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72 DutchWagon rolling resto
72DutchWagon:
Small hiccup in donkey land; took the wagon to the municipal garbage dump site, was cleaning out the garage and garden. Just tossed a rotting rocking chair, and wanted to start the car up to leave this miserable place where no longer wanted stuff is abandoned, and donkey decided she didn’t want to leave. I turned the key another time and said “what’s that donkey, do you want to stay here?”
She just answered with a very faint red glow from the dash and that was it.
Whilst pushing her off the site, some guys remarked that I just passed the old iron dumpster, haha, that was to be expected.
Well, the problem was obvious, after driving around for some days the battery was flat, charging system can’t keep up with the demands, so I need to fab a bracket for the 90 amp Scorpio alternator and hook that up.
The Scorpio alternator only has a thicker black wire that should go to the plus side of the Solenoid, and a thinner blue wire that should go to the idiot light on the dash as I understand it.
I do have some remaining questions for the experts on site though, I’ve been spending days on reading threads about these conversions but a few things stay unclear;
1 the original thicker black load wire from the 65 amp Pinto alternator disappears into the wiring loom, where does it go, does it first feed the dash and then comes back to the battery (Yellow wire to the plus post of solenoid)?
2 do I also hook this thicker black wire up to the plus side of the solenoid, or can it be taped of?
3 do I run the blue idiot light wire all the way to the wire that’s now on the I post of the voltage regulator, and can I then discard the voltage regulator?
4 do I run the blue idiot light wire straight to the dash, and if so, where do I hook it up?
pinto_one:
You may have a fusable link that may be bad, they are built into the wire ends and burn out on the inside some times , the pinto alternator is large enough for what you need , it's just that you have to trace the wire and find out why the charging current is not making it to the battery , do a internet search under fusable link to see what it looks like , you will know what to look for , hope this is your problem , and a simple fix , good luck ,
76hotrodpinto:
I put the ol' pinto alt. back in with mine too. No problems keeping up with 12v demand. I'd keep poking around for shorts or lifts. Maybe a bad diode in you alt?
72DutchWagon:
I did some maintenance jobs last weeks, renewed the brake fluid which was the color of Coca Cola, and full of debris. Complete overhaul of brake system is on the future agenda.
Valve lash adjustment on the 2.0 is supposed to be done with Hazet special tools 3429 and 329-5 because the efi intake manifold limits access to the adjusters on the left side. 3429 I found on the net, for 329-5 I fabbed a replacement from an old 19mm spanner. You don’t really need the 3429 tool either if you shorten a normal 15mm spanner.
The camshaft is really worn, the lobes have ridges to the sides! Good excuse to put a Kent cams FR34 on the wanted toys list, and of course a new oil spray bar.
I cleaned up the battery posts and checked the alternator load capacity but I’m still not convinced that the original alternator is going to cut it. If you add up the amp draw of efi, electric fuel pump, electric fan, H4 halogen headlights, that’s too much to ask from a 1972 power nothing configuration Pinto alternator.
pinto_one:
You might have to do a volt drop test on the car , what you have to do it start it up and run for a few minutes and then turn the lights on , all of them ,put the fan motor on low or med, take a volt meter and check what voltage between the alternater and battery, if you have more than a volt you have bad wires , over the years they get hard and the resistance goes up, also check engine to the negative post on the battery , that will give you fits, I put two ground straps on mine , and last is see what is stamped on the alternator , I do remember some were stamped 42 amps or less 😳, I have one off of my parts car and it was a 60 AMP, (see photo) , I have a larger one on my V6 pinto , it's a 100AMP , and last on your cam is if you have to remove it you have to remove the head 😩, yep the cam is removed from the back , so if you have a non A/C car you can remove the radio and use a hole saw on the fire wall to remove the cam, but remove one the the rocker arms and look at it , if it is smooth across the face just install it back and adjust the valves and keep on going , get a zinc oil additive, most oils do not have them because most engines have roller cams instead of the old slider cams , hope this helps
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