Hey guys, Other than a bottle of Advil and some yoga stretching, does anyone have any tricks for getting at those voltage regulator 3/8 screws (3) to replace it? Sure, if the hood was off and the engine was removed it'd be easy, LOL. Thanks
Buy the $20 chinese unit and reuse your cover. The mechanical units made today, in my experience, are very unreliable. At least you won’t have to change it more than once. Patrick
It was wide open had to say it.. My 92 caprice heater hose failed on the firewall. My thought no big deal. I went at that thing from every angle possible.. I could get at it with one hand only right or left didn't mater I needed both... Thought about Im just to short.. I get the neighbor girls boyfriend, He drives a POS Toyota figure he knows how to use a wrench and a screwdriver... Plus he's about 2 inches taller than me... Even stretch was stretched to the MAX.. I took him awhile but he got it..
Well, taking off the vacuum reservoir was a big help. The voltage regulator is pretty old (a lot heavier). I popped off the cover to see what's inside. The new one is a lot lighter and solid state I'm guessing. Do I need to replace the canister thing on the side? Is that a capacitor of some sort?
I called Kevin at Quality Power, where I got the new alternator (10dn style), and he said that capacitor is for radio interference and I probably don't need to replace it.
Well, hindsight being 20/20, I may not have had to. Having recently changed over to EFI and added a vacuum pump, I upgraded to a 100 amp alternator (10 dn) due to the electrical demand not being met by my stock (who knows how old) alternator. I purchased a new voltage regulator but didn't put it in yet. I also more recently upgraded my entire cooling system and after that I saw electrical problems right away ... charging WAY too high at 18+ volts. After doing some research, I figured I'd change the voltage regulator. After I replaced it, I noticed that the negative wire for the EFI to the battery had come loose. D'OH. I fixed that too and now all is well. I just took it on a shakedown ride.
I'm keeping that original as a spare. I had no clue they were adjustable. I'm sure my issue was the negative EFI wire and not the VR. Thanks!
Interesting that you went with the 10DN and not a internally regulated alternator. What was your reasoning?
Great question. Basically, I wanted to keep the alternator upgrade as simple as possible. I already knew that I had to upgrade the wiring to handle the increased amperage of the new alternator. So, I wanted to focus on that and not upgrading the wiring AND changing the wiring configuration to "not" use the external VR as well. I did find a great guy that helped understand what I wanted to accomplish and how to do it. Tony Candela at CE Auto Electrical Supply is great. I mapped out my wiring on a spreadsheet (of all things) and we shared a call and used the spreadsheet as a reference. Keith at Quality Power assured me that an external vs internal VR was merely a preference and there was no reliability gain either way. If the external VR goes out, you can change that separately without replacing the whole alternator as with an internally regulated. I guess it all boils down to just a preference. Now that I know more about the wiring I may go with internally regulated next time, who knows?
I personally like the old external VR better system better. The relays are very easier to fix on the side of the road.... Worse case you can allways make a jumper wire long enough for the passenger to make and break contact to charge the system to get you home.
