I want to share the Roadkill style journey I had last week.
Last Monday, a friend of mine asked me to go with him on an impromptu trip to Clearwater, Florida to buy his dream car, a '55 Chevy BelAir wagon. Only 3 hours notice, sure. Why not. We drove all day Monday and got down there about Midnight. We met the guy with the car early Tuesday morning and took it for a test drive. We went about 10 miles in it, went through all the gears, let it fully warm up, etc... all was good. It has a 327 block bored .030" over with a 350 crank (355ci) bolted to a T-5 manual. He paid the man, and we started our drive back to South Carolina.
We stopped by the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing which I highly recommend for any racing enthusiasts. We left there and made it about 5 miles up the road before it just shut off going 70 mph on the highway and let off the most explosive after fire I've ever heard. It blew both mufflers wide open.
The battery didn't have enough voltage to start it back up. I pulled up by him and jumped it. Once it was started, we found we had no charge from the alternator. Diagnosis: Alternator failure, battery drained until ignition died, engine kept spinning over pulling fuel from the carb with no ignition, and the fuel collected in the mufflers where it lit off like a couple sticks of dynomite. We jumped it enough to make it to the nearest parts store, where they confirmed the alternator was junk, and I changed the alternator in the parking lot. Fired it up and it showed 14.2 volts. We got back on the road.
All is good, right!? Well, about 100 miles later when we're rounding Jacksonville...
Some further inspection showed some crud on the terminal of the starter solenoid where the battery positive cable and alternator charge wire both connect. I cleaned it up a little, moved the wires around, jumped it, and again back to 14.2 volts. Yay! Back on the road.... for about 10 miles. Same thing. Coasted it into a gas station where I dug further into the starter solenoid. If you know anything about GMs, you know the engineer that designed their starter solenoid location deserves to be punched in the throat for putting the darn thing between the starter and the engine block. Stupid location. Anyway, I found the stud on it was broken. I replaced the starter solenoid in an Exxon-Mobil gas station parking lot at 10-11 pm. Jump the battery, it fired right up, showed a good charge, and tried to get back on the road. Made it another 8 miles and same thing. We said screw it and made it to a hotel for the night.
The next morning, we went to the nearest O'Reilly's as we suspected maybe the battery was no good. Sure enough, it had a dead cell. Replaced the battery and all is good now, right? No. No charge now. Did a continuity check from the battery to the alternator and had nothing. Found bad wiring that was likely inhibiting the alternator from exciting. (one wire alternator)
I replaced the bad wiring and we had a charge again. Cool! We shut it off, got a bite to eat, and went to start it up... *click* ...FUUUUUUU
Starter wasn't engaging at all. Frustrated enough at this point, we push started it and got back on the road. It did fine the rest of the trip.
We just had to push start it when we stopped for food and gas. An 8 hour drive back took 36 hours, but we made it home. It's a beautiful car and runs great now. I did some adjusting to the carb as it was a bit rich on the highway and had an idle stumble. That was cleared up. Now to replace the starter and put new mufflers on it.
Last Monday, a friend of mine asked me to go with him on an impromptu trip to Clearwater, Florida to buy his dream car, a '55 Chevy BelAir wagon. Only 3 hours notice, sure. Why not. We drove all day Monday and got down there about Midnight. We met the guy with the car early Tuesday morning and took it for a test drive. We went about 10 miles in it, went through all the gears, let it fully warm up, etc... all was good. It has a 327 block bored .030" over with a 350 crank (355ci) bolted to a T-5 manual. He paid the man, and we started our drive back to South Carolina.
We stopped by the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing which I highly recommend for any racing enthusiasts. We left there and made it about 5 miles up the road before it just shut off going 70 mph on the highway and let off the most explosive after fire I've ever heard. It blew both mufflers wide open.
The battery didn't have enough voltage to start it back up. I pulled up by him and jumped it. Once it was started, we found we had no charge from the alternator. Diagnosis: Alternator failure, battery drained until ignition died, engine kept spinning over pulling fuel from the carb with no ignition, and the fuel collected in the mufflers where it lit off like a couple sticks of dynomite. We jumped it enough to make it to the nearest parts store, where they confirmed the alternator was junk, and I changed the alternator in the parking lot. Fired it up and it showed 14.2 volts. We got back on the road.
All is good, right!? Well, about 100 miles later when we're rounding Jacksonville...
Some further inspection showed some crud on the terminal of the starter solenoid where the battery positive cable and alternator charge wire both connect. I cleaned it up a little, moved the wires around, jumped it, and again back to 14.2 volts. Yay! Back on the road.... for about 10 miles. Same thing. Coasted it into a gas station where I dug further into the starter solenoid. If you know anything about GMs, you know the engineer that designed their starter solenoid location deserves to be punched in the throat for putting the darn thing between the starter and the engine block. Stupid location. Anyway, I found the stud on it was broken. I replaced the starter solenoid in an Exxon-Mobil gas station parking lot at 10-11 pm. Jump the battery, it fired right up, showed a good charge, and tried to get back on the road. Made it another 8 miles and same thing. We said screw it and made it to a hotel for the night.
The next morning, we went to the nearest O'Reilly's as we suspected maybe the battery was no good. Sure enough, it had a dead cell. Replaced the battery and all is good now, right? No. No charge now. Did a continuity check from the battery to the alternator and had nothing. Found bad wiring that was likely inhibiting the alternator from exciting. (one wire alternator)
I replaced the bad wiring and we had a charge again. Cool! We shut it off, got a bite to eat, and went to start it up... *click* ...FUUUUUUU
Starter wasn't engaging at all. Frustrated enough at this point, we push started it and got back on the road. It did fine the rest of the trip.
We just had to push start it when we stopped for food and gas. An 8 hour drive back took 36 hours, but we made it home. It's a beautiful car and runs great now. I did some adjusting to the carb as it was a bit rich on the highway and had an idle stumble. That was cleared up. Now to replace the starter and put new mufflers on it.
