i think my voltage regulator is going out.. help diagnosing.

[rabius75]

sometimes, ill be driving my car, and usually at night, ill have my lights on, be cruising, then all of the sudden, they get like, twice as bright, everything in my car is like on super power. my "amp" guage is pegged all the way over until i let off the gas, then it doesnt even go back to normal. whenever i hit the gas, even a little, it pegs itself again, then a few seconds later, sometimes a lot more, it bounces right back to normal and stays there. sometimes it will do it three or four times with 10 minutes. do you know how annoying it is to start coasting in the road waiting for it to go back down with a bunch of people behind you?

i figured it was my voltage regulator starting to act up, but im not sure where it is to have a look at it. and with my f-cking car leaking through the dash, it could be anything in there screwing up!

oh yeah, where can i get new wiper seals, the ones that go around the splined drive for the actual arm, where it meets the filler panel in front of the windshield?

 

[DARTSPORT]

Schumacher Creative Services-Seatle Washington, 206-364-7151, carry the windshield wiper seal kits. The voltage regulator is mounted on the fire wall, usually on the passenger side. Mounted with 2 - 7/16 bolts, the wire is usually held on to the regulator with a wire clip. Hope I helped!!

 

[onehellofadart]

your voltage regulator should be on the fire wall. mine did same thing a few years back. had too replace volt reg and altenator. alt blew when volt reg acted up. you should be able too find wiper gaskets at year one.

 

[rabius75]

well, my car has a new alternator, battery, and battery terminals in it... i guess i should replace the regulator before it kills the alt. too...

 

[onehellofadart]

may be too late. check output of alt.

 

[rabius75]

well, the regulator is NOT on the firewall.. its right above the fender well, and i got a new one today, i paid $12.xx at advance auto, replaced it, seems to have fixed the problem, i havent had any trouble yet, but ive only had it on for about 15 miles.. but hey, in that period of time, id usually experience this oddity about 4-6 times.

i figure i should just piece work the whole electrical system to a new setup. im gonna move all the little boxes to the firewall with some extra wire, too. then i can do all the body work under the hood and paint it. i think im gonna get a new ballast resistor.. and a new coil (hi output of course, more of an upgrade..) and whatever other things i can. i want all the parts to be nice and new looking, not to mention overall it will probably work better.

 

[HawaiiDuster]

When we rewired Chads Duster the other week we relocated all the electrical components into the passenger compartment. The starter relay, voltage regulator, HI-6 box, and coil are all mounted on the inside firewall. Made the engine compartment look really clean. We even rerouted the forward lighting harness so it didn't go through the engine compartment,

 

[rabius75]

i would love to do something like that.
are there limits to how long the wires can be? like too much wire, too much resistance?
i could just put everything behind the dash on the passenger side.. i have to take it off anyway to repair the back where the wipers leak, and paint it.
that doesnt seem like such a hard thing to do either, i mean, buy some color coded wire.. and some wire insulation, i have a soldering iron + a soldering gun...

i think i found my next project cleaning up the engine compartment.
i should degrease as much stuff as i can too, the valve covers leak a little... then i can paint the fender wells a new coat of black.. should spruce it up some.

thanks.