Is it a bad Voltage Regulator??

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ryanwblandon

ryanwblandon

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Hello all, I have been stuck with a charging issue for over a month now and decided it's time to ask my fellow A-body guru's,

I was driving one day and my car started to pop and buck. So I dropped it into 3rd to get thr RPM's up to clear it up. When I looked down at the ammeter it was drawing power from the battery. I quickly made it home with the engine struggling to stay alive with tons more pops out the exhuast and the car bucking I could barely pull out and coastedd through aboput 10 stop sign to make it home. There it died in the drive way!

I assumed it was an alternater or voltage regulator and maybe the battery. So I changed both Alt and VR propmtly " I wanted to drop the chrome ALT for a more original Alt anyway so I didnt mind the expense" But I still had no luck charging. So I decied to change anything dealing with the charging sytem and checking all the grounds at the VR harnesses etc. while I was at it I replaced. Alt,VR,ECM, Starter relay, new OEM starter&batt cable. Had the battery tested all good. Still NO CHARGE.

I Also went through retraced every wire in the engine bay to make sure no bare or broken wires exsited and that all connection are correct. " I think I can redraw the engine schematics in my sleep now" I also cleaned every bulk head connector and every connector to ensure proper connection. Still nothing :-:)violent1:

I then started pulling the dash apart testing everything. I pulled and disconnected the TAch, Aftermarket radio and guages. Checked all grounds and traced all wires against the schematics to esure all was connected correctly. Still no change.:protest:


So after pulling the dash apart running every test the book could throw at me plus some more I found online. I want back to thinking bad Alt or VR maybe I gt bad new ones as well? I returned a total of 3 Alt. and 2 VR. still nothing. I get no charge!!!!! Until...........
I decide to by pass the ground "green" wire from thr Alt to VR and there I got a jump of 17+ volts at the battery finally a positive charge but more than what I want! So I stopped immediatlely knowing that you should only read 14+. So I recleaned all of the case of VR and insured Is as properly grounded. and reconnected the VR again with no charge? So this time while the engine ran I made a jumper wire from my ground at the VR case/body to the actual ground wire running to my alt. With it plugged in to the VR I touched a bare section of the ground wire I got 17+ again! my question is = is this still a bad VR? and yes all body/batt, body/engine and engine/grounds are present and clean.

I miss driving my car please help!
 
You probably could've saved some time and money if you'd posted here before throwing a ton of parts at the problem.

FIRST WHAT year make model is your car?

SECOND what brand alternator/ regulator you have?

You using the 69/ earlier Mopar system?

the 70/ later Mopar system?

or an aftermarket/ Delco/ Denso/ Ford Studebaker/ surplus aircraft/ I sure as hell don't know??

Pleas explain what you mean by "pass" a wire

WHAT exactly did you do when you used these jumper wires, and exactly where did you connect them?

We'll be glad to help but we are NOT telepathic.
 
In my experience when a voltage regulator goes bad you will see you lights get really bright and volt meter spike. I have had this happen on a couple of cars, but will not affect driving, but can cook wiring and fry a good battery.
 
You're going about it the wrong way. Just replacing parts can be a very expensive way to fix a problem and you may not get there. You need to troubleshoot properly to find the problem and fix it. Tell us what car you have, what charging system you have and leave out other information that is not pertinent so we can help you.
 
How do you know the problem is the charging system?

Last week I had my Wideband Air/Fuel on my car doing some on the road testing.. after driving it for a while, it started running like crap especially at idle..
if I wouldn't have had the air /fuel meter on it, I would have sworn the ignition system was dieing. Popping, spitting, bucking .
But I could see that the left bank was leaning out ( extremely) 19:1 at idle.

Had some crud make it's way into the carb, disassembled, cleaned it with compressed air and all is good in the world again

FYI
 
Sorry guys, :eek:ops:

For those who are NOT telepathic,

I did miss important info about the car I must have missed the manual on how to report this problem on A-bodies web site. "sarcasm for those who missed it"

I know throwing money at it doesn't help but you all need to know what I have tried. If not I get a ton of post to check everything I listed.

1974 Plymouth Duster.
360
4bbl
4speed
NO A/C

It is the original charging system, so 70 and later.

VR currently is a Echlin High Mileage-Napa= no luck with Ac-Delco either.

Alt currently AC-Delco the others were whatever Advance sells.

and for 67Dart273 "Bypass" a means of redirecting the flow of a electric around an appliance through which it would otherwise pass.

I grounded the ALT ground field connection to the body instead of the whire running into the VR, thats when the charging system jumped up to 17 plus volts and stayed there during tests. thats as simple as I can put it.

The bucking and popping has gone away after the day all hell broke lose once I got it home and recharged the battery. I recharged the battery and voltage dropped shortly after and I was drawing power with every minute it ran. I have had the battery tested all good. When I throw the meter on it discharges while running " not a carb issue". I will let it sit for a few days and the battery is at 12.58 volts but onces its running it progressively dropes until it dies.:banghead:
 
ryanwblandon said:
I grounded the ALT ground field connection to the body instead of the whire running into the VR, thats when the charging system jumped up to 17 plus volts and stayed there during tests. thats as simple as I can put it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update

You actually covered a lot of ground with this test and result

You......

showed the alternator is probably good

The charging wire, bulkhead connector, and ammeter circuit are all probably good to the battery

You showed the problem is probably somewhere in the regulator/ regulator wiring.

So now try this:

You want to check the wiring in the regulator circuit

Pull loose the OPPOSITE field wire, the blue, and be sure it is "safe" so as not to short.

Remove the regulator connector and devise a way to short across them, screws, nails, clip lead, etc, and ground the exposed field terminal (blue) on the alternator

Now repeat your run test and see if the alternator "full charges."

If it does, the wiring in the regulator circuit is probably OK

Be sure the regulator is actually grounded.

If it is, and the alternator charges "full output" as before, then either the regulator is bad, or you have a bad connection in the regulator connector.

Yet another check you might make will show the integrity of the ignition feed through the bulkhead. Turn the key to "run" engine off. Measure the voltage at the regulator "IGN" terminal or the feed to the ballast resistor coming from the key. It should read within 1/2 volt or less of the battery.

Another way to check this voltage drop directly, is to put one probe on your battery positive post, the other probe on the "ignition run" feed. Meter should read LESS than 1/2 volt, and that is generous. If it's more, it indicates a voltage drop somewhere in the path to the ignition run feed.

This includes the fuse link, through the bulkhead, through the ammeter circuit, through the igntion switch connector and switch, back out the connector, BACK OUT through the bulkhead on the ignition run wire, to the regulator and ballast, and alternator field. These are all a tap off the same "ignition run" wire.
 
OK guys I do appreciate all of the help you gave. I tried one more voltage regulator and "BAMM" fixed it. So I'm just in time to park it for the winter but that's OK cuz if it wasn't fixed when I put it away it would have bugged me all winter until spring when I pull it out again.

Dart guy - no hard feelings I was very frustrated when I replied.

:burnout::thumrigh:
 
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