Hi all
Just to fill everyone in on the alternator saga and say thanks to
everyone for their help.
I visited Brian (our local TR guru) on Friday aft. Sure enough, the alt
was fully busted. Wouldn't even bootstrap at that point. Having
nothing pressing, we proceeded to strip it apart again. Tested all
individual components, regulator, diodes, everything works in
isolation. With an exasperated voice, Brian declared "So Rob, what do
you think, why doesn't it work when it's all together?"
"I have no idea, Brian" I replied.
"Well, I've had it. It's the first alt to beat me in 20 years. I'm
going upstairs to have some coffee. Why don't you put it back together,
I've already done it 4 times already. It's your turn." he declared.
15 minutes later, he returned to a reconstructed alt. Into the bench
test jig and........ IT WORKS! He politely told me to "Get the h*ll out
of here with it. I don't ever want to see it again." All with a smile
on his face. Looks great too as he bead blasted the body and painted
the fan. It's completely new now.
Back into the car and it working great. Up to a point. If I'm stuck at
a red light for a long time, the red IGN light will glow again when the
alt output drops below approx 12V. Malcolm Walker described roughly the
same conditions and he proposed fitting a smaller pulley to the alt.
I'll be giving this a try, I think, and let everyone know. The idle is
also a little low on my car so I'll be upping that a bit when I tune it
up. This may also help out. For now, the amount of time it is charging
(ie above 1500rpm) is a lot more than idling, so the battery is being
taxed only slightly to run the car instead of the alt output.
Now the next thing on the list. OD not working. Was under the car on
Sunday. OD solenoid has a good ground. With the column switch UP, open
circuit on the other OD connector (disconnected from the solenoid).
With column switch down, it's grounded(!?!?). Solenoid itself measures
a few ohms resistance so it appears OK.
Into the passenger foot well, peel the carpet back, locate the
yellow/green wire and disconnect. Wire to the column switch shows open
with switch up and 12V with switch down. (OK, I'm getting confused
here) Yellow/green wire leading into the trans tunnel shows open with
trans in neutral and grounded (0 ohms on a continuity meter) in ANY
gear, be it 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or reverse.
I'm resolved I have to go in under the trans tunnel to see that switch,
but I'm confused by my readings. If the switch is bad and shorted out,
I would have expected to blow a fuse when I flicked the column switch up
and down applying 12V to it. This didn't happen.
How does the switch work to allow the OD to work in 3rd and 4th. What
happens to that switch when the car is in 1st, 2nd, or reverse? How
could it be closing for all gears? Is the column switch wired
correctly? Is it down to activate the OD and up for off?
I also need a tune up desparately. Bear with me as I'm a product of
Hondas that a tune up consists of changing the plugs and air filter.
Can someone point me to a URL which describes (in hopefully gorey
detail) what's involved in a tune up for these cars. What to
replace/adjust for ignition system? What to replace/adjust for valves
etc.? My car has been converted to 2" SU carbs (from a Jag I've been
told) from the stock ZSs.
P.S. I also learned not to mess with fuses unless you have to. I
didn't know what size fuses to buy so I pulled them out one by one to
read them. After fiddling for several hours and driving it a bit, I
noticed the dash lights, driving lights, etc controlled by the dash
switch no longer worked. Having been behind the dash to pull the
voltmeter, I thought I'd managed to do something stupid. After a half
hour of jiggling this and pushing that, I thought "Doh!". Pulled the
fuse turned it 90 degress and put it back in, lights are back working.
This may also explain why anything with a purple 12V wire to it is
flakey right now. Time for a little polishing of the fuse holders I
think.
Rob Christopher
74.5 TR6 (nonworking OD, badly tuned 2" SU carbs, but now a functioning
alt)
Ottawa, ON
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Christopher | | | | robc@cisco.com
Hardware Engineer | .|||. .|||. | (613) 274-4075
Cisco Systems | ..:|||||||:...:|||||||:.. |
Ottawa, Ontario |---------------------------| http://www.cisco.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|