New guy - Have a lot to learn

[LarrBeard]

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)

[CMT-1109]

Wow! Thanks for the input LarrBeard.

The paint is part of the sentimental value because I helped pick out the leaves when I was younger and my grandfather sprayed them, imprinted them onto the Jeep and then filled it in. He did this one at a time throughout the whole Jeep. I will be keeping it that way as long as possible, that's for sure!

I checked the battery at idle and it was 8v, under throttle it went to 8.4 so I'm assuming the regulator is adjusted correctly. If I run into problems, I'll be sure to come back and try what you recommended since you stayed at a Holiday inn Express. Flashbulb? I don't think my smart phone ever came with one of those. Haha I very much appreciate your sense of humor.

I attached a picture of the gauges at idle. At times, my temp will creep to almost 200 and then work it's way back down to 180. Is this normal? I also ran into a problem of antifreeze blowing out of the radiator cap and overflow line but I'm thinking it may have been overfilled. Is there a general rule of thumb when filling it? My overflow tank seems to be missing... Ha I did replace the cap with a new 4lb cap. I haven't driven it anywhere but started it and all looked good.

Regarding the fuel pump losing prime, do I need to replace it or is there something else I need to look at? Could it just be a small leak or is this normal?

Thanks for all the helpful info so far gentlemen!

[LarrBeard]

You noted; " At times, my temp will creep to almost 200 and then work it's way back down to 180."

If you have a 180 degree 'stat, that's normal. The coolant at the back of the engine where the sensor is gets hotter than coolant at the front around the thermostat. When the front end gets to 180, the 'stat opens.

I have a 165 degree stat in the truck and it will crawl up to about 175, then open - and then go down just below 160 before everybody gets their act together.