>
> 13.48 volts into the vs. Can't read the output 'cause it is
> far from stable. Seems to be 5 to 13.48 in very swift swings
> but nothing long enough to garner a reading from the meter.
>
Yep, sounds like it's frazzled to me. It should be putting out a
constant voltage (surprised? ;-)
It's a couple of strips of different metals in contact. When they
heat up too much they seperate, breaking the connection. Then they cool
down and re-establish the connection. Quite a simple little device to
control the voltage. They go bad because they spark every time they
connect, which scores them and builds up carbon deposits. After a while,
they just can't make a good connection. You could theoretically break it
open, clean it up, adjust it a little, and it would work fine again. But
it's not really worth the trouble. You could also replace it with a better,
diode based voltage regulator, but that's really not worth the trouble.
Jeremy DuBois
Programmer/System Administrator
Thermalogic Corporation
'74 MGB, '76 Spit
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