I was wondering if anyone could tell me if a used voltage regulator that was pulled off a car previously can go bad from sitting cuz my regulator went up and i tried 3 different regulators i had sitting around that worked when pulled from the car and they are all still making my ampmeter go all over the place I did go out and get a new one and all is good now

Mechanical or electronic?

In either case, the short answer is "yes" they can go bad from sitting. Mechanical regulators can corrode and the contacts get inconsistent, electronic ones can have capacitors drift value and/or go bad, but that can also happen with them while being used.

IF you're having the exact same symptom after trying several, I'd look real hard at other things like connections and how good the ground (chassis) connection to the regulator is.

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Well it is working fine now with the new regulator but I did look at all the wiring and I found a wire out in the open not hooked to anything I was going to chase it back in the harness to see where it went but if I can get my camera to work with my comp i will post a pic

thanks man