| Author |
Message |
Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Junior Member
Username: Tuttebenne
Post Number: 114
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 7:40 am: | |
Mike's overcharging alternator experience is interesting and worth following up on. With regard to the charging light staying on, I don't think its a problem if it goes out, and stays out once the revs go past a certain point. On a cold start, my alternator light stays on until revs pass 1500-1800 then it goes out. Its done this for 17 years and I suspect it is designed this way. I also had a P-car (a weak moment in my life) that did the same thing. |
Richard Ham (Hampappy)
New member
Username: Hampappy
Post Number: 13
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 2:40 am: | |
Mike, I wanted to do the alternator some time anyway. The charge light doesn't go off immediately when cold and the bearings are a bit noisy. I'll check the voltage coming off it. If its a component-frying 17v, I guess it'll be coming out sooner, ( and thanks to F-chat it's clear that this is a pig of a job.)
Otherwise I thought a sort of switchable hot wire to the coil would show something when it happens again.
Mike, I don't think there's a rev limiter on this car. Slightly worrying really. Just out of interest what does happen if you don't lift off at 7500 rpm ? (seriously, do they blow up?, I'd like to know !!)
Thanks to y'all |
Mike Procopio (Pupz308)
Member
Username: Pupz308
Post Number: 344
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 10:37 pm: | |
I had similar issues, intermittently. I suspected a coil, and had both replaced. Shortly thereafter, I discovered the alternator was bad (putting old 17 volts, and also < 12 volts intermittently).
It's a long story involving nuking a catalytic converter and blowing a header. The exact same thing had happened to the previous owner some 2k miles before. The long and short of it is, I now suspect that the faulty alternator caused the misbehavior in the coils, and since having my alternator rebuilt, I have had no further issues with losing banks.
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Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Junior Member
Username: Tuttebenne
Post Number: 109
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 8:43 pm: | |
I've had a bad coil wire cause a very similar problem. I can't confirm what the tach was doing when the spark would go south but it acted just like a rev limiter. Any way of inspecting them or replacing them for testing purposes? |
Steve (Steve)
Member
Username: Steve
Post Number: 361
Registered: 2-2001
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 7:37 pm: | |
Not familiar with the ignition system you have but it is either the signal from the electronics sending a signal to the coil or there is a rev limiter going south. How did this start to happen? Do you still have points? The tach usually runs off of the front (cockpit side) coil so if your tach goes to 0 this is the coil. Also the coil could be overheating . To many unknowns , need more info. |
Richard Ham (Hampappy)
New member
Username: Hampappy
Post Number: 12
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 4:20 pm: | |
When the car�s been running for a couple of hours, the spark to one bank fails over 5000 rpm. Under 5000 rpm it comes back. It�s the ignition because the tacho suddenly reads zero rpm and then also comes back, and the wiring diagram shows the tacho takes its signal from one of the coils.
Could it be a condenser?, bad connection?, microswitch for the retarded points? I can�t think what would fail at high rpm and then be ok at lower speed. It was repeatable any number of times, but when the engine is cooler, it runs up to 7000 rpm just fine.
I looked through the archives at the (many) threads on ignition and basically gave myself a head-ache.
The car has two red �Speedatron� electronic ignition boxes in the boot but I don�t know if these use the original points, or one or two distributors. Anybody got these?
Hoping to have a crack at it tomorrow but it sure would be easier if some guru could say what it is.
Thanks in advance, all advice gratefully received....
RH |
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