I wasn't in the truck, firsthand, on either occassion; but, the wife's truck has recently started shooting headlights.

The lights were relayed several months ago.

Also, ever since we got the truck, it has had the typical Dodge voltage pulsing syndrome, where the lights constantly brighten-dim-brighten-dim.

(Also, for some time, we have been waiting on the Big Blue Mopar regulator that hasn't showed yet.)


A couple nights ago, the bright side of BOTH headlights shot at the same time.

The fact that both lights shot at the same time kinda puzzled me; but, since they were the Wagner Halogens that were in the truck when we got it, I thought it not entirely impossible that both could go at once.

I scavenged some bulbs that I had, one halogen, the other old-timey, and installed them.


Tonight, she had the lights on dim, and said the headlights and dash-panel lights were pulsing VERY brightly.

Before she got home, the bright side of the halogen bulb shot.


With the truck idling, lights on or off, I show 15.3-VOLTS at the battery.

Is this excessive ?? What is normal ??

Should I borrow a regulator off of one of the other trucks and see what it does ??


What is the usual failure of a regulator, charge too much or not enough ??


Thanks.

 

After sitting a while = everything cooler, I cranked the engine and checked the volts at the battery; it pegged the hand on my voltage/load tester that goes to 16-Volts; it went past 16 as far as it would go.

When she noticed the crazy-brightness to the lights, the truck also had been sitting for a couple hours.


I noticed the batteries caps were scooting up out of their holes, so I checked the level and couldn't see a drop of fluid, even though the battery shows 13.5-volts and will still sling the engine over.


Just for comparison, I fired up my F-350 and the D-350, both show an even 15-volts at the battery with engine running and everything cool from a long sit.


I robbed the regulator from the D-350 and swapped it onto her truck.


Before I crank it up for a test, I am heading to an all-night store to pick up some distilled water (that someone was supposed to have already got) to re-fill the battery-cells.

 

sounds like you are on the right track. if the lites still pulse in might be a bad diode in the alt. or one of the fields is not working. i would wait to see.

 

Sounds like a regulator. Also, I got in the habit of running a separate ground wire right from the regulator to the engine block. Sometimes the firewall just gives you a bad ground.

Also, several years ago, I ran into a whole bad batch of those regulators in the aftermarket. Had several of them come back failed. Started replacing them with Dodge units only, and never had another problem.

 

I poured a measured 57-ounces of distilled water divided between the six cells; that is 9-1/2 ounces per cell.

I fired it up and checked the voltage; it is now holding a steady 15-volts, same reading as the same regulator on the other truck.

The lights don't seem to pulse nearly so bad as they did and the factory volts gauge doesn't bounce back and forth nearly so crazily.

I just hope it didn't ring the death-bell for the battery.

Now, I gotta rob another headlight from one of the less important trucks to replace the one that shot.

If this keeps up, I will soon have a whole fleet that only have DIMs.





By the way, for what it's worth, the regulator that I removed is a WELLS brand.

The one I borrowed off the D-350 has a Carquest sticker and says Standard Electric.

 

Get you MPP Voltage reg. in there.
If the light still have a pulsation to then(not a cycle dim.....when you heating grid turn on and off)after you replace the Voltage reg.

Grab you jumper cable and hook the -cable form the bat to alt. and See what happens if it still had a problem, jump the + jumper cable directly over to the B+ of the alt and see what happens.

Flash

 

is the voltage pulsing issue a "typical dodge syndrome"? I've had a bunch of gassers, and none of them pulsed.

Is the Big Blue Mopar regulator a constant output unit, (13.5V)?

 

15 volts is still a little hot unless the truck is used mainly for short trips. I'd rather see it in the low 14's or even the high 13's.

The reason it's started popping the headlights is that now the headlights are getting full voltage. Before they were relayed the lousy wiring setup was keeping the voltage down to a safe level.

 

After me working on it half the night, she drove it this morning.

She said the dash-gauge would level out and hold steady, just past the center mark, once the truck is moving, with barely a little back and forth wiggling around at idle, still in gauge center.

I'll retest the voltage output, before I trust it with a forty-five-dollar pair of SilverStars.

I NEVER have voltage-regulator problems with the externally-regulated Fords; has anyone ever tried a Ford style regulator on the Dodge alternator ??

 

I think 15V is way too high for any 12V headlamp.That is 25% more voltage than they are rated at. More voltage=more current=fried headlamps.

 

There's no reason you couldn't wire one up. The field coil doesn't care what brand the regulator is.

 

are the early ford regulators ajustable? and can you still get them.

 

my first and only ford was a 60 Ford pk and it had a adj voltage requlator.
But then again it had a generator thats bigger then our Diesel starters

flash.

 

I checked voltage at the battery on three seperate trucks setting here, all with Cummins, two all stock Dodge and the other with Ford alternator/regulator; according to the analog gauge on my load-testing tester, all three trucks hold a steady 15-volts, within a tenth-volt, at idle.

As soon as I get an opportunity, I will check them again with the digital volt-meter for comparison; my old voltage-tester may be just a little generous in it's reading.

One thing for sure, the needle went crazy when testing her truck with the bad regulator-gone-wild.



If voltage is in fact too high, what can be done about it ??

 

Before we scare anyone off from relaying their lights, let me say that, until the regulator went wild, with two daily/nightly driven trucks, both being on relays for nearly a year, this is the first trouble we have had with blowing the headlights.

At normal relayed voltage, they will last a good long while.