Did your voltmeter go off the top of the scale?
I had an alternator fail....
it's failure mode was NO regulation and would peg
my voltmeter off the top of the scale.
At highway speeds I'd have to take it out of gear briefly
to drop the engine rpms to get the regulator to
break back in to proper regulation. This was an
intermittent problem. Dropping the revs... got
the volts back down and it would stay .
When it would break out of regulation and the voltage
would go sky high... it's actually the alternator diodes
and electrical contacts degrading.
The little burst of power you felt ... I believe
is from the engine load being removed
(magnetic fields generating power) it feels like a
little burst of power i.e.: like when an A/C compressor
in a car turns on/off ....you can feel the power in
the engine change.
Do the Delco swap. :-)
Paul Tegler wizardz@toad.net http://www.teglerizer.com
-----Original Message-----
From: paul.hunt1@virgin.net <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
To: H. W. (Sandy) McCullough <smccullough@quixnet.net>; mgs@autox.team.net
<mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Saturday, December 23, 2000 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: Electrical Gremlin
>When you say 'the engine surged' do you mean you got a surge or power and
>hence accelleration? Or did the revs rise as if you had dipped the clutch?
>Or what? Can't think how anything electrical would cause a significant
>engine power/revs surge. If you had been running with no advance and that
>suddenly came in you would notice it but hardly as a surge. Did the lights
>etc only fail when the surge finished or at the start? Did the lights get
>noticeably brighter at any time or not?
>
>You should have four equally rated fuses in the 4-way block of a 72 - which
>two (bottom two? Top two?) blew? The fuses can blow either because of a
>short on the load, or a massive over-voltage on the supply. Two blown two
>fuses implies the latter, which would have been accompanied by a
significant
>brightening of any lights. The head lights don't go through any fuses,
only
>the 'side' or 'parking' lights - one per side (the top two). The turn
>signals and instruments all go through the 2nd fuse up (white to green).
>
>The tach comes off the green circuit same as the turn signals, the fuel and
>temp gauges do go though the voltage stabiliser, which is usually on the
>drivers side and has a green wire on one side and a light-green/green on
the
>other. There is a 4-way connector behind the dash with one of the wires
>feeding both tach and stabiliser, another wire feeds the turn signals.
>Chances are there is a problem in the green from the 4-way to the tach (and
>thence to the stabiliser).
>
>PaulH.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: H. W. (Sandy) McCullough <smccullough@quixnet.net>
>To: <mgs@autox.team.net>
>Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 7:26 PM
>Subject: Electrical Gremlin
>
>
>> I think I must have a gremlin! (His name is Lucas). I have never seen or
>> heard of a problem like this, so I'm hoping someone has.
>>
>> Was cruising down a local hiway in my 72 B at 65 MPH when the engine
>surged
>> for about 5 seconds. When the surge was over, I had lost lights, turn
>> signals, tach, fuel gage, temp gage, and had blown the two largest fuses
>in
>> the box. The car kept running and I finished my short trip. I replaced
>the
>> fuses and the lights and turn signals work, but still no tach, fuel or
>temp
>> gage.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Thanks for the help.
>>
>> H. W. "Sandy" McCullough
>> 72 and 68 B roadsters.
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