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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Friday, January 29, 2010 at 14:45:22 :
In Reply to: Re:What is this one posted by oldmopar [67.82.51.233] on Friday, January 29, 2010 at 14:11:37 :
Hard to tell what's in it from the picture and the description. If the red wire with the screw terminal on it is a ground wire (strange he'd use red, though), that's a clue that it's a regulator and not a mere resistor, since a regulator needs a ground connection in addition to "power in" and "power out". Most likely, this is just a 7806 3-terminal regulator re-packaged for automotive use, in which case all my previous warnings about protection circuitry apply. I've seen similar things in JC Whitney. They work fine for gauges, which don't draw much current, so long as you don't abuse them electrically. To run the 6 volt gauges on my '56 sno-cat, I used a similar 3-terminal regulator, but added half a dozen parts for protection against electrical abuse and mounted it in a waterproof housing. The '52 Tucker had mechanical temp and oil gauges, and the fuel gauge had already been burned up by some previous owner trying to run it on 12 volts, so it has an aftermarket fuel gauge.
These little regulators designed for gauges will not work for high-current loads like wipers, heater blowers, or old-fashioned 6 volt tube-powered radios. The regulator chip includes built-in current limiting so an overload won't burn it up, but it'll just shut down and refuse to put out any current if you try to draw too much. They're good for about 1 amp, if mounted to a heat sink, and cost about 50 cents.
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