Electrical: Did I damage my regulator?

[K Russell]

While doing some diagnostic work on my Flight Hawk last week, I made the dumb mistake of leaving the ignition key in the run position. Today I made the discovery, and of course, totally dead battery. I hooked up my small charger and it was almost maxing out at 8 amps. Left it on for an hour, noticed it was still at the same reading but tried to start the car and she fired right up as if nothing wrong. I idled it for about 20 minutes, then took it out for a drive and even after returning home, the amp gauge in the car was still reading 35 amps while running at highway speed and 15 at idle. Before this the reading was never above 10 amps and that was only for a few minutes after starting. Did I fry the regulator and am now doing damage to my battery?

[RadioRoy]

The most likely thing to have fried is the points in the distributor. If the car is running fine, then you are probably OK. The higher than normal charge is because the battery was dead. If you drive the car a few more times, everything should even out and be OK.

Make sure there is enough water in the battery, then drive it and try not to fret.

[rstrasser]

You stood a better chance of damaging your battery or burning out the points in your distributor. Most batteries do not like being totally discharged. If possible I would disconnect the battery, connect the charger and if possible set at a low charging rate and leave it for a day. Then reconnect everything and take the Flight Hawk for a drive. Your charging rate should be back to normal.
A couple of weeks ago I had my Bronco in a shop for repair in the Chicago area. The hood up (light on) and drivers door open for about 6 hours. After the repair I was in Indiana on my way home before the volt meter showed 14 volts. It was down to below 10 when I started to drive. They used a booster to start the Car.
Ron
Ron

[K Russell]

Sigh of relief! Thanks guys!