I wound up having to replace my voltage regulator also.
My gauges would go out at random and I couldn't find out why. I finally got around to hooking up my Radar Detector and when the gauges went out my Visual Alert went nuts. I looked down and it read "HI VOLT". Fawk. So I go home grab the voltage meter from the drawer. It was sending around 18 to 20 volts into the battery
No wonder my battery shorted out a while back