hei distributor?

[bigneily]

hopefully you fellas can pick up what i'm puttin down, long time ago i dropped in a hei distrib/ replacing the old points style. is there a voltage regulator still or no?does the hei have one built in? sometimes the thing is dead won't start, but give it a jump and she'll fire up. checked for a draw, can't seem to find anything. is there a way to check if the alternator is charging, is it possible that it is not charging enough? can a meter be hooked up to battery terminal while removed to check voltage ? and what kinda #'s should be expected. long winded i know but hopefully someone can give some knowledge...thanx men

 

[fieldsken1]

voltage regulator is for the alternater. while it is running undo the postive battery terminal if it kepts running its charging. a voltage meter well tell you how much its charging and it should be 13.8 or so

 

[Bret]

Are you feeding power to the HEI through a relay? May not be getting full voltage. As far as the battery and regulator stuff just put your volt meter across the terminals and have someone try to start it. The voltage will drop a bit, maybe as low as 8 volts?? hopefully closer to 10 volts. Then when the truck is running the voltage should climb quickly to the 13.8 or so mentioned above.

 

[theoii]

Be careful doing the disconnect thing on testing the alternator, newer cars electronics don't like that much. Usually the easiest way is to test voltage before starting and after it is running. Running should be higher.