voltage regulator hide and seek

[devilsbullet]

so i have a 68 510 with an l20b in it. think that either the voltage regulator or the alternator is going bad. bought a regulator, started looking to see how hard it was gonna be to pull out the old one and swap the new one in....and for the life of me i cant find the damned thing. 99% certain its an externally regulated alt, cause as far as my limited research and education tells me i need an ecu to control an internal one, and i dont have one of those. so either a. i'm a blind dumbass. b. my research is wrong. or c. its playing hide and go seek with me, and hiding somewhere i didnt think to look. hoping that its a or c, and that someone can clue me in to where it should/could be. thanks in advance.

[H5WAGON]

They might have a IR Alt. in there...thats why you can't find the regulator. Should be on the passenger side strut tower...Unless the 68 is different.

[thisismatt]

b. Some vehicles do incorporate the voltage regulator in with the ECU, etc, but not on any Datsuns. It should be on the passenger strut tower. Look for a 6 pin/spade connector.

[devilsbullet]

back side of the tower? theres something there, but if thats it than i have a much bigger task ahead of me.

[datzenmike]

On a 510 it's a small box the size of your fist with rounded corners just behind the battery on the passenger side strut tower..

 

It's possible that someone has already converted it to run on an internally regulated alternator and has removed it.

 

 

 

 

 

It's near the battery side. Post a picture.

[devilsbullet]

cant get the pictures off my damned phone. basically theres a dual box with a few wires running into it on the back side of the post, 2 holes that are really far apart on the front(battery) side, and 2 holes lower down on the engine side that may be close enough together to be able to hold the regulator. wish my phone felt like working.

[devilsbullet]

from the looks of things i'm starting to assume its option b. and i have an internally regulated alt. basically for the past 2 weeks the car has randomly (as in a total of 4 times, gets driven every day about 40-50 miles) decided it didnt want to start. it'll kinda half crank, then stop. if its left to sit for 5 or 10 minutes, it'll slowly start to crank over, speed up on the cranking over, and then start. went to o'reillys to have the battery checked thinkin it may be going bad, they said its not charging when its started. but if thats the case it shouldnt be randomly not starting, starting if its left to sit for a minute, or even still have a charge left should it? any ideas cause this is kinda drivin me buggy.

[DanielC]

If you can see the back of the alternator look for some letters by the small "T" terminals. if the letters by the terminal are ""S" and "L" you have an Internally regulated alternator. If the letters are "F" and "N" you have an externally regulated alternator, and you need to keep looking for the voltage regulator.

 

Datsun used a dedicated ground wire for the alternator, it went from the alternator frame to one of the bolts that held the voltage regulator to the inner fender. Even if you have an internally regulated alternator, you still must have this wire in place.

[devilsbullet]

aint gonna be able to look today, since i'm pukin my nuts off, but i will definately check on those letters when i get a chance to. i do seem to remember that ground tho, going directly to where it looked like there may have been a regulator... just hopin that this all doesnt mean my alt's goin bad.

[datzenmike]

Clean your battery terminals and where the ground cable bolts to the head and where the positive cable attaches to the starter.

[devilsbullet]

think i got it fixed. thanks for suggesting the terminals mike, the negative one was dirty and smokin

[ggzilla]

Yep, battery cables are #1 problem.

 

How's your voltage regulator search going?

[devilsbullet]

dont have one. i found where its supposed to be at, have the ground hooked up to the spot, and its got 2 bolt holes and an indent in the right shape. cant read anything on the back of the alt, my head didnt like the contorting i had to do to attempt to see it decently so i stopped trying, but from everything i'm seeing its an internally regulated alt. also had the joy of getting a buncha blank stares from parts house guys today and last night when asking them if they had any equipment to bleed a clutch. half of them acted like they didnt even know what a clutch was...sadness

[datzenmike]

Hydraulic clutches are still around so would have to mark this down to a young inexperienced counterman.

 

I grew up with clutch linkages and levers. I remember my neighbor getting an S10 with a clutch cable! Works like a bicycle hand brake cable. Oh yeah when it stretches there's no adjustment.... just replace it.

[devilsbullet]

actually the young guy was the only one that had any idea what to do (was trying to figure it out in a place where i had no net access). the 5 guys in 3 stores before he jumped in as the 6th person at the 3rd store were all mid 40's-60's, and 2 were managers. hence, sadness. i remember goin down to a place called dustys with my dad when i was like 8 or 9, anyone there could diagnose the most probable causes of almost any problem just by you telling them what was going on, they could narrow it down farther if they came out and spent 5 minutes under the hood. now it seems like most of the guys dont know a hood from a trunk

[ggzilla]

On my VW bug, the hood was the trunk.

 

Shame about the knowledge of those guys. Hydraulic clutch, what?

[devilsbullet]

ya. if you dont know shit about cars, you shouldnt be workin behind the counter at a parts store lol. i wouldnt even apply for a job at one because i know how badly my knowledge is lacking...and yet from my recent experiences i know more than the middle age guys working at them do.(not just this experience, its been a couple now that have left me dumbfounded at the idiocy behind the counter)