Well, last week, my volt gauge started reading less than 12 volts under load. So I put on a new Powermaster that I had and everything seemed fine.Then the next day, volts start reading 14 at idle and 18 under load! Change the regulator ( I had a spare new one) same problem. If I unplug the regulator while running, nothing changes. Unplug the brown wire on the alternator, nothing changes. When I unplug the blue wire on the alternator, stops charging.
Is my new alternator the culprit?
Any help would be greatly appreciated cause I am pretty dumb when it come to electrical!

Did you make sure the battery is fully charged and in good working order?

New battery a month ago. It's reading 12.8 volts

2 field terminal alt & flat later VR? Check VR ground & take off the green lead from the alt field terminal & see if it stops charging & if so run a jumper wire from the alt male field terminal that you just took the wire off of to the VR ground terminal(right side of the triangle connector as the pyramid is pointed up)keeping the orig green wire you just took off disconnected

Yep,2 field and new style vr. If I pull the green(brown on mine) ther is no change, still charges.

Check the(green lead) brush/holder & see if something is touching(grounded)there that shouldn't be and you might pull all 3 leads from the alt & check if there's continuity in the field circuit to ground(shouldn't be) but yes R&R that alt!

Rapid gave you a good start, here's how these things work:


The Blue lead feeds switched 12V from the ign. switch to one terminal of the field. The field SHOULD BE completely isolated from ground. The other field terminal is hooked to green which goes to the regulator, and the regulator turns the ground on/ off to make the field conduct, so you actually need to check several things:

The blue (12V) is probably OK. Check EACH field terminal to ground, you should have NO continuity (infinity). If you show anything, either one brush holder is shorted, or the field is shorted internally to the shaft.

Check the green==unhook the green from the regulator, and check the green end-to end for continuity to ground, there should be none (infinity)

Are you sure the regulator is properly grounded? Are you sure it's getting proper 12V from the ign switch?

where is your battery?

mine is in the back of the bed on my truck, and up at the dash, my voltmeter reads 15 volts at idle!

when it was all brand new, it was charging at 16V, but nothing negative seemed to ever come from it. I improved some connections and grounds, and with warmer temps, it brought it down to 15 volts, although I never checked, I assme it's just voltage drop from all the cable running back to the battery. my battery reads just over 12 volts on the terminals and 11.5-11.9 up front when not running, point being that more than 14 volts has not hurt anything yet, and it's been 3 years, 3500 miles

anyway, it sounds like you DO have a full charge issue, when did it show up? when you swapped VRs? or did you swap alternators too?

check your grounds, and check ALL OF YOUR WIRES AND CONNECTIONS!

last week, I had a no start issue, trouble shot it down to a bad coil. bought a new coil, still no start!!! I was getting annoyed and desperate, trying to figure out why it wasn't working, and it wasn't making sense.

turns out my coil negative wire had broken right at the connector, but the heat shrink wrap was still holding tight and passed a visual inspection. Finally in my haste of swapping this coil for that coil, this orange box for that orange box, I finally knocked the wire enough to pull the heat shrink tubing off, showing me that I had a broken wire. 3 minutes later, with a crimped connector, the darn thing started right up!

so...check your wires! ohm them out for resistance, check your grounds