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.
Thanks for visiting.
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
