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blues90
Samba Member
Joined: March 14, 2009
Posts: 1912
Location: Hollywood ,CA
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 Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2019 7:22 pm Post subject: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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The last old style Bosch I had died in 97. I installed one before that when I bought this car in 85 because it was running real rich then it would stop. I happened to have a volt meter on it one day while working on this car and saw every time is started to idle poorly with black smoke the voltage was way down . It still has that red colored card board over that area. When I looked at the regulator is was just rust and I saw quite a few of these red positive battery covers under the rear seat. I was in the process of painting the car and found once I opened the door the floor was full of water , the fresh air fan box drain was plugged.
I replaced it and it made it about 5 years then in 97 they stopped making these and I got a new Bosch electronic reg. For a while now I've had a 5 mA draw traced it down to the regulator, I pulled the Red/white to the fuse box still there then pulled the Red /white from the battery to regulator and it was gone. I noticed the one I installed in 97 at least I think it was 97 could have been 2001 was also made in Mexico same part number and now I have .51 mA draw rather than 5 mA . I seems to have a bit higher voltage running and seems to climb up quicker.
I removed the rear seat bottom so I could get at it better and that left rear plastic heater duct , that thing all of a sudden came free when I tried to pull it off so now I have a chunk of skin missing . I forgot how difficult it was to get at the reg. |
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Mike Fisher
Samba Member
Joined: January 30, 2006
Posts: 18046
Location: Eugene, OR
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| Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:26 pm Post subject: Re: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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I've never had too much trouble removing/installing those bellows behind the front seats but I have drawn blood etc more than once dinking around on my projects. 
I dislocated my finger one time trying to clamp together 6" aluminum sprinkler pipe! 
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blues90
Samba Member
Joined: March 14, 2009
Posts: 1912
Location: Hollywood ,CA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2019 7:07 pm Post subject: Re: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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| Mike Fisher wrote: |
I've never had too much trouble removing/installing those bellows behind the front seats but I have drawn blood etc more than once dinking around on my projects.
I dislocated my finger one time trying to clamp together 6" aluminum sprinkler pipe! |
I haven,t had those out since 85 . I was pulling on the area where the two halves fit and then it suddenly came out . I don't know what I hit probably the seat hinge , it took out a good chuck of my left hand middle finger top of the knuckle just behind the nail. After a few hours the tip felt cold now since it's a scab it kills me to bend that joint .
Next time I'm wearing gloves. |
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blues90
Samba Member
Joined: March 14, 2009
Posts: 1912
Location: Hollywood ,CA
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| Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 5:28 pm Post subject: Re: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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| My old voltage regulator had a 5 mA draw , the new one is .51 mA. Yet the old one was 14.1 V @2,000 RPM the new one is 13.97V @ 2,000 RPM . It's really not much difference . I may need to check if the 2 large spade terminals on the red/white 10 gauge wires are tight enough of the VR terminals . they felt a bit easier to get on or it's just the way it's going to be. Either that or the battery does not need as much of a charge. Seems to me the regulator without any thing turned on always put out the same voltage at a certain RPM. |
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Bobnotch
Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2003
Posts: 23418
Location: Kimball, Mi
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| Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 10:32 am Post subject: Re: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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| blues90 wrote: |
| My old voltage regulator had a 5 mA draw , the new one is .51 mA. Yet the old one was 14.1 V @2,000 RPM the new one is 13.97V @ 2,000 RPM . It's really not much difference . I may need to check if the 2 large spade terminals on the red/white 10 gauge wires are tight enough of the VR terminals . they felt a bit easier to get on or it's just the way it's going to be. Either that or the battery does not need as much of a charge. Seems to me the regulator without any thing turned on always put out the same voltage at a certain RPM. |
Something to keep in mind, you put the battery on the charger after each use to "top it up" again, so it's fully charged when you go to use it again. This means that once the car is started, it only takes a few minutes to get the system back up to a "fully charged" state. Once it reaches that point, the VR dumps the excess voltage as it's not needed to recharge the battery.
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blues90
Samba Member
Joined: March 14, 2009
Posts: 1912
Location: Hollywood ,CA
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| Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2019 8:00 pm Post subject: Re: Replaced my voltage regulator today. |
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| Bobnotch wrote: |
| blues90 wrote: |
| My old voltage regulator had a 5 mA draw , the new one is .51 mA. Yet the old one was 14.1 V @2,000 RPM the new one is 13.97V @ 2,000 RPM . It's really not much difference . I may need to check if the 2 large spade terminals on the red/white 10 gauge wires are tight enough of the VR terminals . they felt a bit easier to get on or it's just the way it's going to be. Either that or the battery does not need as much of a charge. Seems to me the regulator without any thing turned on always put out the same voltage at a certain RPM. |
Something to keep in mind, you put the battery on the charger after each use to "top it up" again, so it's fully charged when you go to use it again. This means that once the car is started, it only takes a few minutes to get the system back up to a "fully charged" state. Once it reaches that point, the VR dumps the excess voltage as it's not needed to recharge the battery. |
Makes sense Bob, sorta wondering why even when it had 12.32 V or 12.6 V with the old regulator it still always showed 14.1 on the DVOM and I always use the same one , plus it showed the same on the VDO Voltmeter.
Maybe the old one had an issue because of the 5 mA draw . I did clean the large spade connectors on the reg today yet didn't start of drive it. It's only 1/4 V lower with the new one it could be anything , as long as it charges then I'll be fine.
My charger when set on the 2 amp mode puts out close to 13.9 V yet it seems to go up and down a bit . the generator has to put out quite a bit more amps and as far as I know the regulator only deals with voltage. Yet more amperage would make a difference on how fast it charges and is in a way related to the voltage because if I set the charger to 12 amp the voltage is near 15.5 Volts which is to much . I realize a charger is not the same thing as the generator and regulator working in the car.
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