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Duane, looking at the photo of the battery case, I noticed an interesting cable connection. Would you mind sharing with us what that is all about?

By the way, I replaced the metal battery cover in my 115C with one made of plywood. I used a thinner piece than you. Never felt safe with the way the metal one was secured. I have it saved in case the next owner wants to use it. Later on I moved the battery to the engine compartment.

You are luck you acted quickly and got the seat out of the car and prevented a much worse fire.

(o{}o)

JW, the extra battery cable connection made it possible to use a different battery to run the car into my garage while I am waiting for the seat bottom to get replaced. The upholstery shop sent the car back to me with a dead battery. The ground cable would not reach my extra battery from a different car and the 2nd cable made it work fine. It was only temporary as the battery was able to recharge just fine.
I am still waiting for the upholstery shop to get the seat back. When that is done I need to replace the exhaust gasket between the intake and exhaust manifolds.

I agree I was lucky to get the fire out as quickly as I did.

The 40 160 is back from the upholstery shop and it looks great.
Now to work on the exhaust leak which I should have done while the car was waiting for the upholstery.
Anyway, I removed the intake and exhaust manifolds because I had an exhaust leak. I took the manifolds to a machine shop who machined the parts that were worn and lined up the intake and exhaust manifolds so they would be flat/square with the engine and hopefully not have any more exhaust leaking. This is the 3rd time I have removed the manifolds for an exhaust leak. That's why I had a machinist mill the parts flat. This is a trusted machinist who works on these older engines in the Phoenix valley.
I have the engine back together, now just working on putting the fender back on.
I also removed and repaired the heater (because it was leaking).
I would like to install my 'new' AM tube radio but I need to move the heater over. Where can I get information as to where to move it to or is it just where I can get it to fit after the radio is installed?

The car is back together and is running. I have not put the heater back in because I want to install the radio first. At least I don't hear any lifter noise, at least that's what I thought I heard, it was the exhaust leak.
Now to drive it and then work on the other items.

If someone more knowledgeable would comment on whether this was a smart or stupid idea, it would be helpful, but while the seats were out I added sound-deadening material with adhesive to the floor and a foil mat over that. I also did my battery cover that way.

(About that toggle switch: I added a converter alongside the battery to get 12V Negative to my cigar lighter to charge my iPhone on longer treks. I leave it off most of the time.)

I'm not sure about wood being an insulator. I remember someone telling me back in the day that there was no chance this item would catch fire because the label said it was "highly INflammable." But I digress.

I sat on a wooden seat of Chris Becker's homemade Mercer replicar and I was fat enough that something touched something under me and smoke started coming from my seat just as in the limerick. The battery had started a fire.

An undated photo of the Mercer is also attached.

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If the material is all plastic and definitely not flammable then probably no issue. If it is positioned facing the battery I would still make sure the battery cables are far enough down or better yet have one of the rubber protectors over the hot connector so even if the lid fell down it couldn't puncture the stuff and short.

If the material has an aluminized mylar facing then I would be concerned about an accidental touching. There are plenty of reports of those mylar helium filled balloons getting away and winding up in power lines to prove how conducive that stuff is.

I drove the car to a car cruise and enjoyed the quiet ride. On the way home the ammeter showed no charging, it started out charging and then stopped. I turned off the lights and drove the back roads home. I heard it could be the brushes in my generator. I'll look to see if the generator is charging first.

I've had my generator rebuilt twice, replaced the voltage regulator several times, and I still have inconsistent charging. I'm at a loss...

Quote:
One poster fought intermittent charging issues for some time and problem finally turned out to be a bad connection at the ammeter. Failure to repolarize after removing, working on, or replacing the generator or regulator can also lead to erratic charging.

Also make sure the ground reference wire that connects the generator frame to regulator is intact with good clean connections. It should go from generator frame to a fender junction point and on to regulator. If there is no specific screw at the regulator it has to go to one of the mounting screws but should have direct contact with the regulator chassis. Some have connected the wire so it relies on a path thru mounting screws and rubber cushions. That type connection can result in a voltage drop and erratic charging if the resistance changes or the path opens and ground reverts back to various paths thru chassis metal..

I remember someone telling me back in the day that there was no chance this item would catch fire because the label said it was "highly INflammable."


A pet peeve of mine. As you note, the correct term for something that burns is "inflammable." The opposite is "non-flammable."
"Flammable" is made up but in common use, like "gage" for "gauge."

Pedantic rant over.