Almost had a bad day

[dan juhasz]

Went to the car show today. About 40 plus miles each way car runs great. Come home park. After a couple hours I come back out to move it in the garage and no start, just cranks. Give it another try and I see some smoke from the back of the hood. Oh ****, jump out and I have one of those brass battery disconnects with the thumbscrew .
I see the fusible link is fried, I start feeling all the wires on the firewall. I touch the blue lead on the voltage regulator and it’s hot. It’s one of those cheap look alike electronic regulators. I check with an ohm meter and that lug is shorted to ground. I hate these parts. I replaced the fusible link, had an old mopar performance regulator in my stash, hooked it all up and car fired right up.

 

[davek]

Glad you caught it and all is fine.

 

[snakeoil24]

Same here Dan glad it ended ok

 

[Jerry Hall]

Good save!

 

[snakeoil24]

Dan since we are close by if you want to borrow my master tester it’s available

 

[dan juhasz]

Master tester?

 

[snakeoil24]

Yes I have a really cool circuit tester

 

[Fran Blacker]

I put a fuse inline on mine as a member recommend, haven't blown fuse yet.

 

[moparedtn]

I've never had one of those blue Mopar "conversion" regulators go bad. I'd trust it.

 

[91r/t]

I have tried three or four of those eBay units. They’ve all failed on me at one time or another. Most people say you can’t run the original regulator style with the electronic ignition but I’ve been doing it so far with no issues. I feel like at least the original style is still made by a reputable company and pretty durable versus the Chinese pieces of crap that claim to be a solid state but fail all the time.

 

[Fran Blacker]

I've never had one of those blue Mopar "conversion" regulators go bad. I'd trust it.

Just my opinion they seem to be rough on batteries. 3 years and dead. Costco warranty covered 2 of them.

 

[Darter6]

I hate these parts.

New parts quality are crap these days.I bought 4 voltage regulators at one time from Rock Auto because they were about $8 each.
I thought for that price might as well stock some. 3 out of 4 went bad as in all over charged 16+ volts.Number 4 charged at 14.5.
So my regulator cost $32 plus shipping.. I ended up replacing that one with a adjustable. Now I got 13.8 just where I like it.

 

[moparedtn]

Just my opinion they seem to be rough on batteries. 3 years and dead. Costco warranty covered 2 of them.

The "problem" with them is that they're "race only" units and made to work with the alternators of the day
(it holds a steady 13.5V output) back before Ma went electronic with their regulators across the board
in what, like '71-'72?
In previous cars over the years, every time I converted them to electronic ignition (that would have been
all of them), I also changed to this regulator at the same time, meaning they had the "older" alternators
on them as well.
Ironically, one thing I noticed right away on Fred back when I bought him was that the PO had changed over to
electronic ignition - but did so by grabbing it off another car apparently, as it wasn't the kits' harness
and even had the twin ballast on it.
He also had converted to the electronic voltage regulator - another transplant, probably from the same
donor. I think even the alternator was swapped (I don't know enough about them to tell, honestly - it's
got 2 smaller wires to go with the larger, bolted on output one).
It all has worked fine knock wood...