Bloo

Luna looks SO not impressed by the Ranco valve.

Yeah I guess you did . Harbor freight has little carbon piles that don't cost a lot. I have one but haven't used it much. It seems to me it needed some modification to be more useful, but at least it isn't spring loaded. That puts it ahead of some of the professional ones in my book. Yes, you have to pay attention not to overheat it. My favorite load tester isn't even a carbon pile, just a fixed resistor. It's branded "Snap-On" but it's really an Associated. It's 117 Amps on a 12 volt system and I guess about half that on 6 volts. I like it because you can use it one handed. That leaves you a hand to operate the throttle. It is great for the kind of testing we have been talking about.

Well if it was my car, I would prefer the manual brakes. Old fashioned power brakes are easier to push, but they are sort of a learned skill. If you want them you want them. It should be a bolt-in in that car, pretty much the way @Rusty_OToole said. The pedal ratio is probably different. There could be a different hole for the rod or it might need a different pedal. I'd check with West Coast Classic Cougar. They have some Mustang stuff, but those parts you need are likely the same as Cougar anyway. I've bought brake rebuilding parts from them for a 70 Marauder a couple years ago, the most critical of which was the rebuild kit for the differential pressure switch, which of course started leaking when I tried to shut it off. They seem to be able to source quality parts, and if the only parts available are crap they will tell you. At least that was my experience.

Those aren't what really matter. The tubes rust out. If it happens, there is no good way to fix outside of replacing them. Disabling or removing the butterflies doesn't help... well it may help on some level, but it doesn't help with the problem @Robert Engle alluded to. Exhaust leaks right into the intake. I believe @Hubert_25-25 has posted a Marvel how-to somewhere on this site. Hopefully he will see this thread. Welcome to the forum!

Mmmmm.... Pretty..... Pretty.....

Well the brake circuit also goes through the steering column if that's where your turn signal switch is. Look near the master cylinder for a hydraulic brake light switch. I'm not sure it's there and I'm not sure it's hydraulic, but it probably is. Make sure you have voltage on one terminal, and then both terminals when someone steps on the brakes hard. The next place that wiring goes is to the signal switch. Find your flasher. You should have voltage on at least one terminal and probably two. You can probably ignore the middle ("P") terminal for now. The next place this wiring goes is also the signal switch. Do the front turn signals come on?

Check your fuses. Check the bulbs. They have two filaments inside and the filament for brake/turn can be burned out while the one for the tail light is still good.

Check the odometer. The speedometer head only needs recalibration if the odometer is reading correctly while the speedometer isn't. Otherwise, it's gearing. In my opinion, trying to recalibrate a speedometer wrong to compensate for a gearing problem is likely to be highly frustrating.

Probably, but for the moment I can't remember. Mainly I think the people operating them are looking for "Does it charge?" and "is there a bad diode?". On a whole car, it is a very convenient way to test. It might be good here too. As I mentioned earlier, the cutout and the current regulator are not there in an alternator system because they are not needed. There is only a voltage regulator. It tries to maintain a specific voltage, more or less. There is often temperature compensation, but lets say about 7.4 volts at room temp (6v system). The natural voltage of the battery is about 6.3 volts. If you put a load tester on the battery, it will drag the voltage down . If you pull more current from the battery than the alternator is capable of, the regulator will drive it to full output trying to maintain the normal unloaded "system voltage" (about 7.4 volts on a 6 volt system). The test method on a whole car is to put an ammeter in series between the battery and alternator. I typically used a dc capable "amp clamp" and a multimeter. Being able to clamp the loop around the main charging wire meant that I did not have to disconnect anything to insert the ammeter. The current must flow through the ammeter on it's way to the battery. Then, connect a load tester to the battery, start the car, hold the engine at a fast idle or a little higher (1500-2000 rpm ought to do it on modern cars), and engage the load tester so it draws more than the alternator is rated for. The regulator will go "full on" trying to keep up and get back to about 7.4 volts, which it will not be able to do because you have exceeded the alternator's output rating. You should see something very close to the amp rating of the alternator displayed on the ammeter you have put in series. You do have to pull current from the battery with something like a load tester to get that current from the alternator. If the regulator is able to push the system right up to about 7.4 volts because the battery is full and nothing is putting on a load, then that is all it will do. It will put out enough current (amps) to hold the system about 7.4 volts and that is all. Not much. An amp or two. The phenomenon @JACK M mentioned, of having to rev up the alternator to get it to start is a completely separate issue. Some other multiple-wire systems do this too, especially ones with a field relay. It's all about getting enough magnetism to get enough current to turn the system on without any signal from the ignition switch to tell it to turn on. Once it is on, it stays on (until you shut the engine down). It shouldn't be going back off at stoplights like a generator with a cutout on a car that is idling too slow to keep the cutout engaged. You would want to spin the alternator up before doing a current test to make sure the system is turned on, and that you are not getting fooled by the behavior @JACK M noted. The most interesting thing to figure out is at what RPM the current hits the maximum rating and plateaus. You can make a good choice about pulleys from there.

