rockfoot

Note to self... do not turn on headlights when the voltmeter is pegged out!!

Richie O

I did the same thing. But I did one better. Once the low beams blew I clicked up to high beem and blew that to. Drove home that night on parking lights. It did not blow any lights other then the headlights. It also blew the covers off the battery and puked acid everywhere.

Machinos

I've been wondering about mine... it seems to work fine (judging by the needle on the voltmeter) when the battery is charged up, but if it's been drained a lot it tends to go up pretty high, then drop down below 12v, then back up again a few seconds later, etc. I just put in a new battery since the previous one was too weak to crank it in cold weather, despite being rated for it. I have no idea how old the previous one was, but if it's possible that overcharging ruined it, I'd like a new regulator. Is it easy to replace?

Rick_Bear

I just replaced my voltage regulator last week after a 300 mile trip south towing the Jeep. I could smell it cooking inside the cab, but only had about 25 miles to my destination and ran it while praying. Volt meter was reading 17 and would lower when off the accelerator. True sign of it being "shot". My 91 has the regulator seperate from the alternator. Nice. Called NAPA and picked one up in the area for $39.00

It's located on the upper part of the firewall towards the hood close to center. Silver box approx. 3" square will a center plug. Had mine out/in in under 10 minutes...Problem solved.

rockfoot

Yea... I with you guys all the way.... Here is the whole story... Two years ago, I converted to the relay system that has both high beams and low beams on at the same time. About 5 months ago, I cranked her up and backed out of the driveway of my sons house, turned on the headlights and they both blew out. I obviously had it on hi-beam... I checked everything, not wanting to believe that I just blew out both headlamps. The alternator voltage looked fine. I finally troubleshot it to the headlights. Went to Advance Auto, bought the new sealed beams and as a precaution, cause I wasn't home yet, an extra set of sealed beams and a new voltage regulator. Installed the sealed beams and new voltage regulator and went home. Drove to Baltimore from Moncks Corner, SC and parked the truck, went to sea from Jan-March. Got off the ship and am coming home and got just over the NC border and saw that my voltage regulator was reading 11 volts. Oh My..... I crank in "advance auto" on my gps and lo and behold..2.7 miles...somebody is looking out for me... I drive to Advance, have the guy check my alternator..he says its shot..$230... I say...wait...give me a new voltage regulator and lets check that first..He did and it worked.. Life is good again... Yesterday, though, it happened... I looked at my voltmeter and it was reading 17+volts...not convinced that I had a problem, I turned on my headlights to see if the voltage would come down... The rest is history. I replaced the V/R and headlights and now have not only a spare set of headlights but a spare regulator, too.

IRoss

wait till you have your dash out and take a look at your bulbs in there...pretty crispy I bet