Cletus' 68 Plymouth Valiant

[cletus]

Went to father's day drags. Improved PB slightly to 11.35@120 which was good

Missed second round of DYO because it wouldn't start, flat battery. 

Jump started it and managed to get home and it had charged the batt again..  checked charge voltage and it was low. 

Took alternator to sparky mate, he put it on testing machine, was low on output, changed reg, still poor , had blown diode. 

Turns out the guy who I'd asked to get a decent alternator when I put the car together had supplied me a China copy bosch 

Got a genuine bosch one, fitted it and improved the heat shielding a bit as it's close to the exhaust. 

Now doesn't charge at all. 

Checked connections, checked ergs at correct spots etc, zip. 

Took it off again, had it tested on testing machine, it works fine . Put back on car, nothing . Checked everything 5 times, it's got me stumped . Everything that should make it work, does what it should, and it's wired exactly the same as before 

 

Sparky is going to come have a look this weekend as I'm all out of ideas  

 

 

[cletus]

Nick the sparky came and had a look. 

My wiring from the alternator is a bit on the small side and not the right type of wire. He made a test wire to bypass that, alternator was charging but it still wasn't charging at the battery 

 there was a large voltage drop in one section of the battery cable that runs from front to back 

He said that was very uncommon and likely would have been why the original alternator shit itself 

Whipped the cable out and he's going to make a new one with the right stuff 

 

Pretty pleased to know what is wrong, I never would have figured that out myself

 

[cletus]

Ha, nope

On to week 7 of not being able to figure it out. 

Alternator tests fine on test machine

Alternator does not work on car 

Replaced battery cable, earth wire, made separate earth for alt, made bigger alt wire, wiring does what it should at alternator plug, bypass all this with another battery and sense wire completely separate to the car , nothing 

The alternator light flashes occasionally but alternator makes no charge. 

Nick the sparky is rather puzzled also as to why it doesn't work 

 

He has done more testing on the alternator this week and it works so fucked if I know. 

 

If it doesn't work this time I think I'll give up and adapt something else to it 

[cletus]

Progress

Went to pick a part and found a very second hand alternator the same, on an aussie assembled mitsi magna with 300k on it 

Cleaned all the shit off and swapped pulley off some other one I had in stock 

And it works. 

So that rules the car side out of it, must be a problem in the new alternator 

 

[cletus]

OK.

Since that last post, Nick the sparky got a replacement, new alternator again, tried that, no go. 

Took it off again, put regulator from 300km alt in to new one, worked.

So regulators are the issue, that's a total of three different new regs either in new alternators or from a bosch box that didn't work

Nick spoke to the warranty guy at their supplier who said "oh yeah, we've had a few problems with those"

Fffffssssss

Nick found a new old stock reg which had bosch part number etc on it , put that in , he came around this evening and we bolted it back on. Warranty guy said the alternator light MUST be 2 watt as well so replaced that (it was 3watt)  

So now I'm back to 14.2v with an all new alternator . Huzzah 

 

I must say, Nick has been an absolute top level GC, I think we are up to 5 visits in his own time coming out to my house to sort this problem out 

Ron wood auto electrical is his business , in Western springs 

[cletus]

Springs

So after a couple of drag meets I'd noticed the right side was sagging a little bit, it was about 15mm lower. I'd always known the rear suspension would need a bit of help and I think the spring has had a bit of a tweak from being shaped like Steven hawkings spine 

The pinion snubber has been working hard as well, it's actually deformed the body side, and the witness marks show the pinion snubber bump stop has been squashed to the point the bracket has hit the floor. I think this was probably at Hampton downs as where I was doing skids there was a bump that you can hit which unloads the tyres to get it spinning 

At os drags I'd put a camera under its bum to see what's happening and it was quite interesting

The spring gets quite twisted and the left rear tyre gets squashed a lot more than the right side due to the diff wanting to rotate

The car always feels quite flat though . The VG used to do the opposite,  it would squat considerably on the drivers side 

Perhaps it's because the fatty driving it is in the right place for ballast haha 

 

 

[cletus]

Ages ago someone gave me some mopar super stock springs which are meant to be pretty good for these things, I never really thought much about using them though because they are a bit wierd,  they are different side to side with different shape and length leaves in the pack, apparently to counter the torque effect 

I thought I'd try them so put them in 

The leaves are considerably thicker (7.5mm vs 6mm originally)and the front eye bolt is bigger, plus they have a bigger arch so I knew it would raise it a bit, so I put them in and took it around the block. It is definitely stiffer, but not unpleasant,  the height is now within 5mm per side, but looks dumb so I pulled them back out to get reset 50mm lower 

 

 

[cletus]

New springs made it more consistent,although slightly slower. Different wheels and muffler off when it did the 11.35 previously 

11.5@118 every pass 

I have turned the 2 step rev limit down slightly as it was having trouble holding on the brake which I can probably fiddle with to improve 

 

I'd like to get it down to 11.0 so it's more competitive at the night drags 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kdfGgT2pKHw&pp=ygUMVW5kZXJjYXJ2aWV3

[cletus]

The steel wheels on it are very heavy. 

When it did its quickest time it had some very light cragar super tricks on the front. They were popular in the 70s but the internet reckons there's not many around these days because they were prone to failure. I bought them ages ago from a guy who took them off his car because they made creaking noises when doing tight turns, they were very cheap.

 

They weigh as much as a bag of chips and are a bit sketchy, also the tyres were right on the limit speed rating and load rating wise. Plus I had to run a 5mm spacer which I did not like. I only did 2x passes with them on and didn't like it 

So I've had my eye out for a second set of wheels suitable for drag racing 

Being an impressionable teenager in the 90s who read street machine magazine a lot I've always wanted a set of weld draglites.

They don't come up often second hand, I found a set a while ago but they were not wide enough. You can still buy them new but they are pricey  

Picked these up today, 15x5 and 15x8. Tried them on then got the tyres off, they are very fucked.

They need a polish but should tidy up well

 

Anybody know a good polishing place in south auckland?