Captain Obvious

Well I can help you out a little on the brightness of the paddlewheels as well. See the resistors? There are eight of them. Each one is 330 Ohms if memory serves? The way they are connected in circuit is weird though... Even though there are eight emitters and eight resistors, they aren't paired one for one. They actually use four parallel paths through the assembly with two emitters in series in each path and two resistors in parallel in each path to limit the current. But what makes it interesting is that the paired resistors in parallel are on opposite sides of the board. So if you remove four of the resistors (being careful not to remove the same position on both sides of the same board), you'll double the effective resistance in the leg, thereby reducing the brightness some. Kinda hard to do with just words, and I don't have any good pics of the paddlewheels. I'll try to snap some tomorrow to explain what I'm talking about.

TomoHawk, That's funny. I take a camera to the yard with me as well. Since I do so much "customization" with parts from different vehicles, it helps me remember where I got what. Site, I'm trying to do the math, but I keep getting a divide by zero error.

Step away from the keyboard there Jake. I think you need to dry out a little....

Actually, what I was picturing was that you would estimate the length with a piece of generic rubber tubing, and then take that piece of generic tubing with you to the junkyard to use as a length gauge. And where I come from, a trip to the junkyard is never "wasted". It's like fishing... A bad day at the junkyard is better than a good day at the office.

I didn't measure the length of the line. I just cut it long enough to get a good strain relieving loop in it. Should be able to simulate and estimate with a piece of tubing. Put a loop in it and hold it up against the assy to gauge the length?

Haha! I was probably about the same age. The good old days without steering locks. Hopefully Granny will come back with some troubleshooting info soon and stamp out our threadjack!!

Zed, Haha!! Nice story. Not that something like that happened to anyone here, right? I think maybe the first car I ever drove was a 72 or 74 Dart or Valiant. Don't remember. Those were the family cars. Don't think my Dad ever found out...

Well to be honest, not knowing which model you have, I may have made an assumption that is not true. I went to Retro's website and randomly opened up one of their owner's manuals. But you may not have that model and they may not have incorporated the same features in all their offerings. The one I was looking at was for the Redondo and I was looking at the User's Manual here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0932/8664/files/redondo_manual-low_res.pdf?17019323021407945183 On page 25, they talk about the clock features. The clock controls are in the Clock sub-menu. Hope I didn't get your hopes up for nothing, and I apologize if that's the case.

Good luck and let us know what you find. Don't run it too long at that high of a voltage. I'm no battery expert, but I believe you can damage them if you run too high for too long.

Happy anniversary!! I sure wish I was the original owner of mine. I've only been the original owner of two vehicles in my life ever, and I do still have one of them. It's my motorcycle that I bought in 1982. It's looking better than I am too!

I've not messed with the GM three wire upgrade, but I thought it was pretty bulletproof. I thought that the sense wire needed to be connected though.. If it's disconnected, the alternator will try to put out more voltage to increase the sense feedback? What happens if you run a jumper wire directly from the sense to alternator output lug? Does the voltage stay at 16.8 or does it drop down to a more reasonable level?

Yours being a 78 isn't the reason it has vacuum pots. It has vacuum pots because it has air conditioning. The non-AC cars don't use vacuum for any HVAC controls. Everything is mechanical with cables, no vacuum. It's not a year thing, it's a feature thing.

What he said. They look great, very bolstery. But that width is going to be tough to deal with. It's been done before, right?

rossiz, Weird that your clock isn't accurate. I'm sure it's crystal derived inside the device and that's usually about as accurate as a cheap local time source can be. While I was looking through the Retro documentation, I did see some stuff about the clock... I didn't see any way to "turn it off" completely, but it does appear to be configurable whether it's the "primary" display or if the current radio station is the primary display. It's also configurable whether it's displayed while the radio is off or not. The default is clock ON while the radio is off. So you can't get rid of it completely, but you can maybe minimize it's impact?

