Mike:
I know what happened to your car. You parked it next to a car with
Alternator Disease. Don't laugh it's true!!
I first learned of AD at work a few years ago from great engineer called
Mike Riley. He arrived one morning looking gloomy. Said he had parked in a
lot overnight and when he arrived in the morning there was a tow truck
giving the car beside his a boost. Seems the alternator had quit. Riley said
he was doomed for sure. Described the terrible contagion of Alternator
Disease. Could wipe out an entire lot of cars in a week. I laughed at his
joke.
Next morning he came in cursing. Seems that half way home all the lights on
his dash on his brand new Olds 98 came on after the charging system quit.
Crept into a garage on the last juice of the battery. They tested. Sure
enough, dead alternator.
I commiserated with his lousy luck, but pooh poohed the idea of AD. He said,
"don't laugh, you're next, I parked next to you all day yesterday". I gave
him the raspberry and thought no more of it. That evening, 20 minutes into
the drive home, my alternator quit.
That week we lost 3 other alternators in the small parking lot of our
office. All parked close to Riley's car that day. Damnedest thing I ever
saw.
Beware Alternator Disease. It is infectious, It is deadly to Alternators. It
jumps primarily within similar automobile lines. American to American,
Japanese to Japanese etc, where it will kill the receiving alternator. It
can jump across nationalities of cars, but is greatly reduced in strength.
An American car with AD can usually only blow light bulbs in a Japanese or
German machine and visa versa.
The best protection is a minimum of one empty parking space between any
infected car and the surrounding healthy machines.
Take care, you have been warned!!
Mark Hooper
72 TR6
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Munson
To: gatriumph@gatriumph.com; 6pack list; fot@autox.team.net
Sent: 08/05/02 9:58 PM
Subject: electrical grimlin
Listers,
Had an interesting problem with my street TR-6 today.Drove it to work
and the
ignition light stayed on. The lights were dim., the alt. would only
charge
11.5 volts. Driving home the AC worked but when I turned it off the alt.
still
only charged to 11 or 11.5 volts, ignition light still on.I shut the car
off
and the ignition light stayed on. I cranked it again the ignition light
went
off. So now the ignition light stays on when the key is off. I unplugged
the
alternator to keep the light from running the battery down.
Anyone else have this problem?
Is the alternator or the ignition switch at fault? How do I go about
trouble
shooting the alternator?
Did this Lucas electrical system absorb some sort of gremlin from being
parked
in a General Motors parking lot?
(we do use some Lucas parts on the vans we build there)
Help!
Mike Munson
Snellville Ga.
70-6 racecar
73-6
80-8
|