Re: Larry's 1951 Club Sedan Project

Posted by Larry51 On 2014/7/17 7:10:14

The engine has been fitted for a few months now and started a dozen times, but just with the basic hook-up of battery to coil and starter etc. The '00'-gauge battery lead was renewed, and the original earth lead ( still in good condition) cleaned up. Pleased to have the original cut-off switch (isolator) which works aok. I'll keep that bit of original stuff seeing it is in working order.

So after the wiring harness had gone in (with the dashboard) and been routed around the engine bay and all the other places, and connected up, I was keen to see if the charging circuit was working OK. The generator had been overhauled and tested (- using the 'motor method', where I connected 6volts to it and it ran).

The condition of the generator was a surprise when it was dismantled for inspection. Apart from the usual build-up of dirt (mainly dust) every internal part looked very good. Brushes were not very worn, bearings good, commutator was excellent and armature good also. Checked for burns / rubs and shorts , cleaned everything, reassembled it and painted the body black. Plus I used my blackening kit to chemically blacken the brush cover so it now looks like it is new (or close enough to new).

I cleaned up the best one of the three Delco regulators I have but did no adjustments to contacts etc.

So it was really pleasing to find that the charging circuit was working OK, putting around 7.8volts into the battery. I'll adjust the output of the regulator to the prescribed 7.2 - 7.4volts next time I run the engine. And maybe touch up the reg contacts as well if they need it.

While the engine was running I tried all the lights / indicators and discovered a couple of interesting 'faults' if you could call them that.

Firstly (before starting the car) it was puzzling to see a constant drain of around 200mA from the battery when I had nothing at all switched on. Spent a long time double and triple checking every part of the new harness for a partial (high resistance) ground or whatever. No problems at all, and despite isolating as much of the wiring as I could the drain was always there. Well - by chance, when I was laying under the dash checking again I put my hand on the metal dash near the cigar lighter, and presto!! The whole area was slightly warm. There was a high resistance short from the lighter battery feed. Cleaned up the lighter and case, which had a lot of carbon built up from fags. That fixed the problem. One for the books I reckon.

The only other problem is the LH flasher is not flashing and is super-bright. A lengthy check of the circuit hasn't shown any wiring fault so I'm going to wait until I get the front guards fitted, and the front indicators wired in final configuration with proper earthing etc. Then I have a feeling the fault will be righted, as it is looking like an alternate path is bypassing the flasher unit somehow just on that indicator. Other one works ok. My wiring is ok as far as I can tell, so will get on with other things and fix it later.

Altogether a real milestone I reckon, getting the electrics all connected and working.