Farrar's car blog

[Farrar]

I'm taking Dave Swingle's suggestion when starting this thread. This shall be the new home for the odd adventures of Sparky the AutoCarb -- or, rather, its owner -- namely, me.

First: I've not been driving the car regularly because it has a refrigerant leak in the evaporator which causes the a/c system to lose all refrigerant two days after a full charge. I am short of cash right now and so I thought perhaps before buying a new evaporator I would remove the current one, pinpoint the leak, and see if it could be repaired with e.g. JB Weld.

Second: It might be time for a new alternator. My current one (Houston's) has started to drop its output after warm-up. When I first start the engine, the volt gauge (verified accurate) reads about 14v, but even with no accessories on, it drops to 13v after the engine warms up.

Farrar

[nullset]

For some reason, I saw this as "Farrar's cat blog". I was wondering why you were starting a blog about your cat….

--buddy

[Farrar]

If I had a cat, I'd have even less time to work on my car! :P

Farrar

[stevedmc]

I have found that a 91 Saturn Alternator works nicely. You will need to use a few washers as a spacer when mounting it and you will need to swap pulleys. I figured out how to swap pulleys at home using a pipe wrench although rumor has it that Autozone might be able to swap pulleys for free.

[Mike C.]

I'm taking Dave Swingle's suggestion when starting this thread. This shall be the new home for the odd adventures of Sparky the AutoCarb -- or, rather, its owner -- namely, me.

First: I've not been driving the car regularly because it has a refrigerant leak in the evaporator which causes the a/c system to lose all refrigerant two days after a full charge. I am short of cash right now and so I thought perhaps before buying a new evaporator I would remove the current one, pinpoint the leak, and see if it could be repaired with e.g. JB Weld.

Second: It might be time for a new alternator. My current one (Houston's) has started to drop its output after warm-up. When I first start the engine, the volt gauge (verified accurate) reads about 14v, but even with no accessories on, it drops to 13v after the engine warms up.

Farrar

Hervey's now selling that main grounding cable on his site. Mine started doing the same thing that yours is doing, dropping voltage randomly... I figured I will give it a shot for 30 bucks. I will install it in the next 2 weeks and let you know if it does anything.

[Farrar]

Mine started doing the same thing that yours is doing, dropping voltage randomly...

Unfortunately, mine's not random. Within a few minutes, voltage is down to 13, and when I turn on the headlights, a/c, etc., it gets lower regardless of engine speed.

Still, a new grounding strap isn't a bad idea. I look forward to seeing how it goes for you.

Farrar

[stevedmc]

Unfortunately, mine's not random. Within a few minutes, voltage is down to 13, and when I turn on the headlights, a/c, etc., it gets lower regardless of engine speed.

Still, a new grounding strap isn't a bad idea. I look forward to seeing how it goes for you.

Farrar

I installed the new ground strap about 2 weeks ago and was pleased with the results. The new ground strap mounts to the original location (trailing bushing bolt) and there is an extension that goes from there to the transmission.

The only thing I didn't like was it was a little bit of a pain to remove/install the bolt attached to the trailing bushing but that isn't Hevey's fault.

I removed my old ground wire and was suprised that it seemed to be fine. I felt as if I had wasted my money on a new ground wire but upon installing it I was suprised to see that my volt meter reads about one volt higher than it did before. I guess a solid transmission ground really makes a difference.

[Farrar]

I guess a solid transmission ground really makes a difference.

Hmm. Perhaps it's time for me to use that 6-gauge cable I have lying in my tool closet and make a whole-car-ground-bus like Bill Robertson did...

Farrar

[uhhair]

I have found that a 91 Saturn Alternator works nicely. You will need to use a few washers as a spacer when mounting it and you will need to swap pulleys. I figured out how to swap pulleys at home using a pipe wrench although rumor has it that Autozone might be able to swap pulleys for free.

This post just made me think of an idea for an entirely new forum section: Available parts from other cars that will fit a delorean! It would be nice to have a thread where you could easily check available alternatives like this one that many people just aren't aware of.

[r00b]

Maybe you could have got away with cleaning the ends on your old ground cable.