Blowing Headlights ?? Voltage Regulator ??
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 792
Likes: 30
From: Ontario, CANADA
I'd like to share a regulator story,
I had a Kubota tractor that went through regulators at the rate of one a year. (4 years in a row)
I assumed the regulators were low quality and just kept installing new units.
One day I went to start the tractor and it would not start, (one of my new employees had shut down the tractor with the pull cable and left the shutoff
pulled out) the battery died after 4 seconds of cranking.
I charged and tested this ten year old battery and found out it was no good.
What had been happening was this...
The tractor always started easily on the first revolution therefore the battery
didn't need much capacity to get it started. I realized that the battery
must have been junk for all those years, the charging system was working
at maximum all the time trying to charge a bad battery and therefore causing
premature regulator failures.
After the new battery I haven't had any more regulator failures.
I apparently had a bad battery and didn't know it and inadvertently
wrecked a few regulators.
I had a Kubota tractor that went through regulators at the rate of one a year. (4 years in a row)
I assumed the regulators were low quality and just kept installing new units.
One day I went to start the tractor and it would not start, (one of my new employees had shut down the tractor with the pull cable and left the shutoff
pulled out) the battery died after 4 seconds of cranking.
I charged and tested this ten year old battery and found out it was no good.
What had been happening was this...
The tractor always started easily on the first revolution therefore the battery
didn't need much capacity to get it started. I realized that the battery
must have been junk for all those years, the charging system was working
at maximum all the time trying to charge a bad battery and therefore causing
premature regulator failures.
After the new battery I haven't had any more regulator failures.
I apparently had a bad battery and didn't know it and inadvertently
wrecked a few regulators.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 4,449
Likes: 47
From: Calgary, Alberta
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 ??
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 ??
If you are actually charging at 15, the regulator itself may be the problem, a poor ground, or the voltage the regulator is supplied with to sample may be a problem. Make sure the voltage at the regulator is the same as the voltage at the back of the alternator and battery. One of those things will definitely be at fault.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 6,457
Likes: 95
From: KENTUCKY
And he was correct in doing so.
With the shut-down pushed back in = fuel turned on, an accidental nudge, such as getting bumped by another tractor/implement, or simply a bull scratching his hide, can roll-start the engine with NO ONE on board.
Good information on a bad battery eating regulators.
I have numerous seldom-used vehicles around here that, if they don't fire the first couple revolutions, the battery gives it up.
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