Voltage regulator just so you know!

[califkid_66]

Hi Jb
My original vr when operating was making a busing sound and you could see a blue spark it was cycling very fast when battery was full the magnet pulled the points apart when power was low the magnet would let go the points and they would cycle again
 Now 1 I am not trying to adjust my regulator with my ammeter I just noticed that it was going to 30+ amps witch it never did before
2 I know the difference between an alternator and a generator
3 I was using a multimeter to see how many volts my alternator was producing and trying to adjust it
4 the new vr that I used as ignition on one side and the field on the other side to my knowledge that would be positive and so should be the field
On the cover of that regulator there’s a warning it says do not short any terminals with negatives I did ground the box big mistake smoke came from under so I disconnected it afterwards I connected only the ignition and the field I used the multimeter to check the box it had 12 volts positive I put my black lead on batt negative and the red on the box and had 12v
 Now I’m trying to adjust it but since I shorted the wiring under it doesn’t work
 My alternator seems to be ok when there is power to the field it produces power if no power to the field no power
 The only way the new vr  works is if I move the point manually I really screwed it up !
Thanks for taking the time to help me out
Below is the instructions I got with the vr  and it says for alternator

[jbcollier]

Ok, the regulator is toast most likely.  If shorted to ground, it would pass way too much current and toast points/wiring/resistors.  So you are going to have to get another one.

The wiring instructions are pretty clear but you have to remember this regulator was designed to be mounted to a metal body so you need to run a ground wire from a mounting screw to the chassis/engine/battery.

If your ammeter shows high readings but the voltage across the battery is under 15.2v, then something else is drawing current and causing a high reading (sticking window switch, etc). 

[califkid_66]

One thing the the ammeter was on the positive side if there would be something draining the power it would go to negative side
If that vr is supposed to be bolted to metal then it would have been grounded exactly the way I installed it  so there’s only two possibilities
Either the vr was defective from the start or I have a electrical problem in the charging circuit
Funny thing is the reason I decided to get another vr is because my ammeter was showing 30+ amps
But never did before it was always going towards the negative before especially when the fan went on and the new vr does the same goes up to 30+ amp I’m hoping that’s what happens when they go bad and stay on and sends power to the field

[jbcollier]

A voltage regulator doesn’t see amps.  If the voltage across the battery is correct, it’s working as per design and that’s it.

+30 could be due to:  incorrect wiring, bad cell in the battery, fault in things powered off the starter solenoid.

[califkid_66]

I’m gonna go through the whole electrical system I got caught in a rainstorm and the next day the problem started I don’t want to fry another vr
 Also I’m going to test the new vr  that fried to figure out why the part that’s supposed to be negative was positive

[califkid_66]

I know I’m getting annoying with this but I tested the three vr that I have
The original that I took out cause the points were used up the electronic one and the new mechanical one
I put the ground wire from the frame to the bolt holding the vr one at a time
Not connecting ignition tab nor exiter screw
Then I used my multimeter on volts put the red positive lead on the positive of the battery then I put the negative lead on the vr ground wire had 12 volts reading so that’s normal then I put the negative lead on the ignition tab I had 12 volts that means that the ignition tab where I’m supposed to send 12 volts is grounded and is not supposed to be
The electronic one and the new mechanical one were both ground at ignition tab
I tested the original vr the same way and when I touched the ignition tab with the negative lead there was 0 volts
So I’m thinking my electronic one shorted because of heavy rain and the new one was defective I’m waiting on some other vr I will do the same test on them I did test the alternator and there’s no short all the readings are good

[jbcollier]

A digital multimeter can read full volts in quite a few surprising situations.  Switch your meter to ohms.

[califkid_66]

I will when I come back home next week by that time I will have received my spal fan and some vr

[califkid_66]

I think I know why my vr went up in smoke I was looking at the pictures
Of the back of the vr in the first picture is what I ordered if you look at the resistor from ignition tab to field tab it is isolated from the box it is positive the box is negative ground

But when you look at the one I recieved the ignition tab resistor goes to the field but the other resistor is connected directly to the box at one end witch is negative and to the field at the other end so if I put positive into ignition then It’s creating a short in other words I’m sending positive on something that is grounded creating a short look at the pictures the second box doesn’t make sense to me

The wiring diagram shows how to wire it ignition positive field positive to alternator ground box to frame everything done according to diagram so my guess is that’s not the regulator I ordered it’s not like the one in the first picture the one in the first picture would have worked