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? 

 

 

 

 

[cletus]

I wanted some dog dish type hub caps, did some research, it's quite difficult to find a 10-1/8 cap that has the right shape, the wheels are a reproduction of 60s chev or Ford wheels so the caps you can get have ford or chev emblems on them. Mopar caps are smaller and don't fit this style of wheel

 

I took a punt on some chrome dome type caps but I don't think I like it, there's too much of a dome shape to them, reminds me of a vw wheel 

[cletus]

Went to chrome at Hampton downs for the weekend,  gave it all the beans, took heaps of randoms for a ride , did a lot of skids, used quite a lot of fuel 

It was good fun and I was pleased with how it handled a beating , until it decided to do a power glide conversion on itself and delete second gear. Came out of a corner and floored it, and it went nowhere

Still had first and third gear and wasn't making any puddles or noises so drove home , pulled the pan off and it's broken the second gear band apply lever, which is an upgraded aftermarket one

I think I can replace it without pulling the box out 

There's a bit of sparkly stuff in the pan and on the filter but I dunno if it's anything to worry about, I changed the fluid a year ago but this is the first time i have taken the pan off since it was built 

I'll have a chat with the guy that built it and see what the best plan is

 

 

[cletus]

There was more hold ups with freight getting a new lever out of the states so Eric from WAER pulled a lever out of one of his own boxes to get me going again 

Managed to swap it out without pulling the box.  I was anticipating much swearing and for it to be a cunt of a job

 

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was, just needed a long 1/4 extension with a wobbly end to get the bung out that holds the band apply lever pin in 

The band anchor had fallen out so had to drop the valve body to get that back in the right spot 

 

 

Reassembled and bands adjusted 

 

Done for today, I'm going to mod the pan tomorrow,  I've never been a fan of the drain plug , it's the lowest point on the car apart from the exhaust so I'll cut it out and make a new one somewhere else 

[cletus]

All done and back in action 

Pan is still quite low but at least the little bump & drain plug are not hanging down as something to get caught on things 

I added a drain at the back of the pan , it's only a 6mm bolt and not at the bottom but it's not like changing the trans oil is going to be a regular event, it's not that hard to drop the pan off to drain it completely 

Side note it takes 10l of trans fluid 

 

 

 

[cletus]

[cletus]

Got the draglites polished and tyres on, some 175 65 on the front and Hoosiers on the back with the white lettering removed

 can actually use full steam ahead in 1st and 2nd without it doing wheelspins so maybe I need a better tyre for general use 

 

[cletus]

shameless self promotion, but here we are

 

1968 Plymouth Valiant — Turbo Sleeper "Regular John" | NZV8

[cletus]

Did some tuning on the weekend 

The carb situation has always been a bit poos for light throttle stuff

With a blow thru carb , in very basic terms you jet the primaries for cruise, light load stuff, and rely on the power valve to richen it up under boost, so at bigger throttle openings or coming on boost, the power valve opens and dumps fuel in.

The secondaries just get jetted to suit WOT

On a blow thru carb the power valve gets boost referenced so it opens at the right time, as it's possible to have boost above the carb but vacuum under it which keeps it closed

So the guy that set my carb up had an arrangement of vacuum from under the throttle with a one way valve, a t piece with an adjustable valve that goes to the hat, and this arrangement of bullshit makes the power valve open at the right time in theory

 

The problem is it's incredibly sensitive and hard to get right, the tiniest movement of the adjusting valve makes the pv act differently and can go from rich as bill gates to backfiring lean , and particularly when it's cold if the vacuum drops too much the pv opens and blump blump blumps out black smoke 

So I got a boost activated power valve instead

Normally a power valve is open, until vacuum sucks it shut, so when the vacuum disappears the valve opens , requiring aforementioned bullshit to make it work 

The boost activated one works the other way around, it's a check ball with a spring and an adjustment screw, so now when there's positive pressure in the bowl ie boost, it pushes the ball open to add fuel 

 

It's much better now, went up a jet size front and rear,  plus refitted the bowl vent extensions

I put an afr gauge on it and it read a bit weird but it averaged out to mid 11 afr under full steam ahead.  Half throttle where it used to do weird things is now very good 

 

I'd started to think about efi but I'll see how this goes , might not need it now

[cletus]

A day of cruising around in this thing,  didnt bother with checking mileage but a days worth of tiki touring around Auckland used about 20l of fuel which is probably better than before