The Fat Girl 86', C30, 3+3, dually, bagged, SFBDed on 22.5"s

I used the factory brown alternator wire and the factory dodge alternator writing. I took the dodge harness off the alt and ran jumpers from the reg but haven't fired it up yet to check it out. I wish I could find a procedure for testing the regulator...

What regulator are you using? The regulator just puts a variable voltage to the field terminals on the alternator. The amount of voltage is determined by the amount of charging that needs to happen to maintain 13.5v (or whatever). 12v across the field terminals will be max charge.

On a '93 dodge the ECM puts 12v on one terminal and less than 12v on the other. For example, if one terminal has 12v and one has 10v, that is effectively 2v.

I used a Chevy external regulator on mine. Chevy's use the case ground as one of their "field terminals". So a chevy regulator just has one field wire that has a variable voltage of 0v-12v.

If you want to test the alternator, then apply 12v to the field terminals. If the alternator doesn't charge with 12v on the field terminals then its bad. I actually ran my alternator with a switch as the "regulator" for a week or so while I was figuring the above out.

I'm running the factory 91 reg. Its getting a signal to the field terminal, its just not limiting it to 13 volts. I saw 18v on my test drive at high rpms. I had to keep the r's low on the way home in fear of blowing up the battery. I have another dodge reg but I don't want to put it in if I have the wiring screwed up. What years did GM run external regs?

sounds like you are getting 12v on the field terminals all the time at the alternator.

check this link out...

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Im not sure exactly when GM switched over to internally regulated alternators. I used one from a '72 Chevy truck.

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Yup that's how I wired it.... Might have to try the new reg I picked up

So the brown gauge wire isn't the one to use to power the reg. After a bunch of messing around I hooked the reg power to the white alt write I was using to power the fuel cut off solinoid. Now I'm getting a solid 14.1v. Also got all the lights working, the shift knob on and the grill installed. As rough as it is I still couldn't resist taking it out for a spin:)

I haven't spent much time in the shop lately but I did get mirrors on, tail lights wired and zip tied to the rear cross member and my shifter knob on. The knob makes the shifter too long so I punch the rear view mirror every time I shift into 1st, 3rd and 6th.

At 5:30am before the car show we decided the bed wasn't going to go on without a knock down drag out fight so I ran without it. Looking at it after, I'm going to raise the front bed floor up 4" to clear the driveshaft and link bars. Last night I started in by sectioning the head board. I sectioned it 3.5" seamed and punched a 1/2" flange and started to plug weld it back together. It was going well till I ran out of wire. With a new roll today I should be back at it soon.


With a forced stop to my welding and it still being early I started working on installing the 5 gauges I want to add to the Fat Girl. I robbed a pyro and boost gauge off of a 6.2 Burban in the yard awhile back. The donor Dodge has a tac and I have dual dial gauges for the bag pressures. The air gauges will go in a panel I made to weld to the top of my switch panel. I got the other three mounted to the dash last night and the boost gauge plumbed. It's only a 15psi gauge so it will only do till I start turning screws. I ordered a 16cm exhaust housing to replace the stock 21cm. When I swap it in I'll drill for the pyro thermocouple.

Here's shots of the current air supply; it's an old fireman's breathing bottle I filled with 1600psi of N2 the other day. It will have to do till the bed goes on and I get the big bottle mounted, then on to OBA somewhere down the list.


I was having problems with the PS. I blew a line on the way to the show and I was having return flow problems so after some research I swapped the tee around. I had the hydro boost return and the steering box returns coming in across from one another then teeing into the reservoir. I read you want the hydro boost to have a straight shot into the res and the steering can come in from the side so I swapped it around. I haven't tried it yet but we shall see if it helps.


I couldn't resist on Tuesday to dive it into work. With tail lights it was closer to legal:)

I wrapped up the headboard and bolted it back in. Then the floor bolted right to it and all I had to do was mark the inner bed sides for the new side holes. So now I have a 4" lift on my front floor. I hope to drop it on tonight and finish the mounting brackets. I'll have to cut the tops off the dually fenders and keep cutting my inner bed sides but I can do that by airing up the bags then dropping to check for clearance.

Incredible build... Just read it all..