Smoking Voltage Regulator

[Dimes4Life]

My car has been garaged for last 15 years..I just replaced almost everything...radiator,battery,all hoses,master cylinder clutch master and slave,as well as rear wheel cylinders plus brakes..I also replaced my crane ignition,cap n rotor which was giving me intermittent spark to coil from sender..I figured while I was at it...I'd replace my alternator('71 240z 60 amp) and volt regulator. I've used this alternator upgrade for many years with no problems. Today I installed both. Battery Neg unhooked..ignition off..I put in alt with all connections correct...then the regulator with ground between bracket and screw...fired it up and immediately smelled burning...within 1 min...saw smoke coming from reg. Unhooked...brought back to Napa..bought reg at another store...same thing...smoke...I'm afraid I have a short now and am confused...should I buy volt meter and see if alt is producing more than 60 amps...

[okayfine]

You should already have a VOM and a wiring diagram. You definitely have a wiring issue. It's not the 60A alt causing your issues; people have run higher-amp alts than that on stockish 510 wiring.

There's a '71 two-door wiring diagram at The 510 Archives. Specific-year diagrams were available from Paolo - see the Suggestions thread in Intro here for specifics.

[datzenmike]

Extremely unlikely two regulators are bad. The only commonality is the alternator. Could be you have an internally regulated alternator. The cut off 's everything before '78 is external, everything from '78 on are internally regulated.

[Dimes4Life]

Thanx for input...I decided to put back on old reg(from 15 yes ago)
No smoke. Tested with multi meter...14.7 volts running,15.3 volts max at 2000 rpm...I read some blogs that said the new gegulators gave 3-in-1 oil that burns off...but that smell yesterday was burning wires...not smoke...why would new volt reg not be able to handle Hitachi alternators? As opposed to old ones? How come the old reg didn't smoke?

[two_68_510s]

cheap counterfeit?

[okayfine]

Extremely unlikely two regulators are bad.

Did you crossreference the two new regulator part numbers to be sure they're for a 68-73 510? I'd be surprised if both regulators were bad, especially if they were different parts sourced independently. Stranger things have happened, but...