Alternator Tune-up (Bosch 2-wire Cabriolet)

My Alternator Regulator decided to go out yesterday.
So I checked to see that I had the 12V Battery on the main lead.
I had 11.5 on the Exciter lead….
So that left the Regulator as the issue as the Battery light worked fine to tell me it decided to depart the earth.

I removed the Negative, and Positive Battery cables, Cleaned the posts and connections, then reattached the Positive and sprayed with anti-corrosion paint as usual.

I reached through my parts stash and picked out a new Yard Sourced regulator and decided to
Tune it up, No I didn’t do the Diode upgrade, but between my bad one and my yard find I noticed that I could spruce the connections up a wee bit.

The new one had some tarnish at the connective points.

Main Body Connection:


Regulator to body screw sleeve:


Main inner case connection


Using a wire Brush and a small file for the Body-to-screw sleeve I shined them up a wee bit.









Prior to installing I cleaned the screw hole for the case mount on the alternator body, as well as the heads of the screws themselves.

I suppose it is just something that one should do on a semi-yearly regular basis.
oh, and I reattached the ground after.

As a side note I did my other cabby for sake of argument, and noticed that 2 things happened after cleaning.

I didn’t have to goose the throttle to eliminate the battery light on start, and on my console gauge I went from 13.75 to 14V.  Now that isn’t a lot of difference, but it is a difference…. Just another ground related issue I suppose.

My DVOM went from 13.85 before on the battery to 14V as I verify my Console to true values occasionally.
On my car with the dead regulator, it was always about 3/4 volt difference between the Battery and the Gauge with the car static or running… After the clean and install of the yard find, it is spot on now…. Another really useless trivial issue taken care of