Hi Armand,It's been a while since we last talked. Interesting electrical problem. Here's my 2 cents worth.
During the Monsoon, the Javelin most likely was using maximum electrical power, wipers on, headlites on, stereo blasting and what other accessory you were using. Considering that it was raining hard, there's a possibility that the alternator belt was slipping under the high load . Under those conditions the battery will make up for the extra power needed (discharge) eventually causing the low voltage symptoms. Also, the battery may be sulfated or extra resistance in the charging system causing the regulator to think the battery is charged. The brains of a charging system is the battery. The voltage regulator responds to system voltage and tries to keep it at ~13.5-14.5 volts. The battery has an internal resistance that varies with it's state of charge. The charging current drops voltage across the battery and the regulator senses that and tries to keep the voltage with in the range. The resistance of the battery is very small, so any small resistance in the charging wiring can cause the voltage to read higher than the state of charge of the battery and fool the regulator into thinking the battery is charged. I got fooled once by assuming that a battery on a charger taking a charge was still good. I looked only at charging current and ignored voltage. I was curious and placed a voltmeter across the battery and read 17 volts! The battery was sulfated and considering that my vehicle's voltage regulator cuts off at 14 volts, the battery never charged in the vehicle. I miss the batteries that allowed specific gravity tests, that's the best way to determine state of charge.
Good Luck, John H. amc-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Send AMC-list mailing list submissions to amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to amc-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx You can reach the person managing the list at amc-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxx When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of AMC-list digest..." Today's Topics: 1. That was wierd !!! (Armand Eshleman) 2. Re: list is silent (Armand Eshleman) 3. Re: 70 AMX Alignment Specifications / Polyurethane Suspension Bushings (Marc Montoni) 4. Re: That was wierd !!! (tom jennings) 5. Re: list is silent (tom jennings) 6. Re: list is silent (das24rules@xxxxxxxxx) 7. Re: 70 AMX Alignment (das24rules@xxxxxxxxx) 8. Re: list is silent (das24rules@xxxxxxxxx) 9. Re: That was wierd !!! (Steven F. Brueggeman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:30:37 -0500 From: "Armand Eshleman" <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [AMC-list] That was wierd !!! To: "AMC, Rambler, Nash,Jeep and family" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Message-ID: <008f01c9f861$96b48960$6701a8c0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Saturday Afternoon I went to Spirit Lake, IA for a cruise in. People were swarming around the white Javelin. It drew more attention than I have eve seen it draw before. I don't think there was more than a half an hour total time for a four hour stay that some one wasn't looking at the car. There was maybe 100 to 150 cars there. About 8:30 I noticed, and so did everyone else, that it was beginning to cloud up in the Western sky. I got very unlucky and ran through a flippin monsoon rain storm on th way home. The Javelin reacted very unusual to this event. Back in the 70s I had driven the car through a few monsoons that you couldn't really even see the road, and Saturday nights storm wasn't that bad, but anyway, the engine began to stumble and it almost acted like the rear wheels were hydro-planing, but then I realized the engine was shutting down momentarily and then re-lighting itself before it completely died. It almost flet like the clutch was wet and slipping, and then would dry up again and grab. But it was an electric glitch. As I got closer to home I noticed the headlights were dimming and I then suddenly realized why the wipers moved so slow, no electric power from the battery.........but the alternator should have been working, the belt stayed on the whole time, the alternator is a light duty one, I think 35 or 40 amps. I just barely got the car home, it began to run real crappy. Apparently with low voltage and an MSD Pro Billet ready to run Distributor you get real weak spark events. The alternator light never came on. I got home and pulled the battery out and dropped in a different one. The engine ran fine then.........the battery that was in the car, an optima about five years old, seemed like it didn't want to accept a charge when I hooked up a ten amp charger to it. It pulled a steady 8 to 10 amps for a while and didn't pull less for a long time. I thought at first the battery had dropped a cell or something. So I backed the car out of the shop and washed all the road grime off and put it away for the evening. This morning I put the optima battery back in the car and it started the car just fine, after having failed to turn the engine over last night after I got the car home. I put the charger back on and let it go for a while. The alternator light would come on when I turned the key to on, but when the engine fired up, the alternator light would go out. That's normal. I drove the car about 170 miles today to New Ulm and back and never experienced a glitch of any kind. Any one got any theories? electrics got wet?? wet short? drained battery? when I got it home the compartment heat dried everything up and it was OK then????? Do you think the optima battery has been damaged?? What do you guys think? Inquisitive minds want to