testing voltage regulator w/multimeter

[Sinister]

anybody know how to test an external voltage
regulator with a multimeter?

[Sinister]

duh, i posted twice sorry guys...

['68OrangeSunshine]

Do you have the Chevy Chassis Service Manual? It's listed in section 6Y, pp 7 thru 18 of the '67 edition. Also Chiltons, Haynes and Clymer's knock-off books cover it too. But if you can't lay your hands on the books, Checker Auto has this device -- looks like a big fluke (but they say it costs 2 grand) that they hook up to your battery terminals. They run a cell check on the batt, then tell you to start, then rev above 1500 RPM, then turn on all lights and accessories -- and it can analyze the charging condition of your system. Tells you if your battery's fried, alternator's bad, diodes burned etc.
Oh yeah, and it's free. Just ask for the electrical system check.
I got off last time without buying a new regulator by disconnecting the wire harnesses at the bulkhead connector and at the ends, running a continuity check on all contacts for shorts to ground, then cleaning all contacting surfaces with emery, sandpaper or file, and zapping the connections with silicone dielectric before reassembly. The system came back up and indicated good charge.

[Gordo]

Attach your multi-meter to the pos and neg of your bat posts, take a reading, should read aprox 12.6V with a fully charged batt, if not charge it up first, now that you have a good batt, fully charged and meter connected, start engine, should read aprox 13.8 to 14.2, if not we need to determine if it's alt or reg at fault, shut down engine, unplug reg, using a jumper wire cross the batt terminal and the field terminal on the plug end and restart engine (keep in mind this bypasses the regulator and is for testing purposes only!) if the alt is good, the voltage reading will climb up to 17 V, this will tell you the alt is good and the voltage reg is bag, if you don't get a 17 V reading your alt is bad.