I bet Fastenal here in Morgan Hill has what I need.
I just received a PILE of sweet black AN -8 fittings. Can't wait until after baseball tomorrow.
Car is running. Shifting. Stopping. Cooling... But not charging. Grrr!! Red light stays on the dash no matter how many rpms I throw at it.
Front is too low by anoit 3/4 of an inch. Not super excited about that.
Gears are super tight. Need to sort that out
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You remembered the tranny ground strap, right?
No. I figured it was gounded via the solid front tranny mount. Think that could be it?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but it's a good thing to eliminate as a possible cause.
All trannies need a strap LOL.
Seriously, I'd put one or three on. And I have a solid trans mount as well, via my PBS nosecone(cable shifter thingy). I put one ground from nosecone bolt to chassis(solid engine mount bolt). Battery ground cable attaches there as well. Also I have a copper braid that jumps the rubber from trans mount to cradle.
If your lights and ignition work maybe your regulator wires are suspect, if all grounds are good. Mine was charging but the idiot light wouldn't go off(defective regulator) so check with a voltmeter.
did you excite the field windings? While the engine is running, touch the dash light wire to a ground. The light should go off, the engine rpms will actually dip for a second while the alternator starts, well, alternating.
Is the dash light an LED? I had to add a resistor in parallel with the LED bulb.
Michael McKelvey posted:Is the dash light an LED? I had to add a resistor in parallel with the LED bulb.
No. Standard bulb.
Alternator test:
Confirm ground from trans to chassis,
Connect a test light to 12 (B+) terminal on the alternator and the other end to ground the light should come on.
Now connect the test light to the (61) terminal on the alternator and the other end to the B+ terminal, the light should come on.... start and rev the engine above 1200 rpm's the light should go off
With the engine running and above 1200 rpm's check the voltage , it should read about 13.8 volts. ...........let us know what happens .
Ed - I thought you only had to polarize/excite the windings of a generator. Do you you do the same for an alternator?
Alan - this is a 2 wire Alternator. I will test this in a few days. I'm in meetings until late tonight. I assume 61 is the blue wire to the male spade. 12, is 12V (formerly terminal 30) from the starter.
I will throw on a new ground strap. The old trans had one. I didn't install one on the Berg because it has the solid mount up front. I assumed that would be enough. That... and the fact that the car started... I figured I was good.
Thanks for the info!
Ted
I assume 61 is the blue wire to the male spade. 12, is 12V (formerly terminal 30) from the starter. .....Yes ~
Yes, Alternators can lose their "excite" magnetic field, similar to generators.
Here's a short paper on getting it back:
Thanks, Gordon! That article says to flash the R terminal with 12V. This alternator only has two wires. One has 12V from the starter. The other terminal has a blue wire plugged into it. I unplug it and the dash light goes out. Oh, there is also a screw on the outside of the alternator body. I assume that's ground of some sort.
Which of these would be the equivalent of R? I assume R is 'regulated' or 'regulator'. Would that the blue wire? (formerly noted as terminal 61?)
The "R" terminal on a Delco-Remy alternator is the same as the "D+" terminal on your Bosch or Bosch equivalent. I should not mean "Regulator" because the regulator is built in to the alternator housing - there is no separate regulator and I don't know what the "R" means in Delco-Remy-Speak. Why the hell do the Bosch guys call the +12Volt terminal "30"?? I dunno. They prob'ly have a decent engineer-like reason, like Radio operators signing off with "73 " (Best Regards) or "88" (Love and Kisses). For this episode, "R" = "D+"="Blue Wire".
When you touch the B+ and D+ terminals together with a wire (those two on the top of your alternator) even for just an instant, you momentarily create a magnetic field that remains when you remove the wire because the charge creates that field in a ferrous (iron) core within the alternator which holds that "charge". That magnetic field is what begins to generate a voltage field when the alternator begins to turn. Because the bulb is attached to the D+ and the battery is ALWAYS connected to the B+ terminal, that magnetic field is maintained seemingly forever, unless the battery is disconnected for a looooooooooong period of time, which then sometimes allows the magnetic field to collapse (actually, it dissipates or weakens over time until it is no longer strong enough to generate the state changes inside of the alternator to cause it to generate voltage). Touching those two terminals together, even for an instant, re-institutes that field to allow the alternator to start producing electricity. Even to a lot of seasoned engineers, it is almost like magic.
Its magic! I did what Ed and Gordon suggested. Started it. Nothing. Light staued on. Hooked up a test light like Dr. Clock suggested and it did exactly what he said it would do. Then the light went out. I turned of thw car and restarted it. Works like a charm.
So.... WHAT'S IT DRIVE LIKE??? (guess he hasn't come back home yet...)
Oh, I had meetings until 10pm tonight. Tomorrow I work late again then I leave Wednesday at 6am for a business trip. I need a new throttle and clutch cable. I wont get to drive it until Saturday... If i get the new cables.
I think im going to drop the beam and elongate the adjuster holes so i can raise the front end up an inch or so. The drop spindles and the heavier battery lowered the front car too much.
So maybe just switch back to standard spindles????