Well, I ordered a regulator which will be in Saturday morning. In the meantime, I pulled out the old alternator from my cabinet and decided to see how difficult it was to replace the regulator. I marked and separated the case halves and pinned the brushes back into their holders.
Next I cleaned out all of the old engine compartment insulation that had been sucked into the alternator. Looking down through the windings to the back end of the alternator, I can see the bolts that go through the regulator, holding it to the back of the case. They're underneath a plastic plate that is the same diameter as the inside of the alternator. The plate is held in place by 3 little expansion plugs cast onto the back of the plate. They protrude through the back of the alternator case. Beginning to look promising.
Wrong! Roadblock! The wires of the windings pass through the plastic plate and are attached to the regulator which is held in place by bolts underneath the plastic plate. It appears it would require an offset Torx boxed end wrench to access the heads of the regulator retainer bolts. The plastic plate can't be removed until the windings are removed and the windings can't be removed until the bolts holding the regulator are removed.
So, now it's cancel the order for the regulator and go pay $109 for an alternator. If anyone knows how to rebuild the alternator, I have a brand new one on the car that was driven about 200 miles. It is overcharging. $50 for the alternator and $30 for a regulator and you save yourself $30 for a CS alternator.
