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New guy - Have a lot to learn
Hi everyone! I recently inherited a 1946 cj2a from my grandfather that passed away. This Willy's had a lot of sentimental value to me and since owning it, I've really enjoyed learning about them. However - I come from the newer school of vehicles and I have limited mechanical knowledge to be honest so I have some pretty basic questions. I'll attach a picture so you can check it out as well!
1- When it sits for a week or so, it won't start unless I throw some starter fluid in the carb. Once it fires, it runs great! The next day I'll start it up and it starts just fine. Any ideas where I should start looking? It sat for a couple years and about a month ago when I got it running again, I had the same problem. I did put some fresh ethanol free gas in since then.
2- I had to replace the battery and I was surprised to see it was an 8v battery instead of a 6v. From what I can tell, it won't charge anymore than 8v when it's running. Wouldn't this be a problem for battery life?
3- Seats... I want to find some original seats to put back in so if anyone has anything, please let me know!
I want to get this to be a little more reliable so I can drive it a couple times a week especially since the weather is getting nicer here in central PA. I removed the top that was on it since I plan to use this as an occasional driver when it's nice out.
Thanks in advance for any info guys!
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How Do I Make An 8-Volt Regulator?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CMT-1109
Thanks a bunch gmwillys! I thought the same thing about the starting issue but wasn't sure what the best way to approach it would be. I'll check out the East coast forum soon as well as LarrBeard's article! Thanks for the heads up!
Yeah, GMWillys knew I'd have to check in on this.
That is really a nice Jeep, but the paint would have gone on more evenly if someone had swept the leaves off between coats … I’m kidding. That is a really neat pattern.
I’d check to see if someone had adjusted the standard 6-volt regulator to charge the 8-volt battery or maybe even put in an 8-volt regulator. The easiest way to do this is look at the voltage on the battery with the engine at a high idle speed. A standard 6-volt regulator will cut out at about 7.3 or 7.4 volts. An 8-volt regulator will be significantly higher.
To top off the 8-volt battery, charge would need to cut off at about 9.7 volts or so. At that voltage, you are getting close to having headlight, brake light and parking light issues – that’s really high. Cutting out at about 8.6 to 8.8 volts would probably be an all-round compromise; good battery charge to reduce sulphation, enough juice to spin the starter just a bit faster and not so high as to make the headlights turn into flashbulbs (do you kids remember flashbulbs?).
If you want to try to reset the regulator, it really isn’t hard. One word of caution before you take my advice – I’ve really not done this on any of my regulators, but I have stayed at a lot of Holiday Inn Expresses ….
Get the unit to where you can work on it, clean all the crud off the cover and take the cover off. It’s always good to start with clean contacts. Pull some really fine emery (>600 grit) through the points. Then, take a piece of paper, soak it in alcohol and pull it between all of the contact points in the regulator. That starts us out with clean contact points.
There is a photo at the bottom of this post, refer to it. You will find three relays in the regulator. You are going to work on the one that has the coil with no big wire on it, just a lot of turns of little wire. What happens is that when the generator/battery voltage gets high enough, enough current flows through all of that little wire to open the contact points. When they open up, the generator/battery voltage drops a bit, the points close … and the process goes on. They run more like a buzzer than a clunk-clunk relay.
The points are held closed by a spring. What we want to do is to add a little more force to the spring holding the contacts closed. That makes the coil need a higher voltage to open the contact points. You can do this by bending the tabs that hold the spring further apart. I’d suggest bending the bottom spring since that doesn’t fool with the moving armature of the relay. I can’t recommend how much to bend, I’d suggest a little at a time – and it make take several tries.
Adjust the tab, reinstall the regulator and start the Jeep. Watch the ammeter until the charge rate settles out, then check battery voltage. If it’s lower than you want, spread tabs a bit more. If it’s too high, go back the other way.
Let us know how this turns out ….
(Oh, by the way - down in the Tech Library there are a couple of papers with more than you really want to know about 3-relay regulatore)
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Balky Starters, Kids and Grandkids
"The starter is turning really slow to the point it stops and then it fires up."
If the battery is charging to 8.4 volts at cruise, that's probably a sign that the regulator has been reset. I'd look at the battery voltage while it's cranking. The stopping just before it fires up and slow cranking make me wonder if there's not an issue with the battery or starter - and I'd guess battery first.
The starter spec for the Autolite MZ-4113 says that the stall current is 420-amps at 3-volts. If the starter is stalling and the voltage is 4 or 4.5 volts, I'd guess a starter problem. Check brushes and bearings. If it drops below 3-volts, I'd guess battery. I am assuming you have good battery cables - auto store 12-volt cables are marginal on 6 volt systems.
A rare possibility is a timing issue, it could be firing early on the compression stroke and stalling the starter just as it starts - but since it cranks slowly all the time - probably not.
My step-grand-daughter thinks the '48 is neat - but she doesn't want to drive it. You know you've made a hit when the grand-daughter wants your truck as part of her senior picture portfolio. Her brother will drive it on occasion. My youngest daughter (42 years old) is a pest - she wants to take it out and drive every time she comes to visit.