Well, its good that you have a new alternator and regulator. Make sure that

you check that it works when the car is hot as well as when its cold and

you just started it and are checking the voltage. I just had an alternator

bad on my sisters 81 and the thing would be charging when it starts and

for the first 10-15 minutes of driving. Then the voltage would disappear

and you would be running on the battery. Not sure what was going bad in

the alternator because I just rebuilt one that I had around and put that

on instead. I suspect the regulator though.

My other suggestion would be to make sure you don't have an intermittent

connection for the idiot light. If your car is a turbo you may have

wiring decay that is intermittently causing the alternator not to charge.

The idiot light won't tell you that this happened because it didn't have

a ground to light or it lighted but then the connection opened. If you

don't have the idiot light circuit on startup then the alternator never

gets 'excited' so it starts charging. You may be missing when the light

doesn't lite when you start the car. Make sure that the wiring is good

where it connects to the alternator. You also want to check it where it

goes under the crank and at the rear of the engine by the number four

cylinder there is a gray multi pin connector on the firewall. This is

where the wires connect to inside the car. The insulation flakes off

and can cause an open or any number of bizarre problems including a

self running engine.

Wish you well, I also like certain specific BMW models. Like first gen.

M3s and M5,M6 models. Also vintage cars like 200tii and the beautiful 2800CS coupes. If only they didn't rust so damn bad.

Dave 82 242ti