Ladies and Gentlemen of the Lists!
Your vacation from me is over as my vacation is also over and I'm back from
my trip to my wife's native Poland. A good time was had by all, but being
back in the states means it's time to get cracking on the Midget again. I
think some real progress was made on my latest two concerns:
Carb Float Bowl Overflow
Gave the grose jets (spelling?) a good clean to make sure they weren't
sticking, put new gaskets in and a new fuel filter while I was at it and no
overflow. Yahooo! I actually wanted to change the jets and as part of my
rebuild kit I got new needles and seats, but I couldn't get the old jets
out easily so I thought I'd just try a thorough cleaning with the carb
cleaner first. I've got the plastic float assemblies. Do I just get a
wrench on the dang things and bully 'em out? I didn't have the right sized
wrench or I may have already tried that. :)
Battery Dead, No Start without Jump and Dieing on the Road
Alternator. Got the nice shiney new multi-plug connector crimped on and
soldered tight. This allowed me to do the test. Started the car and
warmed it up. Unplugged the alternator. Touched positive lead of
multi-meter to center post of alternator connector and negative to housing
of alternator. Reading was zilch, nada, 0 volts. Just to test myself, I
plugged the connector back in, took off the back of the plastic connector
so I could touch the lead and repeated same test with multi-meter. This
time I got about 10 volts. Probably right since I'm not sure I charged up
the battery all the way from when it ran dead and I've been running it a
little since then while I was doing various tests.
So, anyone got a line on a nice alternator for a 1974 Midget? :) I can
order non-Lucas locally for about $80 if I recall correctly (other places
went to more around $100. Motorhead is $165 for Lucas and Moss is $135ish
for Lucas, but they specify that it is a replacement type from Lucas. Do
folks think it has to be Lucas? I lean that way, but I know Frank C. and
others have done marvelously with Mitsubishi. I just don't want the extra
effort of the bracket conversions though.
Thanks for letting me share the progress. Things are coming along.
Philip
1974 Damask Midget - Arioch, Lord of Chaos
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