It's complicated. The simple version is those 4-bolt valve covers started with 1954 models, which were all 235s with full pressure oiling. With the right hardware, the old 2-bolt valve cover will still fit 235s all the way to the end (1962?) but Chevrolet didn't deliver any that way after 1953. In 1953, all of them had the 2-bolt valve cover, but powerglide cars had the full pressure 235, sticks had a low pressure babbitt pounding 235, while sedan deliveries and some trucks still had the old 216. In 1952 and earlier, all had the 2-bolt valve cover. Powerglides and some big trucks got a low pressure babbitted 235. The babbitted 235 goes all the way back to 1941(?) in big trucks, and the very earliest ones had sheetmetal up around the spark plugs making them look almost indistinguishable from 216s. Stickshifts and small trucks got 216s back through 1937.

Maybe the wrong pulley? But they ALWAYS start, resistor or no resistor, even if the bulb circuit is completely missing. Some others alternators will not. I was led to believe back in school that those 10SI/12SI alternators were just better at retaining their residual magnetism. Nope. Joe Padavano posted a schematic of the internal regulator in some other thread. There's a small current path. Suddenly it all makes sense. Now the old external regulated ones had a kick-in point when the field relay turned the system on.... Not that it really mattered, but they did.

Wenatchee, WA...

Thanks! Laser welding is a real thing believe it or not. The equipment is expensive and I don't expect to find it just anywhere. By low melting do you mean silver? That is what I was thinking of trying if I braze it instead of welding. Anything to keep the heat damage as low as possible.

Thanks for all the responses! There is one local outfit who have equipment or so I'm told. The last time I took them something it was for press work and they missed by half an inch and then tried to convince me I had imagined it. It was a long time ago and no doubt there is different staff now but I'm not in a wild rush to go back there for anything. I think I'm looking to mail this fan somewhere. Any leads on competent magnetic powder testing would be appreciated.

blown fuse?

What is the fuse for? Is the key on? Even with the key on, It's pretty common to have one fuse in older American cars that is not powered most of the time. Maybe dash lights or something?

You should have 12V on one flasher pin. Do your brake lights work? They are tangled up in the signals. I'm not sure exactly what you mean about the relays. Do you have a wiring diagram for this car?

