63 Polara 500 Voltage Regulator Smoking!

[fmahannah]

Need some electical help here. My 63 Polara 500 with 413 was fine when I first bought it, but one day on the way home from a show the volt meter (aftermarket) and the dash ammeter were bouncing wildly low and high. Next day car would not start, so it must not have been charging.

Bought a Standard VR101 voltage regulator (this is what was in it), swapped it in, jumped the car and everything was fine again for a couple weeks.

Took it to town the other day and noticed low steady voltage around 12, only came up a wee bit at highway speed. Got to the store and would not start. Luckily I carry a jump pack with me all the time.

Just changed out the voltage regulator again with another VR101, started up and was charging close to 14 volts and seemed fine. Bent over the engine compartment and thought I smelled something hot, sure enough there was smoke coming out of the new voltage regulator!!!

Shut everything down and disconnected the battery, but now I am not sure what could be going on. Car is very clean, engine wiring all clean and tight.
Battery is almost new. Alternator appears to be standard type and new as well.

Does anyone here have ideas as to what could cause a new voltage regulator to start smoking? I was very careful not to ground either of the terminals. There is a green wire that connects to the field terminal and two wires on a double spade that connect to the other side. Pretty hard to screw up LOL.

Thanks
Woody

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I found this in the instructions that came with the regulator. Could this be what I am seeing and is it safe to run the car until it stops smoking? I don't want to burn anything up.

"New electro-mechanical regulators may smoke for the first 30 minutes of operation. The resistors under the regulator are varnished to keep windings in place during manufacture. When the regulator is first turned on the varnish burns off occasionally giving off smoke."

 

[fmahannah]

After taking the cover off the regulator and making sure it was not fried I went ahead and started the car back up. It smoked a little for two minutes then stopped and everything seems OK, so maybe it was just varnish burning off.

 

[1966satellite]

Polara 500 pictures

After taking the cover off the regulator and making sure it was not fried I went ahead and started the car back up. It smoked a little for two minutes then stopped and everything seems OK, so maybe it was just varnish burning off.

I'd love to see some pictures of your 63 Polara 500. I owned one back in 1967 & 68. Replaced it with a 68 Coronet R/T.

 

[fmahannah]

Pics of Polara

Not sure if this is the right place to post these but here are some pics of the Polara. I have always been an AMC guy but this Mopar is really growing on me.

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Just FYI the engine is a 413 60 over, not a real 426. Prior owner put the sticker on it for a 426.

 

[440roadrunner]

Start by reading this article:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

Now I don't remember.......did 65 have the dedicated ammeter feed through in the bulkhead? I'll have to look. EDIT. It appears your car should have the dedicated ammeter feed through, so that part of the MAD article you can ignore.

One problem to "keep in the back" of your head is the "in harness welded splice." These HAVE failed in rare instances. First one I found astounded byself and the car owner. This was in a parking lot in San Diego (Navy) in the early 70's. We had by buddy's 69 RR dash torn apart, the harness untaped on my lap. He was going nuts "I wasn't going to get it back together"

Anyhow "some stuff."

Get in the shop manual and perform the field current test. You may have a partially shorted field which is drawing too much current, or you may have a high output alternator. "Back in the day," there was a "heavy duty" regulator for the higher output units. I'm sure that field current is the reason. They can be easily identified, they are nearly square, about as "square" as the normal regulator is long

the jumping meter may be related, or a different problem. "Some stuff" that can cause this

Loose wire junctions anywhere, either in the output circuit (bulkhead connector, ammeter, etc) or in the field circuit

Brushes going bad, worn, sticky, dirty

Problems INSIDE the alternator. Look carefully to get an idea of "where" the brushes are. Run the engine "in the dark" at various RPM and with the heater, etc, turned on. Look at the alternator and see if you see sparking inside that IS NOT coming from the brushes. Sometimes, the stator windings vibrate loose and "sand themselves" the insulation wears off adjacent windings

Last, which may not be related is voltage drop. When you believe you have this fixed, carefully check your voltage at the VR IGN terminal against battery voltage. Do this, key on, "run", engine stopped. You want LESS THAN .3V (3/10 of one volt) difference, and the lower the better.