Cooking Batteries.

[dakota farmer]

I have a 1992 Dodge Cummins Farm Truck

The truck has a tendency to cook batteries. I am guessing that is a voltage regulator. Am I headed in the right direction. Is the voltage regulator in the alternator of the computer. My old 1989 cummins has the voltage regulator on the firewall. Thanks for the help. Appreciate it.

[Tacoclaw]

I'm afraid I'm not much help if it's computer controlled, but id check and clean all grounds, especially the negative post and the grounds down by the starter and from the alternator to the head.

If it was externally regulated, I'd guess you've got a resistance in the key-on hot wire that goes to the regulator. I'm not sure if the computer controlled trucks have a signal wire like that...

[oldestof11]

You can convert to externally regulated:

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/faq/ ... lynewfaq=1

[Mark Nixon]

If your gauge is reading in the normal range, yet you are cooking the battery, there is a very good change that you have a bad connection somewhere.
Case in point, my old '91 flatbed would cook the battery, yet not show an overcharge on the guage, but had an annoying "twitch" on the gauge, which later came to be the warning sign of a bad connection.
To fix it, I ran a heavy ground to the core support with a looped end to the negative terminal's clamp bolt.
Now I have no more "twitchy, twitchy" and no more cooked battery, either.

I replaced the battery and forgot to re-tighten the ground once and the symptoms came back, until I re-tightened the ground again.

Mark.