Your ammeter should read zero after the battery is charged no matter what
is on! My guess as to where the problem lies is either in the regulator,
ammeter or MSD box. Really narrows it down eh? First, is the adjustable
regulator wired properly? does it switch (control) the A & F wires? these
are the wires that turn the alternator on and off. Yours is a 75 with a ford
right? Where does your adjustable regulator detect voltage from? Yours may
require the S terminal to be connected to detect voltage, no connection
could mean the regulator thinks the battery is dead and thus goes full
charge. What brand regulator is it? how is it wired? How long have you had
these problems? the last thing you did before the problem started is usually
the a good place to start looking.
The ammeter could be a problem if it is not wired properly but if you have
not changed in it's circuit it is probably not the problem. If you have done
something to the ammeter, undo it and check the wiring. Ammeters usually
(not necessarily on a Bricklin) have a "shunt" hooked up in the circuit so
all charge amps don't go through the gauge.
Now for the MSD box, I have a friend that a charging system problem as soon
as he installed his MSD and yes it was on a ford with the same charging
system as the Bricklin. After six months and visits to no less than a dozen
experts he still couldn't find the problem. After some investigation as to
when the problem started we isolated the MSD as the problem (we took it
out). This could have been a freak thing so check your reg first. This fix
is ONLY if the problem started when you first installed your MSD. What I did
to solve his problem was to install a diode in the power line to the MSD
box, I also installed a capacitor. The diode was a surplus one I had laying
around but one but one rated for about 120 volts and about five times the
max amp draw of the MSD should work fine. for the capacitor I just used an
old condenser from a points style distributor. My theory was that the MSD
box was 'polluting' the 12Volt system with AC and screwing up the regulator.
It worked in this case but that was several years ago and it may have been a
bad MSD box to start with or MSD may have changed their systems since then.
As a side thought MSD used to and maybe still does make a direct replacement
for the stock ford box. It was marketed by Ford Motorsport under their
brand. It was even in the stock 'package' but was designed as a blue
grommet. I don't have any experience with these on a brick but have used
them on other fords with very good luck.
----- Original Message -----
From: alphachi <alphachi@writeme.com>
To: <Bricklin@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 11:26 AM
Subject: Expert Help needed...Rick, anyone?: Confusion over ammeter
> What should the ammeter read? Mine is pegging even with only the a/c
> running. I thought the ammeter should only read the actual charge being
> applied to the battery to maintain a constant voltage. If so, where
might
> the problem be?
> Getting very tired of replacing cooked alternators. The car has been
> modified with a MSD-6 box, pro-billet dist, coil, and tach adapter. Could
> the source of the problem be there? BTW, the regulator has also been
> replaced.
> stephan #2821
>
>
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