Tipidave Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 I recently had cause to measure the voltage charging the battery and was surprised to find that at around 1500 revs and above the voltage measured across the battery terminals was 15.4 volts. It seemed quite stable at these higher revs and dropped to 12.6 volts at idle. Is this normal? Or does it mean that the old style regulator unit is failing in some way? I was expecting to see it top out at around 14.2v Just to make sure that this was not due to excess gas accumulation on either anode or cathode, i left car with headlights on for ten mins and repeated check with the same result. as ever, your collective wisdom on all matters regulator is eagerly anticipated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 Looking in the free to download workshop manual for your car the regulator (type RB106/2) should be set to produce between 16.1 and 16.7 volts at 10ºc (this drops a bit at higher temperatures). Its measured with the regulator output open circuit but shows what the possible voltage can be. To make sure you could test the regulator output as described in the manual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tipidave Posted March 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 Thanks for the prompt reply. For some reason I cannot access the downloads ... get error message resource not found. I will go elsewhere on line to see if I can find the appropriate reference. I have now read the the control box should be adjustable 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 The site is Vitessesteve and its very useful. The regulator is quite a delicate bit of kit to adjust apparently but at least you could take some measurements to see if theres a problem.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 https://www.mgexp.com/phile/3/191288/REPAIRING_THE_STANDARD_RB106.pdf That one's a bit vague on some things; this is from Lucas: https://www.autoelectrics.net/RB106_dynamo_control_box.html And from the Triumph TR guys: http://www.trtriumph.com/Regulator adjustment.pdf So I hope at least one is useful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tipidave Posted March 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 Fantastic... many thanks. I will read and try to understand but probably when I go through the test process (maybe the weekend) I am sure it will start to make sense. Good stuff 👍👍😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johny Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 Your voltage reading does seem to be quite high so worth looking into and also first checking with another meter... The voltage adjustment of the regulator looks quite easy but access to it is usually quite a problem😵 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted March 17, 2021 Report Share Posted March 17, 2021 a word of warning messing with control boxes can easily lead to disaster if you running voltage is too high it will show up with light bulbs blackening from the burning filament often seen on stop and tail/side lights Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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