know................... Thanks, Armand ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:34:09 -0500 From: "Armand Eshleman" <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [AMC-list] list is silent To: <das24rules@xxxxxxxxx>, "AMC, Rambler, Nash,Jeep and family" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Message-ID: <009e01c9f862$151438a0$6701a8c0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Yes Sir, thats what I've been doing all week. Thinking about and driving AMCs. Armand----- Original Message ----- From: <das24rules@xxxxxxxxx>To: <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 10:59 PM Subject: [AMC-list] list is silenti hope everybody has just been out driving their ramblers/amc's. not tomanypeople been on this week. what gives? _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.560 / Virus Database: 270.12.26/2116 - Release Date: 5/15/096:16 AM------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:14:26 -0400 From: Marc Montoni <Freedom@xxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [AMC-list] 70 AMX Alignment Specifications / Polyurethane Suspension Bushings To: amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: "John C. Hughes" <jchughes48114@xxxxxxx> Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.1.20090628171115.042d0e58@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" "John C. Hughes" <jchughes48114@xxxxxxx> said:I have some questions on 70 AMX alignment specifications. I'm looking for great directional stability, so increasing the caster beyond spec's is wanted. Please see bullets below.Nominal: Caster +1.25 ? Camber: 0? ? .125 Desired: Caster +4? Camber: 0? ? .125 * I want to increase my Caster settings to 4? positive. Will there be a problem with this much caster, especially using poly bushings? * Has anyone tried this?Just FYI, here is the setting recommended by Performance American Style: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/A36n50m_IztvwyaexOGvPw?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzvp9nM5_aO4AE&feat=directlink -- Marc ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:12:21 -0700 From: tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [AMC-list] That was wierd !!! To: "AMC, Rambler, Nash, Jeep and family" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Message-ID: <c81e13650906282212u1db720b7qb7148266f2e587dc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Bad cables or connections or other intermittents. IF the battery was bad and woiuldn't hold a charge, then it would not have imporoved upon reinstall. If your battery cables are those clamp types they're usually no good after a year or two. On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 19:30, Armand Eshleman <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Saturday Afternoon I went to Spirit Lake, IA for a cruise in. People were swarming around the white Javelin. It drew more attention than I have eve seen it draw before. I don't think there was more than a half an hour total time for a four hour stay that some one wasn't looking at the car. There was maybe 100 to 150 cars there. About 8:30 I noticed, and so did everyone else, that it was beginning to cloud up in the Western sky. I got very unlucky and ran through a flippin monsoon rain storm on th way home. The Javelin reacted very unusual to this event. Back in the 70s I had driven the car through a few monsoons that you couldn't really even see the road, and Saturday nights storm wasn't that bad, but anyway, the engine began to stumble and it almost acted like the rear wheels were hydro-planing, but then I realized the engine was shutting down momentarily and then re-lighting itself before it completely died. It almost flet like the clutch was wet and slipping, and then would dry up again and grab. But it was an electric glitch. As I got closer to home I noticed the headlights were dimming and I then suddenly realized why the wipers moved so slow, no electric power from the battery.........but the alternator should have been working, the belt stayed on the whole time, the alternator is a light duty one, I think 35 or 40 amps. I just barely got the car home, it began to run real crappy. Apparently with low voltage and an MSD Pro Billet ready to run Distributor you get real weak spark events. The alternator light never came on. I got home and pulled the battery out and dropped in a different one. The engine ran fine then.........the battery that was in the car, an optima about five years old, seemed like it didn't want to accept a charge when I hooked up a ten amp charger to it. It pulled a steady 8 to 10 amps for a while and didn't pull less for a long time. I thought at first the battery had dropped a cell or something. So I backed the car out of the shop and washed all the road grime off and put it away for the evening. This morning I put the optima battery back in the car and it started the car just fine, after having failed to turn the engine over last night after I got the car home. I put the charger back on and let it go for a while. The alternator light would come on when I turned the key to on, but when the engine fired up, the alternator light would go out. That's normal. I drove the car about 170 miles today to New Ulm and back and never experienced a glitch of any kind. Any one got any theories? electrics got wet?? wet short? drained battery? when I got it home the compartment heat dried everything up and it was OK then????? Do you think the optima battery has been damaged?? What do you guys think? Inquisitive minds want to know................... Thanks, Armand _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com
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