Mopar Voltage Regulator - Dissected

[SDCoronet]

Hi Guys,

My P-3690732 Mopar conversion voltage regulator gave out on me a few weeks ago after a number of years of faithful service. I replaced it with another one from summit, and as expected, my charging system was back up and running.

Before throwing it out, I decided I should open it up and take a look to see if there were any visible signs of damage (I know nothing about these circuitry gizmos). Internally it looked fine.

This first thing I noticed is that the insulation material is silicone rubber combined with sand. Anybody know why this is used? I expected it to be rubber only.

Secondly, it appears that the circuit board IS grounded to the housing. This surprised me because the case appears to be powder coated or painted in a thick coat - I don't believe it is meant to be grounded. I read on another mopar forum that grounding the case leads to longer life of the unit. Anybody here know for sure?

 

[JimKueneman]

WOW that is some ANCIENT board technology! Thanks for posting this. I would love to have that module....

 

[oldbee]

Always ground the case is my modus operandi!

 

[twecomm]

If it's the ignition ECU module or voltage regulator, it needs a good solid chassis ground. The way they are designed requires it. And yes, both the ECU and regulator internal circuitry is attached to the case. If you don't trust that physical ground connection of the case to cars chassis, run a discrete ground wire from ECU and Regulators case to the master firewall ground.