D'oh! (Was "Ignition Trouble Resurfaces")

Rocket J Squirrel here, with a message to all:

D'oh!

Nice sunny day today so climbed under the Wonderbus to ascertain condition transmission-ground strap in preparation to possibly jumping bus to find intermittent electrical problem (thanks, Jim, nice to see you over in sci.electronics.*).

Condition good.

Peer into engine room and . . . lookee there: the wire from the alternator (Brazilian 1776 engine, not original 71 engine) had come loose from the crimp sleeve, so the alternator was not charging battery. BTW, the wire which had come out of the sleeve was not touching anything.

I guess that pretty much explains:

A. Glowing GEN lamps, and B. Fading battery two nights ago in the dark with headlamps getting dimmer and dimmer.

BUT (wait for it) I don't think that a bad or intermittent connection explain the other symptoms, e.g.,

C. Tach going inaccurate: reading high, and getting spastic with upward spikes, D. Engine just dying with clutch in while drifting into driveway, E. Starter not even wanting to turn that engine over, but F. Turning it over just fine 15 minutes later.

I'm heading out on a little errand cruise to see how she handles. I've got a life vest, signal flares, rope ladder, emergency whistle, handy-talkie, first aid kit with splints and epinephrine stick, screwdriver, vice grips, welding iron, GPS, poison oak cream, water purification tablets and sun hat. Pretty much ready for anything.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot
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Forgot duct tape.

Amateur.

:D

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Dang.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

I was reading that and thouught the same thing...............

"no bailing wire, no duct tape,...........He's screwed.

LOL

=-Þ

Remove "YOURPANTIES" to reply MUADIB®

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It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs. -- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

Reply to
MUADIB®

Nevertheless, I survived. As did the Wonderbus, which seems to be running quite nicely again. The PO's POS alternator->battery wire has been replaced with new. Crimped it m'self. Should last a week or two.

Spent some time under the dash fiddling with hooking up my dwell/tach/voltmeter to a likely fuse to keep an eye on running voltage for next couple of days. Gracious -- the knot of wires near the fuses . . . looks like a hairball the size of my fist.

Floor of engine room under the battery is kinda corroded. Not rusted through, but flaky. Battery clamp bolt is pretty much stripped, too. Area needs attention. Anyone make plastic trays to go there?

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

I absolutely HATE home-done crimp connectors. Your experience here is typical. Solder the connection and cover it with heat shrink.

Some of this could have been explained by the connection just in the process of coming loose. As for the others, I don't know either, but I'd start looking for more crimp splices and connectors elsewhere.

What? No belt AND suspenders?

-

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Reply to
Jim Adney

For those like me that cannot solder I like these,

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get them from
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(have one locally)I use a lighter instead of the fancy heating toolDavid

Reply to
Mycoran

Thought about this post yesterday... I had to mate a brazilian exhaust to a german heater box. a 2 inch gap between the small muff that goes over the exhaust port for cylinder 2 and the right side heater box.

Solution: join them with duct tape, place clamp on top. nice :)

Reply to
Eduardo Kaftanski

she handles. I've

whistle,

epinephrine stick,

cream, water

anything.

thing...............

seems to be

alternator->battery wire has

week or two.

running voltage

near the fuses .

Not rusted

stripped, too.

there?

Reply to
Busahaulic

Yah -- my wimpy little temperature-controlled irons designed for fine-pitch printed circuit board stuff don't have the BTU's to work

8-gauge copper. Gotta get me a man-sized iron. [snip]

Duct tape, baling wire, belt and suspenders. Baling wire is pretty much unknown in these parts. No one bales hay here. We got surf shops, tho'.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

Like what? I'm straining all eleven of my brain cells trying to remember if I've ever seen anything plastic, traylike and battery-sized anywhere. Ever. Plant trays? Tupperware?

I'm unconvinced. Suspicious. Untrusting. Dubious. Had spiking tach, etc., prior to and after installing new battery cable w/ bad crimp. So I'm keeping my weather eye on the tach, and my leeward eye on the voltmeter I have lying on the floor. Trying to watch the road, too.

Reply to
Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliot

Hmmm. I thought ALL the FLAPS carried such a thing - as a temp fix for a rusted-out battery tray! I suppose you could use a marine battery box... OR just go to TAP Plastics and get a piece of 6mm Sintra the correct size, drill and countersink for two flathead screws so they reside just below the surface, mount it on the existing remains and don't worry about it until the fire.

Next time you pull the engine out it would be wise to clean that all up. Get it to where you can actually see what shape it's in. Clean it with baking soda slurry and rinse very well with clear water. When dry, wire brush aggressively, vacuum or blow out the scale, spray with rust mort or other brand rust converter, paint heavily... Then add the new 6mm Sintra (PVC) base. Universal type battery hold-downs are on the shelf or rack at your FLAPs. Body is probably going right behind and below the battery tray, too. Sorry.

-BH

trying to remember

battery-sized anywhere.

think

the

spiking tach,

bad crimp. So

on the

road, too.

Reply to
Busahaulic

I tried to stop a gas line from leaking 2 years ago with duct tape. Result: gas and duct tape don't go together. The gas melted the glue and tape away. What was left was gooey fabric net from the tape.

Reply to
Olli Lammi

Reply to
ilambert

No question these are good, but if you can do a good job with these (it's certainly possible to do a bad job with these) then you can also learn to solder.

It's a VERY useful skill, well worth learning.

-

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Reply to
Jim Adney

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