Hey everyone,

This is my first post on this forum. I have a 94 Dodge Dakota 318. Last night I was driving down the road and I turned on my high beams and they both burned out at the same time. I figured it wasnt too important and probably a fuse(even though I kinda knew high beams werent on a separate fuse). I keep on driving and I noticed my battery gauge was showing much higher then usual and all my lights were dimming and getting brighter every once in a while. Today, I took it to Auto Zone and they checked my Alternator. It was pushing around 15 Volts which is a bit high but not too bad. I took it home then and my dad is an electrician so he hooked a multimeter up to the battery terminals and it was over 20 Volts while Idling. Reving it up took it up even more. It is looking like its my Voltage Regulator which just happens to be part of my SBEC. I was wondering if you had any ideas of what else the problem might be because I dont want to put 300 dollars on a non-returnable Computer when that might not even be the problem. Is it possible it is still my Alternator? Any help would be appreciated

 

Ya the voltage is regulated by the computer, by small amounts up to 15or so.But the alt. still controls the higher voltage above 16 or so.So if the alt.fails It can still put out that kind of voltage. I would replace the alt. First. And you might need to replace the battery, with that high of voltage you could easly fry the battery.

 

thanks for the reploy crazy.....well I took my alternator out and took it to Advance Auto and had them check it - they said it was bad so I got a new one and took it home and put it in......Fire it up.....still runnin at 20 Volts.....its lookin like a computer.....or a trade in....unless you guys have any other ideas????

 

try replacing the battery. i had the same problem about 4 months ago. mine was pushing around 18 and tripping the lights on the dash. i replaced the battery and it took care of the problem and has been fine since. obviously, the alt was bad if they told you it was (even though i dont trust those guys sometimes being an auto tech myself) but try the battery. for 60-70 bucks, its better than a comp or another payment every month.