VTii V6 alternator regulator dead, stuck in nowra - dodgying in another regulator?

[Rendrag]

Hey Folks,

We're down in Nowra visiting friends for the weekend, supposed to be heading home to wyong tommorrow.. Got up this morning and went to go for a drive, and the battery light was on.. No probs, seen that many times over the last 10 years of owning commodores.. Went straight down to autobarn (google maps didn't show me there was a supercheap and autopro right next to it ), pulled the reg out of the alternator, and sure enough, the brushes were pretty darned short.. Bought me some new brushes, and a 12V soldering iron (first trip without my toolbox in the car!), and replaced the brushes, put it all back together, and battery light is still on..

'Ok, so Ill just turn everything off and we should be good to make the 4hr drive home, it's not like the ignition can draw that much!' Seems I'd be wrong there, cause I had a change of heart, and was heading back to autobarn to buy a new regulator, and the car completely shut down! Managed to roll into the autobarn carpark, pulled the regulator out, and headed inside. Only to find that apparently the VT V6 has a 'hybrid' alternator, that they don't stock the regulator for as standard, so it would need to be ordered.. And being that tuesday is a public holiday, it'd be WEDNESDAY before we'd be back on the road (and able to get back home to work!). Same story at autopro and supercheap.. I'm going to hit up repco tomorrow, with fingers heavily crossed.. Or otherwise see if there's a wreckers open!
Autobarn were very nice and let me leave the wagon in their audio fitting garage overnight so I didn't have to worry about it being safe in the carpark overnight..

Now to the point of my post... There's two numbers on my regulator.. - 14V4, and 9 192 067 043 (although the catalogue at autobarn called it an RE71). The 'normal' regulator listed in their book against a VT commodore is still a 14V4, but the longer number is different.. and it has a different plug on it.. - but still only two connections in that plug.. And the actual unit is physically identical to mine except for the plug.. Even has the 'L' and 'S' stampings on each side of the connector (I'm assuming labelling the terminals)

So what I'm wondering - are they electrically compatible? i.e. can I buy a couple of spade terminals, some wire, and crimp up an adapter to go from the large connector on my loom, to the small connector on the 'normal' regulator? And have it work, at least enough to get us back home to the central coast where my motorbike, and the mrs car will get us both happily to/from work until a local store can get a replacement in?

Any ideas??

Cheers,

Damien

[axemurderer101]

i would say try to find an auto electrician if you can, they should have the proper reg in stock

[Rendrag]

i would say try to find an auto electrician if you can, they should have the proper reg in stock

I would, but one open in nowra on a sunday??

PS, this is what the plug on my reg looks like:

[wamboin23]

re72. same regulator, just slightly different charge rates. (like .2v)

thats what we put into all vs-vy v6 alternators at work when we rebuild them.

surely someone will have an re72.

[Rendrag]

thanks wamboin,

turns out the guy two doors down from our friends place is the manager of the repco here - he said there's at least one RE72 on the shelf, so looks like we should be good to go tomorrow! woo

[IvanTheTerrible]

I was going to say Ripco would have them. :-) Be wary that a few VS and up alternators we have rebuild have gone up in flames when the rectifier decided it should have been replaced to. Problem is you cant buy them.

[Rendrag]

wooo, 45 bucks later, and she's running again battery must have recovered a bit overnight, as she started up first go! Smells a bit funny, I'm assuming manufacturing gunk in the regulator burning away as the alternator warms up?

Anyone know what the ECU reset is on the VT? on my old VR, it was just hold the revs at 3krpm for 30 seconds when starting the car after a power loss. but that doesn't seem to be working on my VT.. idle has been bloody horrid since I broke a valve spring 6 months back and had to pull one head off (was insanely lucky that the spring had wound down on itself, and the valve had dropped, but not enough to hit the piston! so reseated the valves since I had the head off, put new guide seals and springs on, and all was good).. Well, I[m assuming it just needs an idle/ECU reset - when you come to a stop, either in or out of gear, it'll idle at ~1krpm or a second or two, then drop back to ~5-600rpm, and be rather chunky, with an almost-stall every 20-40 seconds.. if I leave it idling for more than 5 mins after driving it, the engine light will come on.. (but if i just start it and let it idle for 20+ mins, the light doen't come on (but it's still rough..)

Cheers,

DG

[Rendrag]

Sigh, spoke too soon!

Battery light jet came on again, accompanied by a burning transistor smell

getting the nrma to come figure it out :|

[PRAVX II S]

The reg is not always the problem in a alternator when the battery light comes on.
On the alternator there are rectifiers or diode pack. At work i have some of this were the rectifier is gone and i just replace the alternator.

[Rendrag]

Actually, the smell is coming out of the fuse box

[Rendrag]

Hmm or maybe that smell is usually there, I dunno.. Reg also smells, and looks wet around the seams, which is weird!

[PRAVX II S]

it maybe was the Reg burning out maybe.
NRMA will just change your alternator most likely bro. you should of just bought the alternator from repco and installed it your self. cheaper bro. good luck mate

[Rendrag]

Yeah, if I wasn't in the process of selling it, so wanted the cheap fix I would have just gone a whole alternator :-p

what do you reckon the chances of the nrma guy having one and fitting it on a Sunday?

Wondering if I should just get it towed back to our friends place, and call around the auto elecs with after hours numbers, and failing that, get a new alternator when repco opens tomorrow morning...

What's the chances it's damaged anything else in the loom? Or likely to just be reg/rect?

[Rendrag]

well NRMA was pretty much useless.. seems that the lady on the phone earlier today when I phoned up to say not to worry, I'd got the car started (I called cause the battery was flat just after I'd put the new reg in, and had forgotten and turned it off when we were getting lunch..), was supposed to tell me that if I cancelled the call-out, I couldn't make another callout for the same (or related) problem.. so the NRMA bloke arrived, played a bit, went 'yeah, your alternator is fried, you'll need a new one', then went 'but I cant do anything for you, cause you cancelled the callout this morning..' Apparently he wasn't even allowed to jump-start me, though he did point at where his jump-starter was, and go jump in the cab to fill out the paperwork.. disconnected the alternator, jump-started the car, and managed to get it back to our friends place.. Lost all dash, and had almost no power from the engine after about a km, but as long as I only used a tiny amount of throttle, I was happy enough going the remaining km or so back to our friends..

Just phone dall the auto elects with mobile number,s none of them had the alternator in stock, so I guess i'm waiting till repco opens in the morning..

Only thing wiht repco is that the guy said that their one listed for the VT v6 non-supercharged, which they have in stock, is it has a note for 'internal condensor'. I can't see a problem with that? so long as it's the right stud pattern and same connector, she should be right?

Cheers,

DG

[IvanTheTerrible]

Sorry to hear that Rendrag but as I said above, this is the reason we no longer rebuild internal fan Commodore alternators.

[Rendrag]

Wow, after calming down over dinner, I went and pulled the alternator out, and started pulling it apart (it's quite amazing what you can do with a leatherman and a good pair of multi-grips!) - the brushes bit of the regulator is a big molten blob, and the diode ring board inside looks like it's been on fire! Looking forward to getting it home and getting the impact driver into the screws in the body to get it open and take some pics

but seeing that makes me feel better that the 'smoke' only 'got out' of the alternator, and not the rest of the loom

[acarmody]

If you can get there, Holden sell the 120amp Mitsubishi alternator for cheaper than the 100amp Bosch unit. I paid about $280ish for mine, but I get trade price. Might have one in stock.