New to the forum. I used search function and did not find this addressed anywhere. I apologize if this has been brought up before.

Long story short - Got a bad voltage regulator on a 2000 Grand Caravan 3.3L. Don't want to pay to replace the PCM just to keep a ten year car running a couple more years, so I bought an external voltage regulator kit. Hooked it up to the field leads of the alternator, but can't find a good ignition wire for keyed power under the hood.

What I've tried:
1. The unit works. When I hold the power wire to the positive terminal on the battery and start it, the multimeter shows 14V, so the battery is getting a good charge from the alternator. Obviously I need to find a good keyed ignition wire for power.

2. On the right side of the fire wall, there is a plug with several wires which get keyed power. I've tried each of these, but they mess things up. When the voltage regulator is connected to these and the car is started, the multimeter on the battery spikes up to 16V and the lights/radio in the car pulsate.

What I need is the physical location of an ignition wire under the hood that would be a good place to splice in the power for the voltage regulator. I'm also consulting wiring diagrams, but to be honest, I suck at reading them. Even when I find a wire on the diagram, finding the physical location on the vehicle is sometimes difficult.

 

Welcome to DF
I looked at the diagrams. And i can't see where you get a switch voltage. Other than the ignition switch.

 

Thanks for taking a look.

I'm going to wire in a relay using the keyed accessory wire going through the firewall to trip the switch. I'll just run a wire with an inline fuse from the relay to the battery.

I'm not an electrical whiz, but I think this should work.

 

when I looked at WD i came up with the same conclusion = no hot in run circuits for you to jump into.
I was thinking youll need a relay as well

 

can anyone send me a wiring diagram on how to hook up and external voltage regulator on a 91 Dodge Ramcharger I'm a little confused on the sites that I've been on I was hooking up the two wires to the back of the alternator what do you do with the one large wire the once I told me to tape it up that is not what is that the wirethat runs from the battery to the alternator?

 

the way I'm understanding this as I should be able to buy everything I needed at O'Reilly Auto Parts

 

Master Tech,

Isn't the dark green/orange wire at the alternator switched battery voltage from the ASD relay? As I understand it, you have full batt voltage at alt any time key is in RUN and the dark green wire to PCM is a pulsed ground to regulate field strength depending on battery temp sensor and load calculations by the PCM.

 

Having the same issues as you the more I read the dumber I seem to be getting..I too get 16V when I hook to different ignition hot wires..Did you have any luck.Mine is a 90 dodge van.Would like details on how you got yours to work....Thanks ..Jon(kwoody101)

 

i have been looking for the last 2 hours on how to hook an external regulator on a 2000 dodge caravan with a 3.3L...can someone point me in the right direction...thanks