ridinregal87 said:
the wire for a fusible link is 4 gauges smaller than the wire it's protecting
Regal charging only sometimes Help please
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the wire for a fusible link is 4 gauges smaller than the wire it's protecting
Repaired the fusible link, started the car, checked voltage, 14.86. Drove to my buddys house about 25 minutes away, checked voltage, 13.5. Hung out, got some dinner, went to leave about 2 hours later, start car check voltage, 13.25, turn on the headlights, drops to 12.5, and slowly decreases by .01 volt until i shut them off, then slowly charges back up, pretty much by .01 volt as well. I'm quite stumped. 14.8-9 seems too high to me, like unregulated. Then after driving, it just slowly goes down. This is gettin out of hand. Thanks for listening.
Do the head lights pulse at all with the car running? If they do, then the alternator probably has a bad rectifier in it. Is the belt nice and snug on the pulley? If its loose, you won't get full output out of the alternator. I dug out my electrical manual and included the charging system diagram and the trouble shooting write up. If you do a lot of your own work on your car, I would suggest getting a set of factory manuals for it. They are really handy and provide way more info than a Haynes or Chilton manual. They come in a set of two books. One is for the mechanical part and the other is the electrical. I got mine for $25.00 off of ebay.
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That is a lovely diagram. Looks just like what I got goin on here, much better than the haynes. I'll have to get those books, because clearly they are better. The headlights do not pulse, they are on steady. The belt is also tight. I have not tested the voltage regulator. Is that the test through the back of the alternator? I was going to take my alt out today and have advance auto test it. It's the second alternator I've installed. I'll also probably have the battery tested, in case I somehow managed to fry that in the process, but I don't think that would be the cause of my issues. I'll do all of this later when I get out of work at 2:30. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Yeah the hole in the back is for the regulator. The way to test it is in the picture with the trouble shooting tips. I would just take it off and take it to a parts store that tests starters and alternators. They can tell you in 30 seconds after the hook it to the load tester if its bad or not.
I didn't get a chance to take the alt to get tested, and now I have band practice, so tomorrow maybe. I did find this out though, my alternator output steadily drops, as I increase rpms, and it seems the faster the engine speed, the quicker it drops, slightly off idle, drops .01-.02V, at what I'm guessing was about 3000rpm, it was droppin in like .05-.1V increments. At idle its pretty much stays at a constant voltage, which today was about 13.5+/-. And I tried to jump the alt, but I have 2 D shaped holes in the back, one really close to the edge of the case, and one a little more inboard on the back. The only other thing I checked was the resistance through the bulb ckt, and noticed that with the key in the run position, if i wiggled it back and forth, just the little play within the run position, the resistance changed. How hard to replace the ign switch, I can get one cheap enough, I wonder if it's worth replacing, seems to be an issue, but maybe the resistance should change, between full contact and partial contact. Thanks you guys.
Your talking about the key switch right? The actual ignation switch is mounted on the steering colmn toward the bottom. There is a metal rod that goes from the key switch to the ignation switch to turn on and start the car. Replacing the key switch isn't that hard. You would have to remove the steering wheel, lock plate, and turn signal switch to get to it. Does the tilt seem floppy or really loose on your car. If it is, you can go a little deeper into the colmn and fix that problem too.
The first think I would do though is get the alternator tested before tearing your steering colmn apart. With it loosing charge as engine rpm increases, it sounds like an internal problem with the alternator.
The first think I would do though is get the alternator tested before tearing your steering colmn apart. With it loosing charge as engine rpm increases, it sounds like an internal problem with the alternator.
Had the alternator tested out of the car, it tested good. In the meantime, my father replaced the alt connector with female spade terminal ends, because he had a sneaking suspicion that the terminals were bad or wires were bad. I had the the alternator retested, after the wiring repair, by my buddy at a ford dealership who has access to their fancy battery/alt/starter tester. It tested good. So, as of the connector repair my father made, I haven't had any issues, but it's only been one day, but in that one day, my blinkers seem to be working better than they ever have, so I'm really hoping there was a faulty connection at the alt connector. It will be a few days before I trust it 100%, and it snowed here yesterday, and that means they're gonna start salting, so I may just be done drivin it for the winter. Well, hopefully it's corrected, because I will be starting my motor swap soon, and I definitely don't want charging issues then. Thanks for the continued effort on this thread, I greatly appreciate everyones help. I'm sure I'll be askin more questions again throughout my engine swap.
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