[Purcell69]

Well, after chasing an electronic gremlin for the past week, I pinned it down to a bad alternator. True, the PCM has the voltage regulator built in, but even when I bypassed the PCM and ran through the external regulator, I was having charging issues. Apparently I was pretty much running off the battery, though with Ethyl, the electronic consumption while running is minimal.

Sure, the fuel pump and engine management are electronic, as is the cooling fan, but driving her, the only indication anything was afoot was the voltmeter itself. Had it not been for the low (9v-12v) readings while driving around town, it may have been a month or more before I was aware there was a problem, until all of the sudden she would not start.

It wasn't until I changed the e-fan speed from the low side to the high side that I pinned it down to the alternator. Running the fan of the low side, around town I'd get a steady 12v reading on my dash, but on the highway I might see readings nearing 13v or more. When I switched the fan to the high speed side, I was getting nothing more than 12v even with the engine revving past 3500 RPM. This was through the external regulator that was supposed to "fix" everything.

Yesterday morning, I picked up a new alternator and installed it. Even with the fan running on the high speed side, I was seeing 15v at idle upon start-up, through the external regulator. With that part now verified, I switched everything back over to run through the PCM again.

At the same time, my new dash insert arrived so I can install the new electronic speedometer. I also decided I only want to put this all together one time, so I ordered a new mechanical oil pressure gauge to match the rest of my gauges. No more hodgepodge instrument cluster. The last gauge I needed should arrive mid-next week and then the only thing left to do for the cluster is get the correction box for the fuel level.

No photos of video this week. I was pushing to get things done this week. My days off were cut short due to a protest in the city where I work Tuesday evening and then having to cover graveyard shifts Thursday and Friday nights. The swap between days and nights is a young man's game. In my twenties, I could pull all-nighters back to back and never think about lost sleep. Add thirty years and all of the sudden, a fella's bedtime becomes important.

Fortunately these events don't happen often, maybe once a year, but I'm not a pup anymore.

-Joe

-Joe