Farrar's car blog

[stevedmc]

You're not going???...I must of missed that (Sucky Mods?).
I was hoping you would hold Farrar's hand (literally) and pull a few plug wires to brave him up.

I'm the host so yes, I'm not going anywhere until we leave for the cruise in.

Farrar is worried his car might catch fire so he is staying home. I told him that only happens at 88 mph but he won't believe me.

Yeah, I was looking forward to swapping carbs with him.

[Farrar]

Any luck with the relay work?

No; I spent this morning study for a German exam, and this afternoon taking it. (My score is somewhere between 77 and 95. So at least I know I passed.) After that I had to do laundry, spend some time with my girlfriend before she leaves tomorrow for a 13-day trip to New York, and start studying for Monday's Biology exam.

If I am lucky, I will be able to pull the delay module tomorrow and see what happens.

I still have the carburetor off the intake manifold and the intake plenums sealed up with tape. Also, the battery is disconnected. The car is not going anywhere any time soon...

Farrar

[Farrar]

I think Sparky's torsion bars need a tweak. I have PJ Grady door struts, which are supposed to be the best; they're less than two years old. Today it was 72°F and the dew on the passenger door caused it to be so heavy that it hit me in the back when I was getting in the car -- the door wouldn't hang open more than a few inches on its own. But I suppose just to be safe I will buy a new set of door struts, since cool weather is coming. Maybe I will go back to Hervey's "soft lift" struts to prevent the doors from bouncing when the torsion bars are adjusted up a notch.

Farrar

[sean]

I think Sparky's torsion bars need a tweak.

Pull the struts and let the doors hang, how much gap is left?

[Farrar]

Pull the struts and let the doors hang, how much gap is left?

I think I did this test two summers ago when it was very hot outside; the doors hung open maybe an inch or two. I know they're supposed to hang open a little more than that, but I put Grady struts on and the problem seemed to go away (except in cool or cold weather).

I will do the test again this weekend when it should be about 80°F outside. If the doors don't hang open, I guess there's a roof panel problem; if the doors hang open the same amount as 18 months ago, I guess it's time to up the torsion a notch?

Farrar

In an effort to help out someone who was having alternator troubles I looked up some wiring diagrams of charging circuits. I have always read that you can't put an LED bulb in your battery indicator socket because the circuit requires a certain amount of resistance to function and the bulb provides that whereas an LED unit would not; and also that if you lost the bulb the circuit would not charge because this would break the circuit.

Here's a thought: has anyone measured the resistance across a stock battery indicator bulb? Why not put a resistor of that strength in parallel with the bulb? That way your alternator would still charge if the bulb burned out. Would that also allow you to replace the bulb with an LED module? That would seem to kill two birds with one stone. I am no electrical engineer, so I'll need someone to explain to me why this will or won't work.

Farrar

[Bitsyncmaster]

In an effort to help out someone who was having alternator troubles I looked up some wiring diagrams of charging circuits. I have always read that you can't put an LED bulb in your battery indicator socket because the circuit requires a certain amount of resistance to function and the bulb provides that whereas an LED unit would not; and also that if you lost the bulb the circuit would not charge because this would break the circuit.

Here's a thought: has anyone measured the resistance across a stock battery indicator bulb? Why not put a resistor of that strength in parallel with the bulb? That way your alternator would still charge if the bulb burned out. Would that also allow you to replace the bulb with an LED module? That would seem to kill two birds with one stone. I am no electrical engineer, so I'll need someone to explain to me why this will or won't work.

Farrar

Yes, a resistor would probably work for both a burned out bulb or use of an LED. The bulb should really never burn out since it's not lighted unless the alternator is bad. Maybe when I start doing my binical LED changes I will look into that posibility.

[Farrar]

Well, now, this is totally weird.

As y'all know, I had trouble with the interior lights staying on even with both doors closed, so I removed the fuse from the circuit to stop the lights being on all the time.

Tonight, I needed to be inside the car with lights on to pick up a few lines of dialogue (picking up where the previous video left off), so I disconnected the battery, put the fuse back in its slot, and connected the battery again. The lights did not come on.

After a minute, I remembered that I had disconnected the door plunger switches, so I re-connected them, then disconnected the battery and connected it again. Still no lights. I pulled the fuse and checked that the terminals had not been pushed down, made sure the fuse was OK, and re-installed the fuse. Still no lights.

I did not have the time to get out my relay pliers and remove the module, but since I have Dave M's new dimming module I highly doubt it is at fault. So now I have to figure out what could cause my problem to reverse itself! This is all very odd indeed.

Ah, well. I suppose I will get to that another day.

Farrar

Random thought: is it bad that I am trying now to get my car ready for the trip to Orlando next year? I definitely need to get the air conditioning done by then.

Farrar

My new dome light fixtures arrived today! Brian and Steve, I will set yours aside in a safe place. They were so well-packed that even the bulbs they shipped with were 100% OK.

In other news, I hope this weekend to have a chance to put the carburetor back on top of the intake manifold with new gaskets and a spacer, then re-gap the plugs to .035", remove the ballast resistor, and see what happens.

Farrar

[Farrar]

Here are some pictures of the new dome light fixture. It looks like a perfect fit for the front; not sure about
the rear yet.

SANY0951.jpg

SANY0959.jpg

I took a lot more pictures, but only two have managed to upload, so for now this is all I can share.

Farrar

[Bitsyncmaster]

Can you check how they fit and stay put, mounted in the car?

I like the lens on those more so then the new ones I got.

[Farrar]

Can you check how they fit and stay put, mounted in the car?

I will do this when I get home tonight.

Here's a better view of the lens.

SANY0955.jpg

Farrar