overcharging the battery HELP

I have run a ground loop picking up voltage regulator, spark controller, alternator case, and back to negative battery terminal to get all those devices electrically the same, and to eliminate ant voltage drop.

You should have a heavy ground cable from negative battery terminal to engine block, connections at both ends have to be clean and free of any corrosion, paint build up, and grease. You will need to disconnect these to check them.

There needs to be a ground strap from rear end of head to fire wall, and grounding conductors with good clean connections bonding headlight sockets to car body, and for better performance I have connected lighting grounds into a second grounding loop connected to negative battery terminal.

As for electronic voltage regulators becoming faulty, it happens. I had installed a VR 128 or VR1001, can’t remember which, in my 67 Dart to correct an over charge problem, after a few months it failed. It would peg the amp gage, cause the alternator to whine under full load, than it would snap out of it after several seconds…

Another source of overcharging is powering an electric choke or such high draw device from the ignition circuit, say at the high side of the ballast resistor. This causes the voltage regulator to see a voltage drop in that circuit, and it than regulates the alternator to put out more voltage, which in turn creates an over charge problem that will boil the battery, and burn out lights.

Any resistance device such as an electric choke must be powered by a relay system from the alternator power lug. This will take the heavy load off of the ignition circuit, and the small amount of power it takes to trigger a relay via the ignition circuit won’t disrupt the voltage balance between regulator and alternator.

One more thing, I have installed a power cut off switch at the battery, the one with a green knob Wal-Mart sells for about seven bucks. I don’t trust these old car’s electrical systems, additionally, one can disconnect battery very quickly when visited by the fire gods with the flick of the wrist.