Voltage Regulator?

[rhino32z]

I just replaced my alternator, and charged my battery. Ok let me back up. I was driving last Friday and my car just shut off, it cranked back up instantly. I got to my destination about 1/2 away. I left 1 hour later and went about 3 miles got out said a few hellos, then got back in the car. It would not crank. I got a jump and it fired up. Drove 1 1/2 miles and it shut off again. I left it for a few hours to go home, I came back and jumped it once again and it drove 1 mile. Jumped, drove 1/2 mile. Then said screw it. I came back this morning with a new alternator, and also took the battery to be checked. They said the battery was very low so they charged it. I swapped the alternators, picked up the battery and Installed that too. It fired right up! I drove it 14 miles home, no issues. But I decide to take it to autozone to see if I installed everything correctly (my first tjme doing anything that extensive on a car and that not extensive.. lol) the battery was 100% charged. But the alternator test came back "voltage regulator failed". They say this is part of the alternator or is it. What could be the issue? I havent found this on the forum when I searched for voltage regulator. rhank you. Oh yeah its a 92 2+2

[ThisIsSparTTa]

My understanding is that the voltage regulator is part of the alternator for our cars. You may have gotten a rebuilt alternator that really needed the voltage regulator to be replaced.

[agent4573]

Most modern cars are internally regulated. The basics of an alternator is that the faster you spin it, the more voltage it puts out. The regulator is there to cap off the voltage so that it doesn't go above ~14 volts, which is what you want to charge your battery. If your voltage regulator failed, it most likely means that the alternator is putting out well over 15 volts at any decent RPM. If this test was done in the car, maybe you forgot to hook up the regulator wire. If the test was done on Autozone's alternator tester, you're probably looking at replacing the alternator again, as there's no easy way to just replace the regulator.

[rhino32z]

The test was done in the car. There were only 2 connections (plus the plug) when I disconnected the alternator. I hooked it up the same way I took it out. If I did forget a connection. Which one would the regulator wire be? Btw. I drove the car yesterday, start and stop for 4 hours and everything has been good so far *knock on wood/crosses fingers*

[ThisIsSparTTa]

There's not a lot to miss. There's 3 connections: positive, ground, and the connector to the alt harness