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

[FrankCB at aol.com]

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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