"Huh? That last time I saw a mechanical regulator was on a generator.
There were a few alternators with mechanical regulators, but they
never worked well. Ever since the 1960's, alternators had electronic
regulators that were usually located INSIDE the alternator housing. I
did have some kind of alternator that I installed in 1960 Ford Falcon
that had an external solid state regulator. "

You are mistaken. I come from a car family and know. There were many with the mechanical regulators that had alternators. In fact one of the tests for the regulator was to short the field wire to the battery wire and watch the voltage. (on a VOM !) or you could hear the whine of it. One guy we knew just took a piece of metal and saw if it stuck to the back of the alternator where the shaft was because the way the energized the field caused magnetism there. He troubleshot it between alternator and regulator right then, if it had a field and the alternator was not charging it was the alternator. If it did not have a magnetic field then usually the regulator was bad, or a fusible link somewhere or some **** like that.

It was in the 1980s that internal regulators came out, and I didn'5 like them. I liked taking off the cover and loosening the spring to give a hotter charge. I had a 1970 Olds Toronado that took massive current to start because of the settings ad the compression ratio. I had two batteries in it. That is also the car I had the 30 WPC RMS amp into 8 ohms in it. We used to go to the park and we got tired of walking before we could not hear it anymore.

You know, an alternator uses a separate set of top diodes in the three phase bridge to regulate. They do not WANT to perfectly regulate the voltage. Even the old externally regulated ones were like that. They wanted the current charging the battery slightly soft.

I am from a car family and like Scotty on Star Trek I now more about them than the people who built them. In the old days when you used to put water in your car battery, the voltage may have been like 13.8 with no load. Now, the ****ing fuel injectors and everything pull nearly what the starter does.. Seriously, I had a car alternator fail and went and got one and did not need a jump start. Fuel injectors pull over an amp apiece and there is usually one of them per cylinder. The computers and all this other **** in them is really starting to pull some juice. I replaced an alternator because my Buick stopped running and I did not need a jump to start. Think about that.

Another thing I wll tell you is that if you have an automatic transmission, do not change the fluid. Of course change the filter and then pour the old fluid back in, but you'll prbably have to add a little. Reason ? Chemistry.. The seals on your clutches n **** in there have exuded some of their components into the fluid. This reduces the rate at which this happens. You put new fluid in there you are just dissolving the seals.

You know, the kit to rebuild a tranny is not that expensive. But then you have to take the thing out ad take it all apart and it is on your kitchen table for two months and your olady leaves you and all this ****. So just don't change the ****ing tranny fluid.

There are a few other things I can tell you about cars, like rear suspension and how to optimize it. My cousin had a modified car and literally ripped the from bolts out of the front seat.

I was an Olds 442, I mean the old ones where "4" meant four speed, they were NOT available with an automatic. But he turned it into a 642, with Edelbrock and three Holleys under the hood. And he got the thing to run do good that he could idle in third gear and then punch it and it wouldn't miss a lick. Any other car would have backfired and stalled, but his just took off.

HAHA, the kid (Dom, bore of gangsters) wants me to design variable vale timing for a Ford 460. If this **** happens I need a **** ton of money. I need the engine right in front of me in my garage to measure and figure it out, and now that I have sold both of my lathes I need to job some of the machining out. But then it is probably all talk. Variable valve timing is NOT easy to implement. Even if you get the mechanism ready you have to figure out the curves n ****, and that is math. Ugh. But if he ever comes up with the money and pays me I will take a crack at it.

Funny, I mentioned all this to him a few months ago after he smashed his Ford truck. We were talking about "Where do you go from here ?". Then his Father, who is pretty much rich, bought a new truck for the business that has variable valve timing and direct cylinder injection. And we were talking about direct injection, I told hi you have to get injectors like for a diesel, drill a brand new hole in the heads and hope you got the room to do it. And its placement really does matter, you can't just put it anywhere.

Engineering is a cool thing and I like doing it when I can, meaning within my abilities. But people in general, laymen I guess is the word, just do not understand that it is not that easy.

I know alot of people here understand all that, but remember that there are people out there who can't even hook up a ****ing stereo. But most don't care. Go to work, play with the kids and **** your olady. That is all that is on their minds. Not care about politics or justice and injustice. Just into their own life.