Bloo

Do it if you want it. Lots of people do. I thought I could not live without them when I bought my most recent jalopy, but then found that I fell back into the habit of hand signaling almost instantly. It plumented way down the priority list. The biggest problem on some cars is finding light housings that do not detract. If you have 2 tail lights and you also have front fender lights you may be able to hide it except for the controls.

I agree. The one in your picture from earlier is probably the replacement. Looking at ...and Professor's picture again, knowing what the original regulator looks like, it appears the wires would come out under the regulator. There may be nothing wrong there except the lack of a correct regulator.

That is what my book said as well, "A" for Chrysler C8, "E" for 1936 Dodge. They take the same regulator, so are electrically compatible. Maybe there's some mechanical difference? From your link, it looks like it might be the pulley.

Take the inspection band off and look for a connection going to a brush. That's the armature. Other wire is field. The field wire connects to the winding in the frame. With the new information that has been posted, the missing correct "cutout" that mounts on top of the generator is really a regulator and both wires did come out originally to connect to it. I would have expected binding posts, but maybe they did just come out like that? VW4X4's pics are the correct regulator, but a different generator series than yours. The ebay generator did not have good enough pics to see how the connection was made.

Not having grounds won't cause a short. A short is when current gets to ground too early, without having to first flow through the device it was supposed to flow through. It is tough to guess since I have not worked on either of those vehicles since the 1990s and I don't have the books. For starters I would look for a pinched wire in that headlight circuit. Good luck, and I hope you get it sorted.

All I have is a MoToR manual for these years. Is that GAR-4608E-5 or GAR-4608F-5? I can find no listing for the GAR_4608F-5 but GAR-4608E-5 is listed for 1936 Dodge and GAR-4608A-5 is listed for Chrysler C8. The box on top of VW4X4's generator is a voltage regulator, and the generator it goes with should have 2 posts. The regulator is TC-4301-A, and is listed for all 1935-36 Chrysler, Dodge, Desoto, and 1935-36 Plymouth, Deluxe only. VW4X4's generator, GEP-4561-5C is not listed in my book at all.

https://www.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/11/cow_falls_from_sky_barely_miss.html OK Florida, your move...... 🤪

That's a regulator of some sort. Is this the same as what @... and Professor's car should have? I was thinking a simple cutout, but I am not sure. I don't really think those 2 wires exiting a hole on his could be normal. You have 2 binding posts. Any way to check by number and see if he has the right stuff?

That is a standard socket hole from the 30s. The socket will twist in. It may matter what make of car it is. Chrysler products and some other makes use bulbs ending in "1", 2331 for a 6 volt 32/32 candlepower example. GM and Ford and possibly others use bulbs ending in "0", 2330 for a 6 volt 32/32 candlepower example. It is important to get the right socket and bulb for the car as the pins are rotated 90 degrees on the Chrysler bulb compared to the GM/Ford one. The filament arrangement is slightly different too. All of this stuff was available in 12v for big trucks back in the era, and can probably be found on Ebay, and also maybe in new production from the Ford suppliers, or possibly motorcycle bulbs if it happens to be GM/Ford. If it's Chrysler NOS/Ebay may be the way. I cant rememberany 12 volt numbers off the top of my head, but they exist. The bulbs are called APF (American Prefocus). You will see all sorts of conversions involving h4 bulbs, led and so on that are not likely to work well because filament placement is critical for good performance, and it is all wrong in these sort of "stick whatever bulb in there" conversions. The flat flange was to insure the correct position of the filaments in relation to the reflector in the original design. APF bulbs in halogen exist made by some company in Australia, and probably in 12 volt too. That is the direction I think I would go. Look here: https://www.lbcarco.com/halogen-bulbs-headlamps.htm

The normal plan for a third brush generator and a cutout is like this: The armature terminal comes out of the generator and connects to one terminal on the cutout. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that is the GEN terminal on the cutout. The other terminal on the cutout connects to the wire that feeds the car (ammeter). On a third brush generator used with a voltage regulator, or some other method of voltage control, there will also be a field terminal. There is nothing like that in the wiring diagram you posted. The stuff in the picture is in my opinion either modified or different. Where was the regulator? On the firewall? Are you going to keep the regulator? EDIT: My wild speculation based on the picture is this, they removed the terminal from the generator, and ran 2 connections through the hole, Armature and Field. The cutout housing might be empty and just used as binding posts for those 2 wires. Then a regulator would be mounted up on the firewall. Both wires would run to it, and then the wire from the ammeter would connect to a third terminal on the regulator. It's only a guess.

What does the rest of it look like?

