Current Draw

[osus86diesel]

Since last weekend there has been something drawing on my batteries and if it sits for about 5 hours the batteries die. This led me to believe that when the glow plug harness was installed we boogered something up, looked there first. Completely unhooked both ends of the harness and the draw was still there... so after a bit of digging and looking, came up with nothing. Noticed yesterday when I went to start it that the voltage regulator was pretty warm to the touch after sitting for about 6 hours.

What could cause this? Is bad battery cables the culprit? Should I get a new regulator or is something else causing it to heat up? (i understand that current generates some heat due to the resistance, so is the draw just going through the regulator causing it to heat up?)

Thanks for any ideas. I am at the end of my rope and it's been a long week not having the truck running

 

[CDX825]

Is it staying warm even after the truck has been shut off?

 

[osus86diesel]

Yes. It ended up being the regulator, now I am just getting new batteries... They didn't like having to be charged multiple times...

 

[dyoung14]

i went threw this same problem before, it turned out to be my alternator which killed my voltegw reguletor which killed my batteries, new alternador and voltage regalator and it solved the problem

 

[osus86diesel]

i already changed the alternator, thinking that coulda been the problem.... so hopefully that did it.

 

[dyoung14]

if you still have the problem after you change the regulator you may have a wiring problem

 

[tbutt130]

I'm new to the diesel life, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious, or recommending something that will not work in these trucks, but in my 69 mustang, I swapped out the alternator and voltage regulator for a 3g alternator from a later model ford product. I was very happy with the results, much more stable voltage, better output at idle/low rpms, and fairly easy, straightforward wiring for the swap. Is this a common or even possible mod for these trucks?

 

[CDX825]

I'm new to the diesel life, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious, or recommending something that will not work in these trucks, but in my 69 mustang, I swapped out the alternator and voltage regulator for a 3g alternator from a later model ford product. I was very happy with the results, much more stable voltage, better output at idle/low rpms, and fairly easy, straightforward wiring for the swap. Is this a common or even possible mod for these trucks?

It sure is and quite a few guys have done it with good results.

 

[tbutt130]

What vehicles do you use as a donor? I used a 3.8l taurus for the mustang.

 

[CDX825]

Can't say for sure as I have never done it myself but the taurus was on of them. I'm pretty sure you can use the same voltage regulator to just need to switch a few wires around.