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My .02 cents on new alternators. Have it tested before you leave the parts store. I bought one and it blew the glass fuses, maybe not all of them but the car wouldn't crank and my gauges went limp. Ask the guys on here and found out it was "back charging"? Guys at the store were cocky but got alot nicer after it failed their test. Learned something new that day. 🙃

Colour matching is really important.😎

A good battery will be about 12.6-12.8 volts; 12.2 is very low and indicates it might not hold a charge. A good alternator will read 14-14.5 volts.

Went to Cars & Coffee in Steveston BC this morning, and met up with about a dozen members of the local Zed club I belong to. It was110 km from my house, so it was a great drive too. After the cars & coffee we did a scenic group drive for breakfast to a local Pub for the $5.99 special. Lol. Sadly this the last weekend they will be open, as they are closing after 130 years of service. Sometimes "progress" sucks, the Buck & Ear will be missed. On the way home I also stopped at my favorite, close to me, craft brewery. For some reason I was attracted to this six pack? I think this Dutch Pale Ale is my new go to beer. Lol. And it tastes good too.

Greetings friends!!! Been a while and I have been having lots of fun with kids and fishing and what not. But the Z car has been on a roll lately. I replaced the carbs with more carbs. and I finally have it back to running like a champ. In fact it is running and revving like it used to. Happy days! The peasants were happy! Having said that. I took her for a spin the other day to keep fresh fuel running through the system and just generally keeping it running. Old cars hate to sit. As you all know. Important factoid: I keep my cars on a battery tender any time they are not running to preserve the batteries. I pulled back into the drive way and light footed it and stalled it. After a bit of laughter, I tried to start it and had the annoying clicking of a dead battery. Which is strange as I keep the car on a battery tender all the time. I hooked up the charger for about 2 hours and then the car started fine and I Pulled it in. Now the plot thickens. So something was up. My thoughts are that the battery is about 5-6 years old and it is not unusual for a battery to be DOA after 5 years in the Houston heat. I left it on the battery tender all night and in the morning I disconnected it and it read 12.2 volts. Which seemed a tad low. But maybe not. So as I am oft to do, I started overthinking the issue and that leads to, (more times than not), spending money. Since I was using the original starter that came with the car still (it had never let me down), I talked myself into thinking that the solenoid may be going bad (even though those are usually working, or not, no clicking issue), so now would be a rather handy time to replace that old grimy and dirty Z starter for a shiny new gear reduction starter :) And since I bought a new starter I decided to go ahead and buy a new battery as well while I was at it. Surely that would solve the issue. Well a week later and both were procured and installed. First let me say the gear reduction starter is the coolest sounding starter EVER. Sounds like you are about to start a 1000HP Big block Chevy. LOVE it. Car ran beautifully and started each time. Fast forward to today. I was going to drive in to work in the old gal to bless those in the NASA area with something besides a black or grey SUV to look at. Again this morning I disconnected the batter tender and it started just peachy. But I started to think about many things. There was no reason for my battery to really die before. I had replaced everything BUT the alternator. So just to verify, with the car running, I whipped out my multimeter and checked the voltage of the battery. (I checked it by attaching the multimeter to the positive post and the negative post) With the car at a rock steady 900 rpm, the battery read 12.3 volts. When I revved the engine it read 12.3 volts. It would flicker to 12.4 volts. Now I am thinking my alternator may not be charging. It is my belief that a running car should put out north of 13 volts from the alternator. I am running an old MSA 60 amp alternator kit. My plans going forward are to start up the roadster and see what its alternator puts out while running as a sanity check. Any comments?

I hope you strapped them down to the headlight scoop for the drive, although I think you'll need to wait a while before opening them.

There is no lamp on a 71. On the original 71 alternator, it would be a field wire and alternator neutral on the T plug going to the external VR. Since the car is modified, the field wire is jumpered to the ignition wire, and the neutral wire is jumpered to the battery wire.

The signal wire should have battery voltage. The ignition wire should have no voltage with the key in OFF, and it should have battery voltage with the key in ON.

Japanese company. Try searching in Japanese: https://atk.co.jp/rebuild/

12.3 volts while running tells me that there is a problem. However, diagnosis is not complete. Have you verified the signals for the sense and ignition inputs? Those are the two wires going to the T plug on the back of the alternator.

Don't overlook the winding wire. At the T plug on the back of the alt. One Sense wire, One Lamp wire. The Lamp wire needs good connection. I've had the spade connector get loose and lose conneciton. No charging.

Awesome. Thanks!! And your prolific use of pics and documentation has helped me on numerous occasions. Keep up the good work!! I'm currently working on a set of carb air cleaner attachment hardware stuff based on a sketch of yours from years ago. 😊

Hey CO, #6521 did originally have a condenser in all four locations listed above. Funny that two of your four pics above are of my car. The pic above with no condenser on the alternator, was from about 10 years ago when I pulled it to do some engine detailing. Prior to the detailing it did have a condenser there, but it was not connected. At the time I just left if off when I re-assembled alternator. Here's a before & after pic. Mystery solved, Lol.

Yesterday I gave #957 an overdue wash/detail, top and bottom. I've had six months of ownership, and been caught in the rain a few times during the 700 miles I have put on her so far.

I found these Skechers in Las Vegas on the weekend. The color looked very familiar so I just felt the need to buy them. What do you think of my new 918(ish) driving shoes. 🙂