solid state instrument voltage regulator

Anyone build there own solid state instrument voltage regulator from the old Allpar article?

http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/electrical2.html

If so, how did you mount it?

Did it work well?

I have all the parts to build one, just looking for any tips etc.

Thanks,

Jason

That's the half assed way to do it. When I built mine I installed the guts into the old mechanical regulator's housing. Using the housing itself for the heat sink.

I've done both the external heatsink and the "in the case" conversions years ago and they held up great back in the day...With the new solid state pieces from RTE engineering not many bother to take the time and make those up anymore...

The linear regulator creates alot of heat dropping the voltage down.
When I measured my '69 gauges, each drew about 1/4-Amp at full scale, so I added a heat sink to the stock case with the regulator inside. In testing with all three gauges at full scale and without the heat sink, the regulator would start to go into thermal shutdown which limits the current output to protect the regulator. It was obvious in testing with a voltage and current meter, but from looking at the gauges, it just looks like they read lower than they should.

That was pretty much the same experience I had in doing a power supply in another project I was working on. The plastic three legged regulators were rated at 1 amp and only with a heat sink. The project drew 950 ma and even with a good heat sink, it would start shutting down. I went to a TO5 case regulator with a 3 Amp rating, problem solved. Unfortunately, they stopped making those years ago.
As a result, I did not even think about using one in the 'Cuda and went with the RTE.
Craig

My experience was the same, if you do the calculations, 1A is not enough, especially on an E-Body with 4 gauges.

I built my own using that article.
I got a big heat sink out of my computer parts and used thermal paste glue to stick it on.
but I only drive 2 gauges.

I have also noticed with the advent of usb chargers, you can get a pretty cheap 2 amp charger now.
if you can take one apart, you could rewire that as the vr for the gauges instead.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controll...=details&Q=

10 bucks. you can find them cheaper if you look.

building one was about 5 bucks.

RTE is like 25 or 35, I don't recall.

just depends on how handy you are and if you want to save a buck.

Being on this subject if the gauges are spikeing and then returning to a low reading on gauge it means the VR is going bad? Also is it true the solid state one from RTE will make gauges read lower?

Has anyone tried to change one mounted in car on 70 b-body?

Either the regulator is going bad or there is a bad ground. On my E body, the gauges read the same as they always did.
Craig