Angie's new car......

[Rambo]

Hope you're on the mend Dave. Put your feet up and let Angie do the running around. The car can wait for a bit

[Simon_P]

Hope you're on the mend Dave. Put your feet up and let Angie do the running around. The car can wait for a bit

Yep I'm sure there are plenty of things that you can do while you're doing nowt, and if you can't get out to the garage she'll just have to bring bits in from the garage for you.

[Rambo]

Yes, you could start refurbishing your alternator with Simon's rebuild kit

Assuming it's off the car that is. She won't want to damage any nail varnish

[dapinky]

Yes, you could start refurbishing your alternator with Simon's rebuild kit

Assuming it's off the car that is. She won't want to damage any nail varnish

Well, the alternator is beyond repair using Simons kit - it is seized solid....... I suspect that the windings have got damp and swollen over the years of inactivity - but that was one of the (probably too many) jobs on the go at the moment that the hospital called for a "timeout".

However, a box has since arrived from the good old US of A, held together with "Rockauto.com" sticky tape..... it looks to be the right size box to contain a nice shiny new alternator and Oxygen sensor - unfortunately, I have been told that if the box moves from it's current location by the front door anytime soon, the next hospital check-up will be for them looking for missing bits about 6" below the current scar

Also in the pile by the door are 3 parcels from WIng Wang Wong Retail Corporation Limited of Shanghai (I think that's what the label says, but as it's written in Mandarin, I could have the pronunciation wong)...... These *should* contain some LED headlamp units, light mounting rings and ballast resisters (unless I've been scammed by Aliexpress.com) - fortunately, I envisioned a period of limited mobility, and removed the headlamp pods as part of the "too many" jobs on the go - and these are sitting on the workbench within easy reach of Angie

I'm waiting for the right time to suggest that I could be sitting at the kitchen table with a light pod and some tools to see if my idea for fitting these units will work..... I much prefer the idea of £100 for 4 headlamps rather that PNM prices of £450 - but only if they mount correctly, and operate in accordance with the light switch.

[Tuga2112]

Dave.

regarding the alternator.

whenever you can check. its worth finding out if its the core. or the stator that is damaged.

a stator can be replaced (i have one in my garage as you are probably aware) but as far as core, I never asked the company if they could source that.

[dapinky]

Joao,

When I'm back in the garage (or at least, when I'm allowed to go back in the garage!) I'll get round to properly examining it to see if it is "just" a case of replacing windings, or if it has knackered the casing as well.....

...... to be honest, I'll just fit the 65A unit for now anyway, and then worry about the 'old' one - if I can rebuild it I will do so, and keep it on the shelf, if not, then I'll canibalise it for parts and chuck the rest away....

... when I can get a complete unit on my doorstep in under a week for under £100 it isn't the end of the world to not rebuild it (but if the case is okay, I will do so).

[dapinky]

Right, well, I had an appointment with the consultant this week, and got the good news that the surgery was successful, and although I now have far less guts than I used to have, there was no cancerous cells found in the lymph nodes attached to the bits they removed

I am still not completely mended, but I do feel a lot better (mentally!) due to the latest news - I am still going to need ongoing scans/tests etc for the next 5 years, but there is nowt further to be done at this stage.

As such, I have done a few short stints in the garage, but can only really do stuff whilst standing up, and only for a shortish period of time before it all aches a bit and I need a sit down.

Still, I have been refurbishing the headlamp pods, and anyone who has ever taken theirs apart will probably (unless they were very lucky) know that the metal bits which hold the headlamp units to the pods have a habit of falling apart due to rust.

I was quite fortunate in that all 4 of the metal rings which hold the lamp units to the plastic rings were good enough to re-use (after a good wire brushing, soak in phosphoric acid & repaint). Also, 3 of the 4 flat mounting rings which bolt to the pods were good enough to re-use. I needed to drill out some of the M4 bolts and clean them up a lot before dipping in acid and painting them. The one that was too weak to use was sound enough to use as a template to make one out of a spare bit of stainless steel sheet - so all good there.

I reassembled them all today with new LED lamp units sourced from China at the huge cost of about £8 each (and about the same for shipping, then add on VAT..... so all 4 on my doorstep was still under £75, so I call that a result.

Fitting the new units took a bit of fettling, as it was necessary to cut a new groove in the plastic rings so that the LED units sit correctly are are not 20 degrees rotated from vertical - but it took longer to work out where to put it than it took to cut it, so no dramas. I had to cut a gasket out of 2mm neoprene (used only because I have a sheet of it on the shelf anyway) to prevent the lamp from being too loose in the metal rings (they have a rim which is about 2mm thinner than the old lamp units, and without this gasket they rattled a bit). A thin bead of silicone would have been far quicker, but may take more effort to dismantle in the future - if necessary.

All in all, it has taken me over a week of messing around to do the job (but a lot of it was either waiting for the rust removal chemical process, or waiting for paint to dry).

Still, as I had the stainless sheet in stock, re-used most of the parts, was happy to wait 3 weeks for the parts to arrive (I bought some ballast resisters as well so that the headlamp pods will still raise and lower - hopefully), and only had to buy some M4 setscrews and self-tapping screws for the beam adjusters, I was quite happy......