How I interpret this: Power source is the generator cutout at "M" via wire 10 on schematic, This wire is #16, 12 gauge, B-W (image 1, right side, from @... and Professor's January 24 update) The other end pops out at the ammeter as #2, 12 gauge, B-W, ammeter (+) at the ammeter. From that same terminal, ammeter (+), wire 25 (ignition?) is fed unfused. The fuseholder doohickey shown in @VW4X4's pictures is also fed from this terminal. The fused end of the fuseholder feeds wires 27 (stoplight), 28 (light switch), and 43 (dome light). And at this point I realize I was completely misunderstanding what @... and Professor was asking. RI Wire in their paperwork have connected the 27 (light switch) and the 28 (stoplight) unfused to the ammeter(+), and not listed the (43) dome light at all. In the wiring diagram, all 3 are on the fuse, and yes it is on the wire 10 (generator cutout) side of the ammeter. From the ammeter (-) side, wire 26 (#3, 12 gauge, R-W), goes to the starter (it pops out as #15, 12 gauge, R-W), and from there on it's way to the battery via the battery cable as expected. The cigar lighter, wire 34, is also fed from the ammeter (-) terminal. I did not see a reference to it in the RI Wire paperwork.

Ammeters are rarely fused. I don't know what sort of generator you have on the 36 Airstream, but third brush generators were still pretty common at that time, and those can burn up if run without a load. The basic plan goes like this: A wire begins at the cutout, or the voltage regulator (if it has one and the cutout is inside it). This first wire goes to one side of the ammeter. Almost anything that draws current also connects to this same side, or connects to something that is connected to this same side, like maybe an ignition switch and/or a light switch. If anything is fused here, It would be a fuse feeding a load like lights or a heater etc. The wire from the other ammeter terminal goes to the battery. It may do so by landing on the starter at the battery cable post, or some not quite direct way like that, but the point is to get to the battery. There are no loads on this side usually. Some cars have the horn connected to this side, but that's usually about it. Note there is no ground on the ammeter. The ammeter is just a flow meter that measures flow in or out of the battery. Any loads (ignition, lights, etc.) are drawn from the generator side of the ammeter, and then the ammeter only measures what is leftover and charging the battery. When the generator cannot keep up, current flows backwards through the ammeter as the battery picks up the slack.

Well.... Look at the position of the front axle relative to the radiator shell. Look at the headlights. Are they the same? It could be the camera angle, but at the least I don't think they are in the same position. The contour of the front fender looks the same, as well as the sidemount's position in it, but look at where the sidemount is located compared to the cowl/hood joint. It is about a foot different. Taking all that into account, it looks as though the front fenders, sidemounts, front axle, and headlights have moved about a foot forward in relation to the hood and radiator shell. Look at how much more of the hood vents are blocked by the sidemount. You can see the extra foot of flat area at the rear of the front fenders needed to reach the running boards, which in both cases begin at the back of the cowl. Speaking of the cowl, it's light has gone missing. The cowl and windshield frame do appear to be the same, but look at the hood, and the body line heading forward from the cowl. On the current picture, the line intersects the headlight about 1/3 of the way down, and on the period picture it is way above the headlight, intersecting the radiator shell at the grille's upper corner. Yet, somehow, both lines are straight from the front to the rear of the car. That implies that the line in question must also be at a different angle on the body behind the cowl. The window holes in the doors have their bottom edge below the height of the cowl on the recent picture, and above the height of the cowl on the period picture. You can also see the difference in how the bottom of the windshield holes align with the windshield frame. Not only do those doors have different window holes, the front one swings the opposite way and the release handles are different. The rear quarter window is larger, a different shape, and the rear roof contour is different. Speaking of the roof, it appears to be crowned over the windshield on the recent picture and not on the period one. Those are the most obvious things. There are many more if you look closely.

I have long been under the impression that very little factory documentation exists for Studebakers made before the move of auto production from Detroit to South Bend. Is that still true or has more been found? The Hupmobile club have acquired the existing factory blueprints for Hupmobiles and are currently in a whirlwind effort to catalogue and digitize them. I understand this is a huge collection, possibly close to complete, not some small subset of the cars and parts that were produced.

I suspect you are. My guess is 18mm is the size before thread cutting, and the very tip tops of the threads would be close to 18mm, yet still a bit less. I have never heard of a 17mm plug. Brillman, who should know because they deal in electrical stuff for tractors (and cars) of this era, think a Champion D-16 is an 18mm plug. https://brillman.com/product/d16-champion-spark-plug-18mm/ Nice car!

I can't make the same car out of that no matter how hard I try. The closer you look, the weirder it gets.

