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Re: Murphy's law, and Boogie Woogie's malady....THANKS Fellas!

To: saltracer@awwwsome.com
Subject: Re: Murphy's law, and Boogie Woogie's malady....THANKS Fellas!
From: "Doug Anderson" <boogiewoogie12@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 20:24:52 GMT



7/31/00  Monday



Tom;    thanks a bunch for replying,   -and for your time.
     I know you have to be real  busy readying for Bonneville….


I had hoped Boogie Woogie "was better"  after the new battery, new starter,  
et al, and the trickle charge….. But alas on Friday noon as I shut it off 
for the first time  on the first leg of my weekend trip (at full a 190 
degree temp)  in my mothers driveway (-and of course, away from most of my 
tools…)   anyway, five minutes later, I went to leave, and upon turning the 
key, she just grunted…..  Oh man….

So after thinking a bit about what you had already posted me,  ( and of 
course before I had received this answer post ) I decided that the first 
course of action was to really SEE if I had a good ground.    I've carrying 
a voltmeter/ohmmeter tester with me now, so out it came…I started at the 
battery in the trunk to the actual wire in the cable and performed a 
continuity test: all OK!

Then I checked from the battery to the frame under the battery; OK.

Then, using a scrounged piece of romex wire I found in Mom's basement, ( to 
extend the reach of the test lead ) I moved forward all the way to the 
second ground strap that I have between the Left front motor mount bolt to 
steering box bolt:   OK all the way to that too. Not a bit of voltage drop 
whatsoever.

Then I checked right at the starter case to the engine block: also OK…

So now,   I KNEW   my ground system was 100% from battery all the way to 
starter case…..    -Tried starting the durn thing again,-just for the hell 
of it, And what do ya' know;   -she starts NORMAL.
        Spins right over like nobody's biznezz…..Whhhombah!
                         Go figure.     Must be ghosts….

So after pondering that a bit I decide to go off on the planned trip to the  
"Syracuse Nationals"  street rod event  100 miles north….  figuring that  
"I' m bad, I can fix anything"  I drove on about an hour and got to thinking 
about the positive side of the starting circuit……  remembered that I have 
one of those all metal, heavy duty, master shutoff switches wired in the 
positive line about a foot from the battery,  -and that I had'nt even looked 
at it since putting the car together, four years, 16,000 miles, and a trip 
to the salt ago…….

Hummmmmm….    I wonderrrrr……

found a Parts Plus  auto parts store along my route in a small town and 
decided  to shut'er on down, and went on in to buy some 14 gauge wire, and 
alligator clips to make a nice test lead with, -a 12" battery cable  (with 
two flat ends) in case I need to jump the terminals on the shut off switch, 
and at the last minute , some new flexible jumper cables too -"just in case" 
    ….came out, figured I'd probably end up fixing it right there 'cause ya' 
just    KNOW   "it ain't a-gunna" start, and what'da ya' know?   She again 
starts normally…. Whoooombah!

So off we go on down the road to Syracuse….    All weekend long she 
started,….like a good girl  -but occasionally she'd grunt, yet start, in 
protest.

I still have'nt checked the master shut off as I must remove, or move, the 
tailpipes, and rear roll pan, and sure did'nt want to do that on the trip.   
   I will do that this week though, and see if I can see anything  -and/or   
jump the terminals, or perhaps eliminate the thing out of the system    
-though I hate to as it serves as peace of mind for me when the car is 
parked because it's easy to "kill" the electrics disabling the car    
-'course I also have a hidden master inline fuel shut off, and a secret 
ignition circuit shut off that I use as well.   Somebody wants to steal  ol' 
Boogie Woogie, They're gonna hafta work for it!

        -That or have a rollback truck….     Huh boys?

So anyway, the jury's till out on the starting problems….-but we'll keep 
looking and let you all know what we've found  -for everyone's future 
reference   OK ?




Tom,   I will try your recommendations and procedure on checking the 
cranking voltage, though I will be cautious and hesitant as I've never done 
it before and "electrics"  baffle me at times!

    Again a special thanks to you for clearing up my confusion.



Doug Anderson   7/31/00


BTW:  "the Syracuse Nationals" had about 4,500 cars…..
                                  -About a dozen, were HOT RODS.

Had fun talking with THOSE guys though…  so it was a success in that regard, 
though it was HOT, MUGGY, and awful awful CROWDED….I broke out in a rash;too 
many "Street RodZ" all at one exposure.

Street Rodders sure are a different crowd, with different priorities, than 
Racers, and HOT Rodders….

                                    Thank you, but no thank you.













From: "Thomas E. Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>
Reply-To: "Thomas E. Bryant" <saltracer@awwwsome.com>
To: Doug Anderson <boogiewoogie12@hotmail.com>
CC: lsr_man@yahoo.com, land-speed@autox.team.net, DancinDye@aol.com,        
tinshed@ozemail.com.au, jgfiitzhu@providentbankmd.com,        
cbailey@sprise.com, beanracers@aol.com, av8ford@volcano.net,        
salt@ivec.net, hastingsv@aol.com, jungbec@aol.com,        
whodaky@sympac.com.au, hotrodprod@pdt.net, lsaltsman@telenet.net,        
saltsix@earthlink.net, SPLHAUGINC@aol.com, squarerollbars@yahoo.com,        
pvincent@poci.amis.com, kch@digisys.net
Subject: Re: Murphy's law, and Boogie Woogie's malady....THANKS Fellas!
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 17:22:02 -0700



Doug,

What you are doing with the voltmeter is reading the voltage difference
between two points. In other words how much voltage is used up to
overcome the resistance in the circuit. Kind of like reading the water
pressure at each end of a garden hose. If you hook the voltmeter to the
battery, (positive lead to positive post and negative lead to negative
post), it will read battery voltage, roughly 12.6 volts with no load,
could be higher if the engine was just shut down because the charging
system is set to produce 13.5 to over 14 volts. With the voltmeter still
connected to the battery  the reading while cranking will be
approximately 10 to 10.5 volts on a good system. That is how much
voltage the battery can produce with the starter operating. The reading
is also the voltage drop through the entire circuit.

By moving the negative lead back toward the positive side of the
circuit, from battery negative to the engine block, to the starter, to
the positive connection on the starter, to the battery post on the
solenoid, etc. a step at a time. With each move, part of the circuit is
eliminated from the voltmeter's reading and the voltage reading will be
reduced with each step back toward the positive post. Of course, the
biggest change will come when the lead moves to the positive side of the
starter, because the starter motor is eliminated from the reading.

I don't know how much you understand about electrical circuits, so I
have used lots of words to explain. The basic message is, to measure
voltage of a circuit the meter is connected in parallel, positive to
positive and negative to negative. An ammeter is hook up in series,
inside the circuit, all current used is passed through the meter (unless
an amp clamp is used, which measures amperage by sensing the magnetic
field created around the circuit as current passes through). Volt drop
is measured by connecting to the source and moving the other lead down
the same side of the circuit, further and further from the source.

If I could draw pictures with this thang it would be lots simpler to
explain. You really can;t hurt the voltmeter though unless you try to
run current through it.

Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/CC


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