Originally Posted by wilburtual

upon further investigation of the removed voltage regulator-- i noticed that the 3 little wires that should be soldered to the metal fins, weren't even connected anymore!! "now there's your problem"
i'm no master mechanic, but seems they probably should be..... i could prob solder them back, but the carbon posts seems so worn, that i might as well replace it just to be sure. I swapped one from my 81 240D and i was getting 12.95 V at the battery when running rather than the 11.4 i was with the bad regulator.
i am suspicious of the battery not being up to par, it was totally dead when i got the car, and looks pretty old..>! i didnt let the car run for that long, but maybe the faulty battery it why i am only getting 12.9 V rather than 13+ ? i'm gonna swap batteries with my 81 and see if with the 'good' battery and regulator I get proper charging voltage.. which should be 13+ right?