Proper voltage while cruising

[BanginGears]

Thought it was weird cruising last night. Voltage up to around 15.7
Battery was charged.
Went to 3 different cruises. Car started up fine each time like it had plenty of voltage. But at 10pm last night. Battery was stone dead. Tried jumping it by 2 different cars and no luck.
Had to use another guy's Battery to start mine up.
Then switched it back to get home.
Got home and pulled in to the garage. Turned off the car and the battery was totally dead. Didn't charge.
Battery was about 2 years old.
Any help here.

 

[Ironbuilt]

15.7 is definitely too high. 13.7-14.2 is about right for cruising RPMs, depending on how much amperage draw you have while driving. I am far from a battery expert, but it's possible that a cell went bad. Again, I am NOT an expert on batteries. (Or anything else)

 

[Slap Stick]

I would say the VR went bad and overcharged the battery, killing it.

 

[dadsbee]

Plates went together in the battery and your VR was doing it's damdest to try and charge it back up for you. Did you look at the voltage when you had your buddies good battery hooked up???

 

[Ironbuilt]

Plates went together in the battery

Please explain, I have never heard that before.

 

[dadsbee]

Todays **** batteries with thin plates. He said "battery was charged". If at a really high rate for too long, some batteries will warp a plate shorting out the cell (putting two plates together). If that was the case his battery was telling the VR he only had 10.8V and was doing it's damdest to get it back above 13.

 

[BanginGears]

New battery installed and shows 14.2 with just key on. 14.8 running at idle. As soon as the loud pedal is pushed over 2000rpms, I'm showing 15.7.
Who sells date coded vtage regulators for a 69 dodge

 

[66Satellite47]

Junk battery and probably bad VR. Mechanical regs are a pain

 

[69L48Z27]

I use the solid state VRs, guy sells them on eBay. Bought three so far and no drama.

Also a battery with nothing hooked up should not be resting at 14VDC.

 

[dadsbee]

Dash gauge you're going by??? Put a real volt meter on it please. 14.2 with the key on would be a rarity..

 

[BanginGears]

Dash gauge you're going by??? Put a real volt meter on it please. 14.2 with the key on would be a rarity..

It's a aftermarket volt gauge. Shows 14.2 with new VR with just key on. Not running and a new DEKA battery.
Just put on a aftermarket voltage regulator and showing 14.8 at 35000 rpms.

I think the old VR fried the battery at 15.8 voltage at 3000 for the 20 minute ride.
Maybe I'm wrong but the old battery was new with no miles on it. Wanted to take the car out for a cruise. Been sitting along time.
Thoughts?

 

[Ironbuilt]

14.8 at 35000 rpms

 

[BanginGears]

View attachment 1126585

Lol.....meant 3500 roms. Nice catch

 

[Ironbuilt]

It's a aftermarket volt gauge. Shows 14.2 with new VR with just key on. Not running and a new DEKA battery.
Just put on a aftermarket voltage regulator and showing 14.8 at 35000 rpms.

I think the old VR fried the battery at 15.8 voltage at 3000 for the 20 minute ride.
Maybe I'm wrong but the old battery was new with no miles on it. Wanted to take the car out for a cruise. Been sitting along time.
Thoughts?

14.2 with the key on and NOT running? That's not possible. Like @dadsbee said, time to break out the voltmeter.

 

[BanginGears]

Anyone ever adjust the output on one of these 69 style regulators to bring down the voltage?
I read an article that nearly every one of these regulators are NOT plug and play and all need tweeking.

 

[Nate S]

I’ve adjusted some of the 50’s style mechanical regulators. Every time it helped for a bit but the ultimate reason it needed adjustment was that it was failing. I’d grab a new one at the parts store for now and then go figure out the proper date code unit (find one or create one) and use the parts store one as a backup.

 

[Tman100]

A fully charged resting battery should have 12.6V if you check it after charging that hard could possibly be 14v+… don’t run car and turn on lights for 20s. Shut everything off and check voltage again. Check with a multi meter. Should be closer to 12.6- 12.8
If your still actually charging over 14.7 your over charging. Change the regulator. And new one out of the box should be close but yes sometimes you need to adjust them.

 

[BanginGears]

So I just installed a aftermarket ebay voltage regulator and swapped covers. Cruising the voltage doesn't go over 14.8
Much better than the 16 volt charging from the old regulator.
I couldn't figure out how to take voltage out of the old one.

 

[Tman100]

Perfect! Glad you were able to get that issue addressed!

 

[Ironbuilt]

Now on to the next issue. They never stop in 50 year old toys.