About Me

New Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Name: Todd Russo Location: New Hartford, CT, USA

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Overheating issue found


It has been a while, I know. Partially because of shame, and partially because of life’s busy-ness. But now that Old Biddy has been put to bed for the winter, the embarrassing story can be told.

When we left off last, I was trying to figure out why the car was overheating. At first I thought it was because the radiator filler strap was not installed. I sewed one together out of two strips of denim (on my grandmother’s Singer Model 66 “red eye” that I inherited) and loosely fit it in to place. After re-measuring and trimming it, we went for a test drive. The missing strap was not the problem.


Another issue I found was the new thermostat (from Moss Motors). When I opened the radiator cap, the water was not circulating. It was found to be opening at 198*F instead of 180*F as it should when I pulled it out and tested it in a pot of water.  It was swapped out with a high flow Mr. Gasket 180*F, which circulates the water properly now… This is the old faulty one.


The day I was troubleshooting I took many short two mile rides up and down our hill. The temperature gauge needle kept reading “H” although the thermostat was swapped and the strip was installed. I began to get frustrated. I thought that maybe the short 35mph short drives were not circulating enough air. On what was to be my last test drive of the day, I put the hood (bonnet) down and decided to see what would happen if I drove the car at 55mph.We drove down hill to the main road and began to speed up. When we hit 52mph the hood suddenly flew up and hit the windshield blocking my view. Since the road had no traffic, I quickly pulled over to assess the damage. The hood itself was fine. The cowl got bent up and dented by the corners of the hood on both sides.


As I closed the hood in frustration before the ride, it became apparent that I did not push it down to latch it all the way. Thank goodness the windshield is fine as well. Just the cowl got buggered up.


Whenever I had the engine revved up above 3000rpms, the temperature gauge would rise and read “H”. Whenever the engine slowed down to idle, the gauge went back down into the “normal range” I also took a glance at the rest of the instruments connected to the main “green power wire” (oil pressure, voltmeter, fuel). They all behaved the same way!!


Therefore, the conclusion is that the brand new Lucas RB340 voltage regulator replacement (from Moss Motors) is either faulty or needs serious adjustment. Some suggested that the problem could be the voltage stabilizer (located behind the speedometer). But if it was, only the temperature and fuel gauges would be affected…not the others.


Electrical issues aside, it was a historic year! Old Biddy became an official registered motor vehicle, and she is drivable!! She has been driven nearly fifty miles, although twenty five of those miles are test rides. As she sleeps for the winter, we can concentrate on and look forward to next year’s punch list; fix the electrical glitch, get the seats reupholstered, get the cowl repaired, and the perpetual…get the car buffed out! At least the list is shrinking.


As you can tell, Moss Motors has sent me a few unreliable, poor quality products lately. I wish they had better quality control, if any at all. Or they should just stop buying junk from China!!


Thanks for visiting.

Toddy