I need some help with charging my battery. Recently I noticed my battery is not getting charged. I have an alternator that has the positive terminal and the field wire going to the voltage regulator on the firewall. I thought the alternator was bad so I took it off and took it to the parts store and had it tested and they said it failed the test, so I bought a new one. Slapped it on today all excited to think I would have a charging mechanism for my battery again only to find out I'm not getting any help at the battery. When I put the volt meter on the battery, it showed 10.39 volts.
I recently installed a HEI distributor and put a tach in the truck. I don't know if maybe the way that is wired is fouling it up. The hot wire for the tach from the distributor is piggy backing on the wire coming from the ignition side of the voltage regulator on the firewall. On the voltage regulator, it says "do not ground." I don't think I have it grounded. It has a VR32 voltage regulator. Could it have gone bad and keep the battery from getting charged? My amp meter on the dash shows on the negative side when the truck is running. Anyone have any ideas? I have a 1949 Chevy pickup with 235 engine pretty much all stock.
