Friends, SOS from Tennessee - semi-stranded.

[ischmitz]

If there is no charging from the alternator there are a couple of culprits:

- The charging light indicates that the excitation coil is powered from the battery during startup. This is so the alternator can start to produce electricity. If the bulb doesn't light up when you turn the ignition to ON something is wrong there. An open bulb or the wiring from the battery to the bulb and further to the alternator is interrupted. Easiest is a dead bulb. Question -> is the alternator light on with the ignition ON? If not check the bulb. Maybe an easy fix.

- Then the regulator receives the output from D+ of the alternator and meters it into Df (the excitation coil in the rotor) to ensure the output of the main coils remains around 13.4V at varying RPM. If the regular (integrated in the alternator) is shot or the diode pack for D+ there will be no charging-> need an alternator shop to test on the bench.

- The brushes could stick and prevent contact to the excitation coil in the rotor -> again no output at all and an alternator shop can check/replace the brushes.

As others said there is nothing wrong with driving on a battery only - just don't deep-cycle it, keep the head lights and other unnecessary stuff off and it'll take you several hours/charge

Good luck,
Ingo

[spidklr]

The shop has the fan assembly apart - yesterday we were looking for any obvious problem like loose connections at the back of the alternator, etc. That all looked good. Got the voltage regulator off and it looks OK, contacts and springs are good.

He was trying to find a compatible regulator off a motor in his shop to try as a test, but they were all different models. Ready to get and try a replacement, and also bench test the alternator but the shop that does that work is closed until Monday.

[KNS]

Check all your grounds.

I had a similar problem once and it was a wire at the starter that wasn't fully tight.

[BK911]

Originally Posted by KNS

Check all your grounds.

Had the same problem in the '64C and it was the tranny ground strap.
Easy fix, but took a bit of trouble shooting to get there.

Good luck buddy!

I am up I75 near Norris wrenching on a bug.
If you get bored pick up some beer and swing by.

[spidklr]

Oh, I am BORED today, but significantly lacking in transportation, or I'd totally come up there

[tirwin]

Just wondering if you made any progress today? Fingers crossed!

[spidklr]

Hi all - getting the car fixed and getting home was my priority so I didn't follow up here. But here's the whole story :-)



The shop I found was Eurotech; Rick and Janis and Cliff there were SUPER helpful and went way above and beyond to help me out. I also got to meet a really nice group of Smoky Mountain chapter PCA folks, but that's another story.

Anyway, as I said the alternator in the car was relatively new, so I suspected that less, imagining some other 28 year old part would be more likely to be the issue. Still, no other simple problems like connections or ground surfaced. However, once the required shop opened on Monday morning, Eurotech sent the alternator to be bench tested, and sure enough it was bad. The problem seemed to be one of the white leads - the middle one - not soldered correctly to the capacitor at the end. Simple, but a needle in a haystack. It looked fine.

Rick helped me be sure to get a new alternator under warranty, same day, and got me on my way by 3:30/4:00, and I immediately drove to past Indianapolis, slept, and then to my home in MN, 1001.6 miles, without issue. Rolled the trip odo right past 000.0.

If you are in TN show these good people some love Eurotech Knoxville

Rick is very capable and knows these cars. I was really lucky.