There is no cut-in. If it behaves as if there is a cut-in, it must be a function of the "one wire" regulator, and in that case I can't answer. On an Alternator, there is no need for any function like a cutout because the rectifier diodes are already there to rectify the alternating current. They prevent the reverse current when shut down or turning too slow that a cutout is meant to prevent. There is no need for current regulation because the stator regulates itself somehow by the way it is wound. I am a little fuzzy on why that works, but overcurrent damage as seen on generators is not really possible. Once the alternator gets enough RPM to charge at full current, it just charges the same as you spin it faster. Voltage is regulated by varying the magnetic strength of the field, just like on a generator. The only real difference is that the field is located on the rotor instead of the frame. Also some alternators use pulse width modulation to vary the field strength. Others vary a resistance like a generator system does. Almost none? I'm not sure how to answer that except to say in might be the wrong question. Alternators can sometimes bootstrap themselves on residual magnetism, but it is not 100% reliable. On a GM alternator with an internal regulator for instance, there is always a tiny current bled from the battery through the regulator that provides a little bit more magnetism. Also, if there is an idiot light, turning the ignition switch on bleeds a little current through the light to provide a little magnetism. Some brands of alternator rely on this and may not start charging reliably if the bulb is not there. My guess is if this unit is truly meant to be one wire (for a tractor or something) it probably has a tiny (microamps) internal bleed current, and is never completely "off". I doubt it needs anything more than the tiniest bit of current to start, and if there's any residual magnetism left it might not even need that. I doubt you could quantify it because I don't believe it cuts in at all. The RPM where it first achieves full output would be a much more interesting thing to know. Yes. Most cars I believe are capable of about half of their output current (or maybe a little less) at idle, and when you are underway, equivalent to a little more than fast idle, they are capable of full charge. I'm not sure if this applies to late models, but from the early 60s through the 90s it was pretty much true. If you set it up to do this, nobody could really call it wrong. There were exceptions in that period though, mostly high performance cars who turned the alternator slower either to save horsepower, or to extend the upper RPM range of the alternator without damage, or both. Those cars dim down pretty bad at idle. That probably doesn't matter, but it brings us to the subject of RPM range. With generators you pretty much had to get it right because the acceptable generator RPM range was narrow, and if you spun them too fast you could easily damage them with centripetal force. Alternators are similarly limited, but the range is much wider. The field is would like a spool around the rotor shaft, and that is much harder to damage than an armature. I would put an ammeter in series with either your positive or negative lead. You'll want better connections than clipcords and probably bigger wire. Then put a load tester on the battery. Crank the load tester up higher than the rated output of the alternator. and vary the speed until you find the speed at which full output is achieved. Maybe find half output as well. You must make these tests very quickly and then shut down the load tester or the load tester will overheat. The load tester is necessary because the alternator will only put out as many amps as you ask of it. There is a hard limit set by the stator. The lowest possible RPM at that point is what you are looking for. The current will just stop rising there and refuse to go any higher as RPM increases, unlike a generator which would burn up without current regulation. You didn't say what the car is. If it is a really old slow-spinning antique engine, you could probably set it up to have full charge current available at idle without overspeeding the alternator if you want. On the other hand, you could run it a little slower to save horsepower if you are low on that. You would have to run the arithmetic using the RPM range of your engine. As I mentioned earlier in the post, half current (or a little less) available at idle is a common default setup.

I still remember that 3-tone blue one you posted pics of. What a great looking car. I had one but it was pink and white. This one is very nice.

There is a guy who can do the dye testing near the local airport. I don't remember the exact cost but pretty high. I understand magnetic testing can detect smaller cracks. Just a plain magnet will do? that's good to know. I've wanted to get this Pontiac fan tested for years because it's construction looks exactly like the later Hupmobile one that has a reputation for coming apart.

Yes, then do that and a good ground. If it's not all hacked up, I'd just copy what you find on the parts car. You can almost always improve on the ground though.

Probably yes, but I can't really guess without seeing the circuit. That breaker would *probably* be in the main power feed. I don't understand how that relay is wired, and especially why there is only one relay. Is there only one motor? Use big wire.

Its not so much "old" versus "modern" as "flash temperature of the oil in Fahrenheit" vs "viscosity". 600W has become a brand. Maybe it always was. Today it's owned by Mobil. With that out of the way.... 600W was and is steam cylinder oil, also rated for gears in steam equipment, especially worm gears. Steam cylinder oil was really heavy, or at least it seemed that way at room temperature. In the days before cars were everywhere, automakers used it because it was there, and it was OK for gears. The thickness helps slow down transmission gears when there is no synchromesh. When the automakers replaced 600W with mineral oil in the mid 30s, that was SAE 180. SAE viscosity ratings are ranges, not specific viscosities, and SAE 180 is a deprecated standard, and nobody seems to know exactly what range of viscosities it covered. Maybe someday we will have an SAE member in here who can figure it out and tell us. Today we have SAE 140 and SAE 250. It is very likely that SAE 250 is the closest substitute, but I have no hard proof of that. Model As predate the change of common automotive gear oil from 600W steam oil to the supposedly equivalent SAE 180 mineral oil. As such, a lot of Model A owners want 600W and ask for it by name. What you are getting might be Mobil 600W brand steam oil (today available in 2 different grades) or it might just be an appropriate substitute for use in an unsynchronized transmission. Maybe SAE 250? You'd have to ask the vendor. If you just want oil for an unsynchronized transmission it probably doesn't make any difference which it is. Any substitute for 600W in a car should be pretty thick.

The one in the middle photo is a thermal circuit breaker. It's a very good idea. If a motor was drawing too much current, due to restricted motion, gummed up, shorted winding or whatever, it should kick out before the wire melts. It will kick back in all by itself when it cools down. Breakers like this are used on snowplows, winches, etc. to this day and are available at NAPA, though the mounting might be a little different. The current rating is probably stamped on the can. The other one looks like a relay, although I only see 2 wires, and only one of them is big, and I think there should be a second big wire. I can't even guess without a diagram. If it's there you probably need it. The switches probably cant handle all that current on their own.