So, about 3 weeks ago I replaced my alt and volt reg. factory replacement alt and electronic "upgrade" volt reg. Everything has been all dandy and what not until today (maybe Friday evening, that's the last time I drove it) This morning started up fine a couple times then it would no longer start. No power, volt reg smelled bad so replaced it with a mechanical unit (all this while at work by the way) and I now have 14.~ volts. Couple of starts later and BAM, I'm dead again. So I opened up the volt reg and one of the pins has burned off (see picture).





Obviously that thang saw some heat to burn off like that, but this brings us to my question. What is causing my truck to kill these things? Or is this possibly a manufacture defect (on the mech one). I don't think its a defect personally because what are the odds that 2 (same brand bwd) volt regs crap out the same day... Is it possibly a poorly reman alt (diode packs or whatever FUBAR inside of it)?

I need your expertise!! My truck is a huge part of my job, so the longer its down I'm not making money.

Thanks for your time and help!

 

A little more info to add that I've thought of...

When the volt reg was working my alt is charging at 14.~V at only 1K-ish rpm. Is it possible that this alt was rebuilt incorrectly and out putting too many V's at higher rpms causing the damage to the volt reg?

 

It's possible the alternator is leaking AC voltage.

 

One option is to do the 3G upgrade.Depending on what you have.

 

It will do that if the voltage regulator is not grounded well. I went through 2 in a row till i found my ground was loose that i had for it.

 

Think I'm just gonna do the 3g. Put a 3rd regulator (electronic again) and smoked it immediately. Started the truck walked around to the engine bay and smoke was pouring out of it.

 

Once upon a time, you could pretty much count on a reman alternator to have a decent life... maybe less than original but decent. Also count on replacement electrical parts to have a decent life.

That does not seem to be the case any more. Quality of reman on old cores is iffy also the new electrical components are iffy. All that makes it harder to troubleshoot.

14 volts running sounds fine... the range is about 13.5 - 14.5 volts is OK. Why it failed 2 regulators I don't know.

You can pull the alternator and have it tested. Probably a good idea. There could be a harness or ground problem. At least make sure the regulator has a good ground. A separate wire from the scraped clean case of the regulator to the engine block would not hurt as insurance.

That said, it may be time to go beyond the OE system. The "3G Upgrade" is popular for good reason. Another solution, that I have used, is a one wire upgrade based on GM guts in a Ford specific case. The one wire solution bolts right in and uses a good size charge wire from the alternator to starter solenoid and battery. Tape off the factory wires. I used a Summit 100 A alternator with 6 gauge charge wire and 125 amp maxi fuse from NAPA for protection. Works fine.

Another upgrade that really helps is a volt meter on a key switched circuit. With that, you can always see how the charge system is doing. With engine running it should be above 13V and preferably around 14V. The stock ammeter, if that is what you have, is not very helpful to put it mildly.

 

was looking around and saw this conversation would like to know more about the "3G upgrade" thanks

 

So just did this upgrade, charging magnificently... For now at least, since I was burning up voltage regulators, so we'll see how long this alt lasts.

Pretty easy to do as long as you get the right alt from what ever your source may be.

I used this image as my reference...



Also this is a screen shot of a list of alts that seems to work as far as correct alts



I found a different list that claimed 3.8 windstars would work but that was the first one I tried and it was too large.

There are tons of resources as far as additional pictures so just Google anything else you might have questions about.

Hope this helps.