Oreillys sold me a voltage regulator to go with my replacement altenator, I cant find the voltage regulator on the van. Any help?
Does it even have a separate regulator?

 

I believe they are usually on the firewall.

You can try following the 2 smaller wires leading from the alternator.

Starting 88 or 89 the VR is internal to the engine computer. This did not stop Kragen from trying to sell me an external voltage regulator for my '89.

There have been many reports of poor quality external VR's coming to the market.

Make sure the battery is disconnected and the VR is nicely grounded the firewall before attaching the connector and re connecting the battery.


Did you have the old alternator tested? There are fusible links behind the brake booster which can fail and lead you to believe the alternator or voltage regulator has failed. Fusible links are lengths of wire with fireproof insulation that are like slow blow fuses. They can corrode from within, and give intermittent connection, or only fail when the battery asks for a lot of amps, and can test fine under no load. This is a good possibility on an '85.

 

I should have added the cruise control also is not working. The wires all go into a loom and are difficult to trace. If there is a vr on the firewall it has a different plug configuration than the replacement one. The bearings were going out on the old alt but i did not test it.