<VV> How a simple electrical problem can mess a trained brain

[D. Monasterio]

Hi Frank,
    In fact, I am a fan of meters, like you are. In my Rampside there are, appart from the gauges on it's Spyder dash, a voltmeter, oil temp meter (engine & diff.), oil manometer and air manometer (has a compressor for tools). The Cpe. used to have an old J.C. Whitney's computer which had an integrated voltmeter but, it failed a year ago and I became lazy on installing an in dash voltmeter.
    I use to carry a bag (appart from usual tool box) with tools like DC/AC clamp multimeter, infrared thermometer and electrical stuff but, this time, I forgot it in the Rampside as forgot spare electrical parts. Didn't pay attention on parts I would need as it was a short trip and, by the way things happen, the most I'll need are some spare neurones.... could fix it with just a paper clip !!
    The car gave me a warning which I didn't associate with low charge as the electric windows became slow at half trip.
    Do you know about a good source for NOS or good used neurones ?
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: FrankCB at aol.com 
  To: dmonasterio at megared.net.mx ; virtualvairs at corvair.org 
  Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 8:56 PM
  Subject: Re: <VV> How a simple electrical problem can mess a trained brain


  Daniel,
      Congrats on finally finding and fixing the problem.  Your story points up the value of adding a VOLTMETER to the instrument panel.  With that you could have had sufficient warning that you weren't charging the battery BEFORE the problem
  completely disabled you.  A similar thing happened to me many years ago (3+ decades) driving at night when I noticed that the voltmeter I had added to the car showed that the charging system, while still charging, was losing ground to the electrical load on the car.  So I pulled off the highway at an exit, found a place to pull safely off the street and found that the fan belt was slipping a bit.  All it took was a quick tightening of the belt and the full charging voltage was restored.  But without that voltmeter I probably would have pulled down the battery too much for a restart and been stuck at night looking for a jump start.
      Frank "gauges are good" Burkhard  


  In a message dated 10/21/2007 12:55:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dmonasterio at megared.net.mx writes:
      Yesterday I went (with 2 partners) on a trip to Salamanca Gto. (350 miles rt), on my 67 Cpe. It was running and speeding real fine till we made an stop on the way back (80 miles from home at 6 PM). The starter didn't put enough force to start engine so, I checked for dirty connections at the battery, loose groundind, enough electrolite..... all good. Conclusion: Alternator was not charging and didn´t have spare parts in the trunk to fix it nor were auto parts stores open on the town we were so, got a new battery at a general store, just to have enough electricity to arrive home (saving as much light as possible). Arrived home safely.
        Today I dissmantled the alternator (internally regulated), without taking it out, (belt loosening only) and checked all parts: carbon contacts, diodes, regulator, etc. All was OK but, changed carbon contacts and regulator as I had new ones at hand. Assembled It and started engine. Checked charging with the VOM.... no charge. Dissconected the plug with the white and blue wires, for cleanliness, and then.... discovered the cause of the problem: the blue wire was broken at the terminal. Put a new terminal, connected to the alternator and.... still no charging. Put my 3 remaining neurones to work and found out that have forgotten to remove the small steel wire that holds the carbon contacts for assembling. Pulled it out and.... Voila !! Charging again.
        Felt really stupid. If I would payed more attention (yesterday) could discovered that broken blue wire, fixed it in minutes, saved US$ 67 and didn´t feel embarrased as I do.
        Most of the time common sense and observation is better than knowledge.

        Daniel Monasterio







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