Voltage Regulator Problem??

Garys72Duster said

I ran a jumper wire directly from the battery to the blue wire ignition terminal on the regulator. That smoothed out the voltage gauge in the car to a steady 14.5 volts. No flickering. When I turned the key off, the gauge lights stayed on! So those lights are feeding from the same place the regulator blue wire is coming from! I'm sure this is causing a voltage drop to the regulator.

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What typically causes this is either bad ignition switch contacts or a bad connection at the bulkhead connector. The reason the lights are staying on is because by using a temporary jumper you are bypassing the ignition switch. When you install the relay you won't have that problem because it will remove the battery voltage from the ignition terminal of the regulator (just like removing the jumper).