charging problem

Yeh.........but that's not what I asked you to do, and if you tried to measure ohms on the ground circuit with the engine running, it won't really tell you anything. That's because the current in the system will affect the ohmeter. If you REALLY DO have 8 ohms resistance in there, that is way way to much.

Please re--read how I posted to measure this. What you are doing is reading voltage drop.


You acually could TRY to measure ohms, but you MUST do so with engine off. The reason "you don't" is that most ohmeters are not accurate at low ohmic readings. Even a couple of ohms in the ground circuit is too much resistance.

Picture in your mind the engine bay, engine, battery. "Normally" the battery is grounded to the engine block, with a 'small' jumper from the battery to the body. Additionally, there is normally one or two other 'small' jumpers from the engine to the body.

So "hopefully" we now have the battery ground going from battery post..........battery clamp........cable..........engine block.........jumper to body

While at the same time, we have the path from battery post............clamp........jumper.......to body.

The regulator MUST be clean, tight, grounded to the body. MUST. If there's any question, remove, scrape the mounting clean, and remount using star washers. If the bolts are loose / stripped, they MUST be repaired. There is no option, or it will never regulate.

So "now", hopefully, we have the regulator finally grounded to the battery.

Effectively if you put a sensitive voltmeter onto the battery GROUND post, and the regulator mounting ear. the voltmeter will measure any voltage drop (while in operation) between battery ground and the regulator ground "point."

Just like the voltage drop in the "hot" side, ANY drop in the ground will ADD voltage to the regulator "set point"

Let's "say" there is 3 tenths drop in the hot side of the harness, and 3 tenths drop in the ground. That's over 1/2 volt. So if the regulator "just happens to be one that's on the bit 'o the high side, let's say, 14.2, NOW you have 14.2 plus .3 plus .3 for 14.8 volts!!! That, really, IS about the borderline. Most healthy batteries, 'specially on long trips in hot weather, will "use water," smell, and bubble over enough to make a mess in the engine bay after a period of time / miles.