That's a good question.
Its possible, but odds would seem against it.
Two things to look at would be grounding and inside the regulator if something is damaged.
The old point type regulators are pretty easy to see if something is damaged.
The ones with a little circuit board I don't know if there will be anything obvious to see.
Off the top of my head, I think grounding issue would cause the regulator to let current flow through the regulator just like the jumper.
That's how a points type would act if it wasn't grounded to the body.
