Ever since I got this 99 stratus (2.4, automagic, electric everything, a/c, no ABS, etc) every time i took it to 5k rpm everything would get super bright on the dash then the tach, speedo, etc would wander and the odo would turn off, slowing the engine down made it go away.

when the headlights are on, they get brighter.

then it started doing it at 4k.

now it's doing it at 3k

if the cruise is engaged when it happens it'll suddenly floor it and it won't let go, ever, i ended up going 100mph because of it once.'

The problem is really mystifying for me, and i was wondering if anybody had any insight, i'd hate to replace the alternator and not fix the problem, any ideas?

 

You need to get and post some voltage readings. That would really help.

 

i don't have a voltmeter but the regulator being stuck "closed" is the only possible explanation for what's going on, i was thinking of doing this:
http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f4/...or-w-pics.html

would that work?

 

okay, so i did an external regulator swap, it's holding a steady 14.5 volts till 3k rpm then it spikes to 18 volts and then climbs like a rocket.

 

i ended up doing the swap like this, is this wrong?

 

Ok, so you did an external regulator. Did you remove the existing field coil wires from the equation or did you jump off them? That would be a parallel ckt. and PCM may be closing ground and completing it. Also i'm not really sure if you can do that successfully with newer generation controllers. That thread you linked was for the old SMECs.

 

i cut the wires from the pcm to the field coil and ran them directly to the regulator.

i had done, one field wire from the field post and one wire to ground, but that blew the pcm fuse, so i did it the way the dodge truck forums said and ran one wire to the field post and one wire to the ign post, as illustrated in that picture, though i don't know how that can work, it seems to be.

now my problem is the same though, but not ALWAYS, if the car's been sitting, i can run it all the way to redline without overvolting, but the longer the car is one and the more stuff i have running the worse the overvolt gets over time, not in terms of magnitude but in terms of where in the rpm range it begins to happen.

somebody had suggested the rectifier is damaged, is this a possibility?

 

Yes, especially if you think it was hooked up wrong at some point.

 

would a damaged rectifier present in the way i've described? i don't want to replace the unit and have the problem keep happening

 

I actually think you need to replace the PCM and abandon the external regulator. To help you any further with your present setup, I would need to be there with my meter and make a bunch of measurements. The older ones were not as dependent on source voltage because it was a simple system. You have multiple modules involved now, all dependent on each other.