Voltage Regulator
Repair
Basically there are two options to repairing your
voltage regulator.
-
Adjust the voltage regulator to produce 5 volts
-
Set the temp gauge to read correct temperature for the what
the regulator is producing now.
You might think that there is a third option (and maybe there
is for you) and that is to replace the flakey analog voltage regulator
with a solid state unit. Before doing this, ask yourself, "why are (were)
voltage regulators built the way they are (were)?" Both the voltage regulator
and the temperature guage are designed around the same principle described
previously and built with the same bi-metalic strip. Why? Well, as
the ambiant temperature changes in the car (say from Winter to Summer)
the bi-metallic strips of both the regulator and the temperature gauge
will be affected by the same amount. This means that in the Summer the
heating and radiative/convective cooling of the voltage regulator bi-metallic
strip will be slower than in the Winter, but that change is compensated
for by the change in the bi-metalic strip of the temperature gauge. This
is why it is done this way. What Datsun should have done, however, is made
the voltage regulator replaceable, then all of this would be unnecessary.
The easiest
thing to do, and the one I would do after having gone through all of this,
is simply adjust your temperature gauge. At the junkyard pick up an extra
temperature sending unit
Sorry, will return to this in a couple of weeks
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