[saltydog]

Well this car is going to keep me busy, so in Oct I went through 3 voltage regulators before I got a working one, now it's acting up again, but this time it's undercharging. With no accessories on I am getting about 12.5-13v with a high rev, you add the headlight and heater, drops to about 11.8-12v so now my battery was a bit weak.

Now on the hunt for a replacement regulator.....

 

[AceHanlon]

Well this car is going to keep me busy, so in Oct I went through 3 voltage regulators before I got a working one, now it's acting up again, but this time it's undercharging. With no accessories on I am getting about 12.5-13v with a high rev, you add the headlight and heater, drops to about 11.8-12v so now my battery was a bit weak.

Now on the hunt for a replacement regulator.....

Don't they make brand new ones?

 

[saltydog]

Don't they make brand new ones?

Yes they do, but they are junk apparently. The 3 and now 4th one is bad....I have an original one from my old New Yorker that is still good going to my dad's later to pick it up.

 

[AceHanlon]

Yes they do, but they are junk apparently. The 3 and now 4th one is bad....I have an original one from my old New Yorker that is still good going to my dad's later to pick it up.

You would think they could make such a simple item to work properly. I would bite the bullet and buy a new one though. Highest quality one.

 

[chuzz]

Where are you getting those voltage regulators? Please don't tell me at Autozone. Their electrical parts suck. If you can't get an OEM Mopar at a dealership, I'd suggest trying NAPA.

 

[saltydog]

Where are you getting those voltage regulators? Please don't tell me at Autozone. Their electrical parts suck. If you can't get an OEM Mopar at a dealership, I'd suggest trying NAPA.

I have done, NAPA, Amazon, eBay, O'Reilly, RockAuto. They all fail within a few months or they are bad out of the box. Parts are just pain junk these days.

Also I have done the mechanical and electronic versions.

I did some digging and I found a USA based company that specializes in electrical parts for charging systems(Regitar USA) and they seem to have good reviews. So I am waiting on that one to arrive as well, in the meantime the 50+ yr old regulator is working great. Stuff is just not made like it used to be.

 

[chuzz]

If the original works, why are you replacing it? Is it just for aesthetics? If so, will the top off one of the crappy ones interchange with the old one? That way you'd have a new looking one on the one that actually works.

 

[saltydog]

If the original works, why are you replacing it? Is it just for aesthetics? If so, will the top off one of the crappy ones interchange with the old one? That way you'd have a new looking one on the one that actually works.

I should have clarified, the original one took a dump last year and I have been fighting to find a good one. My dad had one that was on my 64 New Yorker and it works so that is what I am using, but as with anything that old I know its time is limited.

 

[saltydog]

Quick question, so my Valiant has been doing pretty good with charging as long as I don't have any accessories on. With no accessories on I am getting about 14.5-14.9V if I run the heater and headlights, getting about 12.7-13.1V.

Is that acceptable charging levels with accessories on?

 

[saltydog]

Well the 5th new Regulator is bad....under charging at about 12.6v.....ugh

 

[ImperialCrown]

This seems hard to believe. If you load the electrical system, does the voltage keep up or drop off?
I would look elsewhere for the cause of the weak charging system.

 

[saltydog]

This seems hard to believe. If you load the electrical system, does the voltage keep up or drop off?
I would look elsewhere for the cause of the weak charging system.

Oddly it keeps up with lights on and the heater on. If I bring up the RPMs I can get almost 13v. Going to put the old style on and see what it does.

 

[68RT]

Oddly it keeps up with lights on and the heater on. If I bring up the RPMs I can get almost 13v. Going to put the old style on and see what it does.

13v as measured where?

 

[saltydog]

13v as measured where?

Measured at the Battery.

So the old regulator I had was not working any longer, but we found another one that my dad had in his stash and it seems to be the best.

With no load, we are getting about 14.5v at the battery and almost 16v at the alternator.

With load(Headlights and heater), we are getting about 13.2v at the battery and almost 13.6v at the alternator.

 

[68RT]

The reason I asked is that the regulator measures closely to the alternator. 14.5 at battery is high. The .4v loss between is a little higher that I like but not that bad. 13.2v with all load on will keep a battery charged unless there is a lot of short trips or idling.

 

[saltydog]

Quick update on the Valiant:

The Charging system has been fine, not one issue so I am happy. Have not had to jump start or charge it once since March.

That said, still have a few little nagging things to handle, the ignition switch is not working all that great, I am losing ignition during cranking, if I wiggle the key around I can get it started. So I have a new switch on order.

Over the summer an oil leak developed and was making a rather big mess. Turned out to be a loose bolt on the valve cover, the very last one on the passenger side of the engine, so oil was running down all over the oil pressure switch. Very messy but glad I found it to be something simple. Not sure why the bolt was so loose, one of life's great mysteries. The other oil leak is the front crank seal, but its more of a seeping and that will be a very labor-intensive repair so I am not in a rush, LOL

Then I need to fix the horn contact in the steering wheel, as you turn the wheel it squeaks very annoyingly but it does work.

Also need to have the radiator resealed, a small pinhole has developed on the upper tank, but not bad enough for concern.

One the last non-essential item, the CD changer decided to no longer read CDs, it changes and spins the CD, but it can not read them any longer. The last time I was using it I noticed it was skipping a bit which was odd, but I did not think much of it as my CD's are 20-30yrs old. I am guessing the optical lens is not focusing any longer, I may try and disassemble it and attempt to repair it, again this is not essential, so I may never get to it. That said, I may buy a compatible replacement as these things are getting harder to find.

In all she has been a happy car this past summer and for being 50+ years old, she is allowed to have some issues

 

[saltydog]

So this weekend I had some extra time so I tackled a few things on the Valiant.

1. New ignition switch, that was not a hard job, however climbing under the dash with my 6'2" body was not fun, then I noted my age as I could not get far away enough to see what I was doing😄 so a few choice words came out. That said, the new switch is installed and wow what a difference! It is tight and has a nice click and now the car starts right up, I have a feeling this has been an issue for much longer than I realized.

2. While I was stuck under the dash, I reinstalled the 4 way flashers, when I installed the new turn signal cancel switch, the wires had to be cut to remove the flasher setup, so took some time and hooked it all back up and it works like a charm. I had kinda forgotten about as it has been 2 years since I fixed the turn signals.

3. Fixed the squeaky horn contact

4. Oil change as a well.

5. Attempted to fix the dome light switch on the driver side, it kinda works now but I am going to have to do some more cleaning, it was soooo rusted.

So a pretty productive weekend

 

[saltydog]

 

[saltydog]

Here is some beauty shots

 

[saltydog]

So this past weekend was interesting, so every once in a while when the Valiant is warm I can hear a bit of rattle on deacceleration. Never could find anything odd, but it was mentioned to check torque converter bolts, well two of them were just loose as can be and at some point where hitting the inspection plate so got that taken care of and just in time as we are getting ready for a car show in Van Nuys this upcoming weekend about 400miles round trip.

While I was snugging up the t-converter bolts, my son was cleaning up the Valiant. Good times