Originally Posted by compress ignite

Produces A.C. (Which is "Rectified" to D.C. by the Diodes)
[The Alternator is a true three phase producer,so you should have at
least three different Diodes (think of them as "One Way" Electrical Valves)
to RECTIFY the ALTERNATING current TO DIRECT current]

"IF" you have a Dead (or misbehaving ?) Diode
[the question mark is because Diode (s) either work OR DON'T]
WHIPPING THE OTHER TWO DIODE POSITIONS (Like and old or dead horse)
[Which is what your friend is suggesting the VR "Alteration" accomplishes]
WILL NOT PRODUCE THE CORRECT D.C. current scenario.

Your Voltage Regulator is bad and all you've done (Rather Neatly) is postpone
it's eventual total demise.

A DMM set to A.C. voltage (With the engine running) that shows anything more than
.5 Volts AC (At the Battery terminals) denotes a Bad Diode.

Voltage regulator
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Electronic symbol for Voltage regulator

A voltage regulator is an electrical regulator designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level.

It may use an electromechanical mechanism, or passive or active electronic components. Depending on the design, it may be used to regulate one or more AC or DC voltages.

With the exception of passive shunt regulators, all modern electronic voltage regulators operate by comparing the actual output voltage to some internal fixed reference voltage. Any difference is amplified and used to control the regulation element in such a way as to reduce the voltage error. This forms a negative feedback control loop; increasing the open-loop gain tends to increase regulation accuracy but reduce stability (avoidance of oscillation, or ringing during step changes). There will also be a trade-off between stability and the speed of the response to changes. If the output voltage is too low (perhaps due to input voltage reducing or load current increasing), the regulation element is commanded, up to a point, to produce a higher output voltage - by dropping less of the input voltage (for linear series regulators and buck switching regulators), or to draw input current for longer periods (boost-type switching regulators); if the output voltage is too high, the regulation element will normally be commanded to produce a lower voltage. However, many regulators have over-current protection, so that they will entirely stop sourcing current (or limit the current in some way) if the output current is too high, and some regulators may also shut down if the input voltage is outside a given range (see also: crowbar circuits).

Rectifier
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For other uses, see Rectifier (disambiguation).

A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), a process known as rectification. Rectifiers have many uses including as components of power supplies and as detectors of radio signals. Rectifiers may be made of solid state diodes, vacuum tube diodes, mercury arc valves, and other components.

A device which performs the opposite function (converting DC to AC) is known as an inverter.

When only one diode is used to rectify AC (by blocking the negative or positive portion of the waveform), the difference between the term diode and the term rectifier is merely one of usage, i.e., the term rectifier describes a diode that is being used to convert AC to DC. Almost all rectifiers comprise a number of diodes in a specific arrangement for more efficiently converting AC to DC than is possible with only one diode. Before the development of silicon semiconductor rectifiers, vacuum tube diodes and copper(I) oxide or selenium rectifier stacks were used.

Early radio receivers, called crystal radios, used a "cat's whisker" of fine wire pressing on a crystal of galena (lead sulfide) to serve as a point-contact rectifier or "crystal detector". Rectification may occasionally serve in roles other than to generate D.C. current per se. For example, in gas heating systems flame rectification is used to detect presence of flame. Two metal electrodes in the outer layer of the flame provide a current path, and rectification of an applied alternating voltage will happen in the plasma, but only while the flame is present to generate it.