voltage regulator

clockwork · August 29, 2009, 07:43:42 AM

I'm on my second voltage regulator in a month that seems to be overcharging and boiling the battery. Once the engine warms up the charge voltage settles to 14.4-14.8 at the battery, does not settle down to a lower voltage and the battery will begin to boil. I never checked the original regulator's voltage, but I cant imagine it was that high w/o problems. I've checked and cleaned all connections at the regulator, alt. and battery. I have not run her for more than 20 minutes at one time to see if she would eventually settle down to the mid 13's but I did fully charge the battery with an automatic charger to holding 12.6v and the regulator still went to the 14's for 20 minutes. Anybody have a similar experience or willing to share what voltages their regulator pumps to the battery?
Thanks for any input,
dave

John Eversoll · August 29, 2009, 09:18:54 PM

Hi there Dave, I had the same thing happen to me when we were driving back from SanDiego about 7 years ago. The idiot gauge was buried to full charge and I had to turn the lights on heater and anything else I could find
Lights ect.. I had the regulator checked and it too was reading high..
So I changed it It worked great for a week and the same thing happened.
I took it to a frien dof mine and he told me that I must have a short in the system. I have how ever never followed up to find out where the short is --- Hope that you can find the problem so I may look in the same area!!!JohnE

clockwork · August 31, 2009, 07:05:08 AM

Hello John;
Was the failure on your Clip or another vehicle? My dash charge indicator never goes very high and settles down quickly even though the voltage stays 14+. I never measured the voltage prior to failure so I'm not sure what it used to be.

mccammonds · August 31, 2009, 11:10:21 AM

Last fall on our trip to the Mississippi river I had an alternator go bad in Fort Smith. Replaced it in Jonesboro. Just east of Ponca City on the way back west the new one stopped charging. Put on a new one in Ponca City. About 100 miles down the road it started charging excessively. Believe me I had on all the electricity things turned on and the amp meter was still laying all the way to the right. Relaced that alternator in Englewood, Kansas last October and have not had any trouble since. I have always thought that on the mopar alternators the voltage regulating was done with a diode in the alternator.

John Eversoll · August 31, 2009, 07:38:45 PM

Hey Clock!!!!! Hey MCC"
Yea the electrical problem is in the rig Needle is burried in the rig
and if you have the dog house on you will eventually smell insulation getting very warm!!!!! on the verge of burning....
I have changed the altinator three times and nothing has helped..
I still have the motor out so if I can get my daughter to help me in the engine
hole I might be able to look up the dash and see if I have any burned wires.
If anything else I just might rewire the thing entirely. :)John E.

Hey there MCC"" I thought that mopar had the regulator in the altinator too but, I found that I have a voltage reg screwed into the fire wall.....go figure..Huh

JerryT · September 11, 2009, 05:48:47 AM

On the back of the alternator there are 3 wires. The big one charges the battery. The two small ones tell it to charge. The two small ones can be interchanged when plugged in. One of the small wires is hot from the key via the voltage regulator. The other one goes to ground thru the voltage regulator. If you power one wire and ground the other one it, will make the alternator full/hard charge. And that's how it works

JerryT

John Eversoll · September 11, 2009, 02:31:49 PM

Ok, I'LL buy that.... But umm what color are the wire when they are to be where they are to be
Probably a stupid question but thought that I would ask...

JerryT · September 11, 2009, 04:21:32 PM

The Dodge's are/were orange and green. Makes no difference which is which when plugged in to the alternator.
JerryT

dboling · September 13, 2009, 06:16:47 AM

I ran into a few mopars that had this voltage regulator problem. First off check your voltage regulator ground to the firewall, a bad ground will burn the voltage regulator out, the symptoms can be mass over charging, low charging or not charging at all.

Next check the green wire that connects from the voltage regulator to the field brush on the alternator, if the wire has a small bare spot grounding to the engine block the charging system will mass overcharge.

Here's a site that has detailed diagrams of the mopar charging circuts.
http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/electrical.html

JerryT · September 13, 2009, 12:14:29 PM

I agree, if the field gets grounded for any reason while the other one has power going to it, it will cause a full charge condition. I have had to jump one field to the battery and connect the other one to ground to "get her home" before. If you do it, turn everything on you can to help use up the power.
JerryT

dboling · September 13, 2009, 01:53:06 PM

Quote from: JerryT on September 13, 2009, 12:14:29 PM
I agree, if the field gets grounded for any reason while the other one has power going to it, it will cause a full charge condition. I have had to jump one field to the battery and connect the other one to ground to "get her home" before. If you do it, turn everything on you can to help use up the power.
JerryT

Be carefull, I've seen alternators spike and blow out everything that was turned on when full grounding the fields

Lot's of time I had to ground out the fields to get home, real pain on GMs.

Rule of thumb, don't turn anything on you care about when running a fully grounded field.

JerryT · September 13, 2009, 06:40:57 PM

I have never had a problem on Mopars but then again I was always careful to run the blower on high, turn on the headlights, turn on the rear defroster, ect. If you run it to long that way you can ruin the battery but I only used it as a "limp home mode" and would charge for a while then unhook it and not charge for a while depending on how full or empty the battery was. Common sense goes a long way and Mopars always had a good ammeter in the dash so you could see your progress in real time. Faced with being stranded or not I always choose not

JerryT

dboling · September 14, 2009, 06:37:30 AM

Quote from: JerryT on September 13, 2009, 06:40:57 PM
I have never had a problem on Mopars but then again I was always careful to run the blower on high, turn on the headlights, turn on the rear defroster, ect. If you run it to long that way you can ruin the battery but I only used it as a "limp home mode" and would charge for a while then unhook it and not charge for a while depending on how full or empty the battery was. Common sense goes a long way and Mopars always had a good ammeter in the dash so you could see your progress in real time. Faced with being stranded or not I always choose not
JerryT

Been there, done that and I agree 100%

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