1995 150 Looper Voltage/Overvoltage Sanity Check

[s.wxman]

1995 E150ELEOM. Late last season on one outing I noticed the volt gauge pegged over around 18. No other symptoms. I replaced regulator/rectifier and all seemed fine again until yesterday. On one run (short runs on this lake) I noted the volt gauge above 16 (seems to usually run close to 14 at rpm). Only happened once, no other symptoms. Blamed it on gremlins.
Today, first run of day after idling long enough for FAST idle to reduce, started to accelerate out of idle zone and noticed volt gauge reading high. Increased rpm, volt gauge pegged, tach started swinging erratically and above 1/2 throttle or so engine would miss. Engine miss seemed connected to rpm (voltage??). Stopped and restarted. Volts still read high above idle, but no more erratic tach or engine miss. Remember this is a 90 sec run across lake.
Fished a couple hours, restarted, high volts again, but no other symptoms. Stopped and restarted, volts seemed to be normal at just shy of 14. Trailered, no issues. Run on muffs at home, no issues below 2000 rpm. Didn't run faster on the muffs.

I really think connections, grounds, battery connections, etc., are OK.

So, is this the regulator/rectifier?? Just bad luck or is there something causing this? Water temp is right on every time I check heads with laser therm (reg water cooled)/
Anything else to check or look at before I replace regulator again?

Thanks

 

[boobie]

Just make sure ALL your connections are clean and tight. Wiring and all.

 

[emdsapmgr]

Good point. If the battery cable end connections are loose, then the engine will struggle to dissipate all the battery charging voltage. Could cause the problems you are seeing.

 

[s.wxman]

No Title

I still think the connections are all good. Connectors are all tight and not distorted. Battery connections are regularly cleaned and I use star washers and good tight nuts.

Look at this...
I took the stator out to look at it (pics attached). Also, the stator resistance check, on my meter anyway, was about 2.3 ohms instead of the manual's 0.12. Can I safely say the stator is dead?
Also, with the symptoms I described above, should I automatically replace the reg/rec with the stator, or can I safely replace the stator and see what I have? i.e Will a bad reg/rec damage the new stator??

Thanks again

 

[s.wxman]

I am declaring victory for the moment. New reg/rec and a new stator installed and all looks good. I checked grounds/connections but never saw anything suspicious. I guess 20 yrs was long enough for these parts.