[T3] Draw on battery.

[Jim Adney]

On 23 Jun 2016 at 11:07, dlstiefel wrote:

> When I got home I didn't shut it off and hooked up the DVOM to the
> battery and got about 14.3 volts. Then I shut the engine off the volts
> dropped down to about 13.5.

That sounds just about perfect.

> I then took the ground off cable the battery put one lead on the 
> ground cable and the other on the negative post on the battery. The DVOM 
> red 12.5 volts.

At this point, as William said, you should be trying to read current. 
The current you read should be the same, if you break the ground link 
or the hot link, but breaking the ground side is MUCH safer.


> I started pulling the fuses one by one look at the 
> reading then put the fuse back in. No change on any fuse. I then 
> unhooked the wire from the positive side of the battery to the voltage 
> regulator and it dropped close to 0. So I thought OK it's the regulator. 

That's not really much of a test. With the DVM still reading current 
in the ground link, leave the wire from the + post to the VR in place 
and pull off the wire that leads from the VR to the rest of the car.

If the current in the DVM goes to zero, the leak is somewhere in the 
car. (Not everything is fused.)

If the current still doesn't go to zero, there's a problem in the VR. 

> By the way I just put this regulator on the car back during the big 
> restoration. It's one of those newer compact solid state ones that Bosch 
> makes now. 

It's always possible that something has gone wrong inside the VR. I 
don't know what's in there either. If you're seeing more than 20 mA 
of drain current just into the VR, my guess is that that's wrong. 
It's possible that they all draw 5-10 mA even when off, but that 
would surprise me, and that amount of drain is so little that you'd 
never notice it.

I don't have any personal experience with the new SS VRs. I'll be 
producing my own refurbished old style Bosch boxes with solid state 
innards by the end of the year. Versions available for either 6 or 12 
V. Should mean the last VR you should ever buy.  ;-)

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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