[7T-GOAT]

Its been my experience that voltage regulator dates and alternator dates have the same date, or 1 week off, from the production date of vehicle. Not the usual 30+ days that engine/heads dates did.

Do most agree?

[Bet Winner]

I agree that they are normally much closer to the build date than the engine along with the master and brake booster, wheels and rear end--most anything that was not shipped with the engine. And that includes the carb also.

I believe my latest date code is the rear end assembly date.

[gtohurstjudge]

Very interesting....I didn't realize the voltage regulators had date codes
on them. where is the date code located on a voltage regulator?

[Peter Serio]

Here is an old one I had sitting around.

12V N 1119515

9D


If I remember correctly the markings on this one stand for:

12V= twelve volts. N= stands for negative ground.

1119515 is the actual GM part #

and 9D is the "date code."

I believe that the 9 stands for the year: 1969 and the D represents the month. There is no day date code on any of these that I know of.

Beware; because the year is represented by only a single digit you must keep in mind that Delco made service parts for 1960s GM cars throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s.

I have seen many examples on ebay where later manufactured service parts are described as being "matching numbers" part(s) for a car when in fact the part being offered was made exactly 10 or 20 years later. Unless you have the original box with the part ( later service parts came in thinner, flimsier boxes). It is impossible to really be sure.

[gtohurstjudge]

thanks for the pictures Peter.....I just verified that my 1965 Buick Riviera
has it's original voltage regulator, which I suspected that it did!

[Bet Winner]

I have an 8L (December 1968) for my 1969 1C car. Dating a month prior to your build month is probably a good guess unless your car was built the last week of the month.

One of the pictures shows the cover. These can be made to look nice if in decent shape.

[Greg Reid]

These can be made to look nice if in decent shape.

I don't use an external VR but I gutted one and used the box and frame to cover my 12 distribution block. I thought it looked better than it would just out in the open..

[hobi]

Originally Posted by 7T-GOAT

Its been my experience that voltage regulator dates and alternator dates have the same date, or 1 week off, from the production date of vehicle. Not the usual 30+ days that engine/heads dates did.

Do most agree?

Hey Tom the one I got from NAPA says January 2014 your welcome to it if you just replace it back to me within a year it works fine by the way. I think I might have a February date also 2014. Regards Mr. Datecode.