Molly needs your help.

[alan.bartrum]

Hello my 1968 pick up Molly is in need of your help.

She has had her dynamo replaced, her starter replace, a full service (oil, plugs points, distributor, condenser etc), her battery replaced, new spark plug leads, and a new fan belt.
However last sunday at the petrol station after taking me the 8 miles to the petrol station she decided to stop and refuse to start until some nice chap took pity upon her and give me a push. Once on the main road her headlights started to fade and I noticed the fuel tank gage start to drop (I had only fixed that in the morning, so feared the worst). 2 miles from home and full beam looked like dipped beam. 1 mile from home and she started to lose power as if to stall or that sickening feeling in your stomach when you realise the fuel gague is lying and you are actually empty. About 300 meters from my house she gave up and I had to push.

My thoughts are that it could be the coil - one of the few bits left untouched needs replacing.
Someone has suggested checking the voltage regulator?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Alan

[Naadeslaus]

Have you check how many volt the dynamo gives?? It seem's to me that it don't charge!

[Pyoor_Kate]

Indeed, it sounds like you're not charging the battery - at all; I'd check - once you've charged it - what voltage you're getting at idle / and running. I will suspect you'll be well below 14.6 volts - so you're basically draining the battery.

I'd get round and clean every single connector you can lay your hands on - take apart bullet connector joints and make sure they're clean, check that the earth strap under the car is clean, intact and making good contact; and check that your fan belt is appropriately tight - although dynamo's don't need it as tight as alternators...

For the future, if it happens again - don't use full beam, turn off everything electrical you can do without (when the alternator failed on my golf I ended up driving on side-lights, but I was younger and more foolish then).

[Onne]

I had exactly the same last wednesday. I drove back to the office, and the red light was on. When I stopped the engine stalled, and was completely dead. According to mr RAC the battery was empty to the very last microvolt

SO he borrowed me a battery, and I drove home behind him, using only sidelights.

In other words: Check Dynamo output as said by the others!

[Willie]

Yes, it is obvious that your battery was exhausted. Did the red charging light
come on on the speedo? and if not does it come on when you switch on the
ignition because it should have come on to warn you of 'no charge'.

[nebogipfel]

If the replacement dynamo was a good'un then the problem is almost certainly the voltage regulator.

[alan.bartrum]

The frustrating thing is that the red light comes on initially then goes off when driving indicating to me that all is well, but when the lights are on it seems to fade but stay on. I guess I should onlydrive it in the day!!!

I am checking the output tonigh - with a bit of luck and no doubt keep you posted.

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Onne]

Brushes for the dynamo are readily available, quite cheap, and easy to do.

[Naadeslaus]

But was'nt the dynamo brand new?? I Had the same problem on my car. It was the regulator that was broken!

[alan.bartrum]

Dynamo is brand new, the regulator seems to be one of the few bits left to check.

Thanks

[chickenjohn]

The symptoms sound like worn brushes- is it a new dynamo or merely "new to your car?" a replacement 2nd hand one, perhaps nicely painted but with old parts inside?

as said above, another suggestion- try tightening the fan belt.

[alan.bartrum]

Cleaned up all the connectors I could find last night and put the battery on. It is registering 12.1 with the voltmeter, so I am guessing it will be the voltage regulator. Thanks to everyone for sending me help. Another quick one for you, my brake lights have a mind of there own but the haynes manual doesn't show me where the switch is. I assume it is near the pedal, any ideas?

[Onne]

It is not near the pedal, but under the bonnet. If you look under there, it is on the drivers side on the floor, at the front of the car, connected to the brake pipes.
So just follow the brake pipe at the front and you will come across it.

Onne

[ColinP]

And it's easy to test - just take off the two wires and then short across (with the ignition on).
That will tell you if the switch is faulty.

I've had to change the switch twice in the last couple of years, so buy a couple - that way you'll have a spare hanfy (they aren't expensive).

It's quite easy to change them without having to bleed the whole braking system .
First time I did it though I had to remove connector so that I could hold it in a (soft faced) vice to unscrew the switch (38 years!)

Colin

[alan.bartrum]

Thanks again.

Molly appreciates your help

[Alec]

Hello Alan,

the first check whether dynamo or alternator is the fan belt.

Alec

[alan.bartrum]

Old cars are great!

It would appear that whoever had checked the dynamo in the past had failed to notice that the oil pressure switch was connected to it and not the dynamo, so when I replaced the dynamo and labelled the wires I continued the problem.

We did need to adjust the voltage regulator a bit too so thanks to everyone for there help, shame the standard lights are so rubbish but at least I can now see something!

Alan

[Stig]

Ah yes, previous owners, don't you just love 'em?

You might like to consider a halogen headlight conversion. They don't take much more power than the sealed beams (55/60W instead of 45/50W) but give much more light. Should be OK on a dynamo -I'm sure some folks have this setup. Dead easy to fit too.

[JimK]

I have a dynamo with halogens. Haven't run through a winter yet though, so I don't know how the battery will do.

Daily run will be either 7 or 13 miles each way, depending on which one of us takes the car.

The headlights I bought are Wipac Quadoptic, about £24 ex. VAT from ESM. Fitted in ten minutes, most of which was spent getting one of the retaining rings off a rusty bowl.

[alan.bartrum]

Thanks chaps, will put them on my christmas list, shame though only just replaced the lights and the headlight buckets. At least it won't take very long!