I know Standard had a bad batch awhile back. I've had 4 or 5 of those bad out of the box. Finally had one work for ~2 months. The Wells replacement just went South after 10 months. All wiring has been checked over by both myself and my local professional mechanic, multiple times.

I just put a made in China O'Reilly special on it, as that was what was available when I was stranded on Powell Ave., in Portland, OR during rush hour...

Where should I look for it's impending replacement?

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You need to make it yourself..............

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... +regulator

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Bosch do an aftermarket external regulator too,its number is:RE55.theres a few here in oz having no dramas with them on the slants.

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Another AP5 valiant still going strong.

I've heard good things about Bosch (and I like their carpentry tools...), so I'll have to see if I can find one stateside. Thanks for the tip, Bigall.

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NAPA carries a very nice solid state voltage regulator under part #VR1001, the only down side is that it is $69.99. If you are decent with a solidering iron, I'd probably try making one following thread posted above. The estimated cost of building a VR is only about $10, even the cheapest replacements are 3-4 times as much.

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'66 Dodge Dart

I had problems using the mechanical regulators too. Then I tried the stock looking electronic ones on Ebay. Wow, great charging with no discharge and flickering headlights and flickering dash lights.
It was only about 19.00 too !
Later I bought a electronic one from Autozone. It is a flat silver looking item and it also works great. But it was 50.00.

But there is a caution. These are stock amperage rated items and have a limit of 60 to 65 amps. If you use any more you will burn them out just like a mechanical regulator. Many of the stock mechanical regulators are limited at 45 to 50 amps.

Maybe you have a high amp alternator that is burning out all your stock rated regulators ?

I have seen intermittant shorts form in alternators right at the brushes. They're easy to remove and inspect w/ the alt removed, but you could test them in place fairly easily.

With the field wire(s) disconnected and the car idling, measure the resistance of the alt field to ground - on those alt with 2 field wires it ought to be infinite. Across the 2 field connections it ought to be a few ohms; on single connection alt it ought to be the same to ground.

Unfortunately, the quality of Standard and other brand Chinese-made parts appears to be quite poor. Sometimes you can get lucky and find NOS US-made Standard parts still.

Wells VR706. I have had good luck with them. Around $25.00