Copy that.

 

Update,
Heading into work after changing alternator , starter switch , and external regulator and battery. First the radio goes out, then blinkers, dash lights dim, and headlights finally fail as well.
Old truck coughed and back fired the last 1/4 mile into parking lot. Charged bat. all day and brought it to a auto-electric shop. Mechanic said he found a bad connection off alternator wire, replaced, and a new regulator. A week later , same thing. Popped the regulator. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!
Went to the autozone site and found a page that said the "primary coil resistance should be between 0.3 and 1. The secondary resistance must be between 8K and 11.5K.
The coil that the idiot "me" put in is an MSD 2 Blaster. Went to MSD site and they say the coil is .7 primary and 4.7k secondary.
I think this is my problem so today I picked up and installed an Accel 8140 coil.
I hope that this fixes it.
I am getting extremely frustrated with this thing after $4500.
and still having problems.
Mike

 

The Autozone check isn't valid for an aftermarket distributor. Those numbers you got off the Autozone site are for a stock distributor. The numbers off MSD's site are only valid for an MSD distributor. You can't compare the two.

 

I have a stock dizzy and duraspark box.

 

Right, but we're talking about the coil. You can't say your MSD coil is wrong because Autozone's site calls for different resistance. You are measuring an aftermarket coil against stock specs. It's like comparing apples to oranges.

 

that has nothing to do with your problem I'm sure.....

 

okay, just getting frustrated and figured that if stock called for a certain resistance that any thing else might fry something down the line somewhere. So, i'll drive her around a while and see if regulator goes bad again.

 

make sure the reg is grounded good and hook up properly, might want to try a different brand if it goes again,

Does the dash have a volt meter or an amp meter and do you keep an eye on it when it's runing???????

 

Could you be a bit more specific when you say the regulator is "cooked?" Does smoke literally come out of it, or does it just test bad, etc. My advice would be to look at your grounds. Measure the resistance between the regulator housing and the negative battery terminal; you don't want much. You need a good clean ground to the block and a good clean ground to the body. Make sure you have ground straps for both. Your lights, regulator, radio...they all have one thing in common: they need the body to be grounded properly.

 

Well said.....most of the time it's a freeken ground........

 

The reg. doesn't actually smoke, just seems to go bad internally for some reason.
She has an alt. meter on dash and it reads fine. just above 12, which is in the center.
It reads fine even after the regulator seems to stop working. I drive a tractor trailer for a living and am in the habit of looking at the gauges constantly. The alt. gauge never varies even when the rpm's change.

When I replaced the regulator the last time I actually took a wire wheel to the fender wall where it mounts and cleaned it up good. When the motor was rebuilt , new cables were used . Maybe one is loose or not making good enough contact? I'll have to check that out. The guy who put the extras around the motor for the engine shop missed alot of little stuff ,like a new "O" ring on the power steering line, and a loose pully bolt, so guess I'll check his grounds as well.

 

Again, please be more specific. What do you mean by go bad? Do you mean that the battery stops charging? Do you mean that you take it in to a shop and it tests bad on the machine? When you just say "go bad," it's not specific enough to pinpoint a problem. Please tell us what the truck is doing that lets you know the regulator is bad. I think you mentioned earlier that your battery is draining. That doesn't specificaly have to be the regulator. It could be the alternator or the wiring. The charging system wiring runs all the way up to the dash, so the problem could be anywhere. It might not even be related to your charging system -- maybe a glovebox light isn't shutting off. I'm concerned that you pulled all of the fuses and your test light still came on.

That's good that you cleaned up the fenderwell for the regulator to mount. But, if there isn't a good ground to the truck's body, the fenderwell-to-regulator connection won't matter much. Try the resistance check I mentioned. If you had someone else put your engine in, this person might have forgotten to put a ground strap between the engine block and the body. Your entire electrical system will then be trying to ground itself through odd places that don't conduct well (motor mounts, body mounts, etc). Look for a ground strap, and again, try the resistance check.

 

Where did you connect the power source for the electric choke? jd

 

If it's pulsing, that could possibly be the regulator jobby for the dash guages. If an '83 has one of those. If not, is the MSD ignition wired to switched 12V?