. Results: Battery perfect (it's only 2 months old), starter perfect, alternator perfect. He showed me the ripple graph for the alternator and it was tight as a witch's weenie...only a very minuscule min/max consistent throughout the test. He called it good. So did I.

Soooooooo, this is where Hey You comes into the picture. I replaced my PCM 20 months ago. It arrived with an inoperable voltage regulator. Rather than go back and forth finding a PCM with a functioning voltage regulator, HY suggested bypassing it and installing an external voltage regulator. I liked that idea so that's what I did. I bought an adjustable voltage regulator and after some putzing around I got it working beautifully. Had no problems whatsoever until a few months ago when my gauge and lights started flickering. Now, is this due to the external voltage regulator? I don't know. I'm not ready to blame it, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't highly suspicious of it. After some more research it seems these regulators have somewhat of a checkered history of failing. One thing to point out...when I reworked the connection at the alternator it seemed one of those wires was pretty crispy. Not the insulation but the wire itself. It was brittle and kinda fell apart easily. I had to trim it back a little ways to get viable strands. Heat?

So I'm sitting here wondering what my next step should be. I'm NO electrician not by a long shot. Short of any other ideas, my best guess is to get another voltage regulator. Probably a $60 investment so it's not like it would break the bank.

Thoughts?

I installed a brand new, genuine Mopar headlight switch just three years ago (10,000 miles) so I don't suspect that.

 

Recheck connections, make sure everything is good and tight.

That wire sounds kinda suspicious... if the end of it was crispy, what does the rest of it look like?

Also be sure to check grounds. It *really* sounds like a bad ground somewhere..... but, if it worked great for a while, and now it's not.... I can see how you would suspect the regulator.

 

Good question. I wonder how far back that crispy wire goes too. Gotta say even after I found viable wire I wasn't exactly thrilled with it. Wasn't bright, shiny, and pliable. I did think about replacing the entire wire but the other end disappears into a connector that I'm not familiar with. Low confidence I could rework it. Pix below. Also a link to the regulator I installed. I suppose I could try to splice halfway back to see if there are good strands back there? No?

https://store.alternatorparts.com/hd...ement-kit.aspx

 

Think I would go back just as far as you can trace the wire......

 

That regulator could be bad but I agree it is more likely a bad connection. I’ll try to find some healthy strands in that wire. If that fails I can get another connector and rewire the entire harness. I’m wondering if I crisped those wires when I soldered on the terminals. I’m a crappy solderer. Those should probably be crimp connections anyway with all that vibration.

 

Soldering won't damage the wire. Could damage sensitive electrical components, if you get 'em too hot, but, just soldering on wire connectors shouldn't cause any issues.

 

Then if the soldering didn't crisp the wires, what did? And why wasn't the insulation roached too? Odd.