Katz

Howdy!

Since I reconfigured my carbs to be direct instead of sequential linkage I've noticed my idle has been a bit higher. Instead of the more fun/scary/lopey idle between 500-800 it's much closer to 1000 or even as high as 1200. Sometimes revving the engine a bit and it will drop down to 700 or so where it should be.... any ideas as to what is causing this? Is something stuck somewhere?

Second, my ammeter works and is installed. Yahoo! I'm a tad confused about what it means by what it reports, though. While driving during the day it will sometimes dip down to the - side when I hit the brakes and while under normal cruise it will be even or pop to the + side for a bit. At night, with the lights on, radio blaring, and sometimes the heater turned on it will stay on the - side. That makes sense. However, if it stays on - for too long will that eventually run my battery down? Does the ammeter just show there is a draw on the electrical system as a whole, and the generator and the battery will continue to have enough juice for the forseeable future? I'm a little confused (being a youngin' who's used to voltmeters in cars.)

Thanks in advance! :cheers:

Chuck Gongloff

Regarding your carb idle problem, sounds like sticky linkage...on the carbs themselves, or the linkage itself, or on the throttle rod on the firewall. That should be fairly easy to troubleshoot. Regarding the ammeter, you should show a charge while driving. When/if you turn on the lights, etc., at speed, you should show a charge, otherwise your battery is discharging. Now, if you're at idle, with the lights on, and your foot on the brake pedal, etc, and the engine idle is low, you will show a discharge, but when you get back up to speed, it should go + again. Your present situation might be "normal" as you don't say at which idle speed this occurs. It might be a simple matter of adjusting the voltage regulator. It's been awhile since I've done this, and I have to dig out my old Motors Repair Manual when I do it, but basically you heat the engine up, which heats up the regulator. You remove the regulator cover. You'll find 3 adjustments, the current regulator terminal, the "voltage" regulator terminal, and the "cutout". Generators are a bit "funkier" than alternators. Hope this helps. Chuck

62fuelie

Your ammeter indications sound perfectly normal. Generators usually won't charge much if all at idle speed, so your foot on the brake will show a discharge from the brake lights.

Katz

Yeah, even at speed I'll show a little draw (at night with the heater, stereo, and lights going,) but revving it up when parked (for <10 seconds) will bring it back to even and it will hold at even at idle after that. I haven't wound up with a dead battery, or one that couldn't crank the car over (yet) so it isn't time for me to adjust the regulator (I don't think...)

I'm now more worried as to why I was down a quart of oil when I gassed up the car today. Note I changed the oil two weeks ago... it showed fine the last time I gassed it up (Monday) so something in the past 3-5 days caused a bunch of oil to vanish :( No magic blue smoke and there have been no obvious leaks, either. I'll keep an eye on it and report back.

62fuelie

At any sort of speed above idle, you really shouldn't be showing a discharge, even with the lights and heater on. The standard generator pulley is 3-5/8", and the HP pulley is 4". The engines with the 4" pulley are more susceptable to low output, due to lower generator speed. I cheat and use a 3" pulley on my 62. With the FI, I have to idle at about 900-1000 RPM, and with the 3" pulley, I almost never see a discharge. :D The down side is that if I wind the engine up a lot, I'm going to shorten the life of the generator. Since I rarely get over 3500-4000 RPM, it isn't an issue.