I have used both and I like heli-coil because it takes a smaller hole, and will work in some places time-sert wont. If there was ever enough metal around the hole to hold a time-sert, it could still be done after the fact if the heli-coil does not work out. I wouldn't use form-a-thread or any glue based solution.

Any chance it could be screwed up where all those connections come together? Usually an extra wire on the battery post on a GM car. Could someone have replaced the terminal with one of those horrible replacements that clamp on with 2 bolts? Maybe connected the body/regulator ground with a crimp? Maybe acid-eaten up inside the clamp?

I agree. The whole key off thing was to be sure you didn't get fooled by the wrong wire. Its the only one hot with everything off. So, that's not it. If it keeps charging with the regulator unplugged, there could be a problem in the alternator itself, or the wiring. If it stops charging with the regulator unplugged, as it should by design, it has to be a regulator problem. I'm sorry to keep harping on this detail because I know you said several posts back: And yeah, that is what it should do, just exactly what it did. It stops charging (and the battery voltage goes down). I just can't get my head around 3 bad regulators. I feel like we have to be missing something, but there is nothing else left to miss. It has to be the regulator. I keep mulling that over too. That could sure do it, but In the original post it is mentioned that the regulator is grounded.

And if you unplug the regulator, it still stops charging, right? Since it has the sense voltage on pin 3 (that was with the engine off and key off, right?), and the alternator plug is not broken and somehow reversed, I am having trouble imagining that it could be anything but the regulator. I have seen a lot of short-lived rubbish electronic "upgrade" regulators in my life, but even so I am having a hard time believing you got 3 bad ones in a row that don't work at all. It is sure looking like you did get 3 bad ones. Too bad you don't have an old mechanical one laying around to try. The mechanical one on my truck is a NAPA/Echlin and it was old and dirty when I first got the truck. I think that was 1987. It still works and I've never had to do anything to it.

Looks like an Autobianchi Bianchina. You don't see that every day.

The issue is some cars are gravity feed from the gas tank to the carburetor. I can't imagine a situation where you would have to do that in a model A, but some model T (and also some other makes) have the gas tank under the front seat. The gas will not flow uphill without a pump. If you get the carburetor above the gas, you only have what is in the carburetor bowl. If the hill is a short bump, it probably wouldn't be a problem. Out here in mountainous Washington State, there were some insane steep spots on our highways. Knapp's Hill (which I posted in the other thread) is probably the most ridiculous of them all, but there were also spots in our mountain passes that the older folks around here used to talk about needing to back up. Today they don't typically build highways steep like that. They will find some other way to build the road that makes the climb more gradual.

That's too much. It is temperature dependent to some extent, but when your car was built it probably ran about 14.2 volts. In 1975(?) GM started using "maintenance free" batteries, and the plate chemistry is a little different, it likes a little harder charge, and can tolerate a little harder charge. They jacked the regulator voltage up to something more like 14.7. Almost immediately the aftermarket parts for GM followed suit. This change occurred at Ford and Chrysler too, but several years later. Replacement parts for GM have been at 14.7 volts for so long now that you will almost never see 14.2 volts anymore on a GM car with an alternator, even if it was built years before the change. I expect to see about 14.7v on your car even though it is a 65. Modern batteries are fine with this, all modern cars charge this hard more or less, and it makes for brighter headlights. 17 volts is NOT ok. That will ruin your battery. It may make it swell up like a football and/or explode if you drive far enough. I am not kidding. One of my daily drivers, a Chrysler product, had a stuck regulator and got up to 17 or 18 volts back in the late 80s. The sides of the battery were bulging out about 2 inches and it was hissing loudly. That's hydrogen gas, BTW. Fortunately it didn't explode, but I have seen the aftermath of two that did explode and you would not believe the mess. System voltage on a 12 volt car should never ever under any conditions go over 15 volts. I am unfamiliar with your aftermarket AC, but my suspicion is it is shutting off to protect itself from burnout. The fact that it still works at all at this point is a very good sign. You need to get the charging system under control. Don't worry about the AC yet. It sounds like it survived, lets hope it did. I recall that unplugging the regulator makes it stop charging altogether, as it should. Is that still true and can you double check? Several posts back I posted how to verify that the plugs on the regulator and alternator are on right side up, and how to verify that the "sense" voltage is present at the regulator. If you have not already done this you should. The regulator cannot cut back unless it "sees" the voltage get above it's regulation voltage (probably 14.7V) on it's sense wire. As for the regulator and alternator plugs, I don't think you could get them on wrong as originally built by GM, but 50 plus years later there's usually a lot of broken plastic. It would be easy to get this wrong on my truck, and it has exactly the same charging system you do.

How is the charging (battery) voltage doing now? Check it with a full battery and the engine running faster than just idle. Still 14.6?