I'm sure you know this already, but you shouldn't need any diodes or capacitors. If you've got 12V between ground and the yellow "constant" yellow wire, that thing shouldn't be losing it's memory. And it shouldn't matter at all what is going on with the "IGN/ACC" red wire. You should be able to make and break the connection to the red wire at any time, as many times as you want. As long as you have a good constant source of 12V (or something not too far from it) between the black and the yellow, it should maintain memory. But you're right in that it just might be an issue with the radio design itself and for some reason it's not tolerant to a quick "turn on, back off, and back on again" kind of situation. I would have expected Retro to have tested for that, but I have seen that kind of weird corner case before causing undesired effects. Some things to consider... First, what type of meter are you using for your investigation? Most digital meters update way too slowly to catch short transient voltage changes. Your constant +12 might actually be dropping out and your meter might just not be fast enough to display it. Second, I took a look at the wiring diagram for 71, and originally there wasn't any "always hot" connection to the radio. The original radio had no volatile memory to be maintained, and the only power to the radio was a blue wire that went hot only in ACC. So if you've got a constant +12V source at your radio, it's something that you or a previous owner spliced into somewhere. You had said earlier in the thread that your constant +12 was a light blue wire that the previous radio was hooked to. I think that's a non-stock addition and you might want to look into that a little more. Where does the switched (ACC) 12V source come from? Is that connected to the blue wire that went to the original factory radio? Just some stuff to think about when you get back to town.

Thanks Jim, I know the early year info is a little sketchy... Hopefully I've got something for that.

I don't have any vacuum controls for the HVAC, so no worry there. I did. however, take the opportunity to replace my BEEP-BEEP warning buzzer with my polite "Ding-Dong" bell chime from an Integra. I even installed a latching push button switch so I can reach up under the dash and disable the chime if I want to sit with the door open and the key in the ignition. Just have to remember to re-enable it again when I'm done. I mounted the ding-dong right next to the dimmer. PWM dimmer on the left, I'm holding the Integra chime in the middle, and the original beeper-buzzer on the right. (Note that the dash is upside down.): Also note that in that pic, I had not yet incorporated the ON-OFF switch on the chime. Here's the switch: I've got it all mounted up, but didn't take a final pic yet. I'll snap and post one when I get a chance.

Good luck with the hunt and if you can't figure it out even with Retrosounds help, let us know. So what year is it that you're working on? I'll take a look at the wiring diagram, but want to use the right one.

They are power mirrors, but I'm not using the power capabilities. I have the wiring harness rolled up into a ball and stuffed behind the glass inside the mirror housing. Maybe someday I'll go through the effort to run some wires out to the door and wire them up. And maybe someday I'll go through the effort to paint them. I'm still trying to make my car work perfect. I haven't gotten to the look perfect part yet!!

Yeah, I think 16.8 is too high. Is this something that just started, or has it always been like that? Also, is this an internal or external regulator?

Thanks for the pics showing the alignment pins. They look just like the ones used on the flat top carbs. Hope you figure out why your float valve isn't sealing...

Bummer. I was hoping that it was just a simple mistake of swapping the wires to the radio. It's my job to ask. So if the wire that is supposed to be hot at all times IS in fact hot at all times, then in theory there shouldn't be anything that you could do with the ACC connection that would cause loss of volatile memory. And hence... That's why you're here looking for help. So where are you picking up the hot at all times? And where are you picking up the ground connection? Maybe there are some clues to be had with one of those connections. And when you are measuring your voltages as you change the key positions, are you using the exact same ground point as your reference point for the measurements? There's always the possibility that your ground is floating up, not your high side drooping down.

I'm running modified mirrors from a 96 Buick Park Avenue. They were also used on a couple other GM products from similar year range. I had to modify the mounting area to better match the contour of the Z door. They aren't fancy racing mirrors, but I think they look like they belong. Here's a couple pics:

Good point about the install difficulty. I don't think there's enough room to swing the rheostat out without pulling the dash. The lower left mounting bracket is right there in the way. I had a bunch of reasons to pull my dash, so I'm just doing it all at the same time.

dmoralesbello, Yes, I'm going to use my PWM module for the LED's. You just can't get good control of a mix of LED and incandescent without it. If you were running all incandescent, a low value rheostat will work. If you're running all LED, a higher value rheostat would work, but if you're running a mix of technologies, the only way to truly get good control range is with a PWM design. TomoHawk, Yes, that's a 1/8W resistor. With the resistor in the circuit and the LED current reduced accordingly, that resistor dissipates about 60mW, or about 50% of what that resistor is rated for. I haven't measured temp rise all bundled up inside the bayonet base, but I expect the metal base to act as a radiator for any heat generated. I can't believe it would ever get as hot as the original incandescent bulb, so I'm not worried about the heat. And about your $99/dozen above... I think you slipped a decimal point, right?