...... total cost to me was well under £100, and when PNM will sell you a set ready-to-fit for £450 (with all new stainless bits and pieces - so better than having to re-use your old stuff) I was quite happy with that.

The light units I bought are identical to the ones used by PNM (and the same as Mark used when he was looking at doing this job on Stevos old orange elan) - 45W main beam, or 30W if only using the dipped beam portion of the unit.... all fully DOT and E certified for UK use

[Rambo]

Glad to hear you and your headlights are on the mend again.

[Tuga2112]

I Had a look at the aliexpress link you posted and there are multiple different designs in that page.

what was your criteria to decide which design to select ?

having very recently refurbished mine using the neolite equivalents, i am ratehr tempted to upgrade now that i know the amount of work needed plus the costs.

if i was aware i could have done what your doing, i probably would have gone for that approach. as my costs were around 40 quid for the lamps and another 40 quid for chrome rings around the lamps because the original rings where all shot.

(this reminds me i have multiple hours of footage of that endeavor to edit now)

[dapinky]

My selection was based on a couple of things.....

(1) it needed to be a unit that can be used (partially illuminated) for dipped beam, and fully illuminated for main beam (most of them can do that as they are designed for single use on a motorcycle).

(2) It didn't need to have the 'additional' bits of a DRL (usually an 'Angel Ring'), a sidelight or an indicator built in.

(3) It needed to look okay (some had silly things like skulls or zombies in the lamp pattern).

(4) It needed to have a reasonable light ouput, and power input which the standard wiring can cope with (pretty much any of them).

If you look at the link I put to the PNM ones, then find the same unit on the Yangule Lighting Corporation advert (I think it's the 3rd one along, top row) you can also have units with either black or chrome background.

I went for black as it isn't a reflector surface for the lights, and it is out of view unless they're on anyway.

[dapinky]

A bit of an update, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.....

The re-assembled light pods with painted metal bits and all new stainless fittings.

I am pleased with the way they fit and look - won't know for a while how they work as re-fitting the pods is well down the list as I still have to sort out the metal hinge bracket things attached to the clam (except they are no longer attached to the clam, but the rusted bighead bonded thread bolts sheared off so will need replacing - as expected).

On to the alternator - really can't see what the fuss is about when people think it won't come out/go in...... it's really no problem if you simply remove the whole suspension unit and drain down the PAS fluid so you can whip the reservoir off to get to the top bolts (also allowing you to release the pipe which otherwise gets in the way a bit)

Anyway, enough of the sarcastic comments from me - now onto a bit where I need some advice:-

The alternator I have bought is from Rock Auto, and is listed for the Impulse. I am aware that it is 75A rated, and I am aware that it is a few mills bigger than the OE one - but as I smugly pointed out above, I have room to get it in without too much swearing.....

My initial thought (as can be seen from the picture) is that the new one has a slightly larger pulley than the old one.

I measured the diameters and the old one is approx 45mm, whilst the new one is approx 55mm...... this gives a circumference difference of 141mm vs 172mm, which means that it will rotate something like 80% slower.

Now, I can obviously swap over the pulleys (if they can be removed fairly easily - I haven't yet tried), but wish to know if it's worth it, or should I leave it as is?

My thought process is that the new unit will deliver 75A anyway, so running a bit slower will only mean that the bearings and internals have less wear than if it were going faster. Also, on the Impulse, it clearly works.

My concern is that at idle the red light may come on as it won't be going as fast as the Elan one - but I don't think it will happen, or if it does, it doesn't really matter.

If there is anyone with any knowledge on this, I'd love your thoughts.

I have already thought about the drive belt needing to be a tad longer, and don't think that is a worry - but I may be wrong on that as well.

[Tuga2112]

Now, I can obviously swap over the pulleys (if they can be removed fairly easily - I haven't yet tried), but wish to know if it's worth it, or should I leave it as is?

on mine the pulley came out very easily.... i did use a fairly powerfully impact driver to remove it, but i think you wouldnt have issues with that.

as far as pulley side. i can only throw some guesses.

if it delivers 75A with that pulley on the impulse.. if you put the Elan pulley on it. it will run at 120% its speed on the Elan (assuming the crankshaft pulley on the impulse is the same diameter as the elan)
which seems likely to be a bit too high and prone to internal meltdown if you consider your motorway cruise speed is 3k it becomes the equivalent of 3.6k
Personally i would fit it with the current pulley first and see how things go.

[dapinky]

I hear what you say, Joao - and understand that an alternator has a "red line" at about 15K revs....

..... the motorway cruise won't worry it going at 120%, and I can't see Angie taking it everywhere at 6500 revs, WOT and turbo blaring!

So, the unit itself should be okay with either pully.

My thoughts are along the lines that I want it to provide enough amps (which it should) at idle to turn off the red light - the label on the unit showing its test results mentioned 53A at idle). I don't want the bearings and brushes to wear prematurely, so keeping the speed down will help.....

....my thoughts being that it is a make I know nowt about, and it may or may not use components of equal, higher or lower quality than the original unit - but it is new, not reconditioned.

It won't be used enough to ever wear out again (hopefully!), but if it does, so be it.

I think that either pulley will do, but I will stick with the one fitted and see what happens - worst case scenario, I have to take it out and swap it...... and I intend to try it before I refit the suspension just to make sure the lights go off on the dash and it seems to be working. (of course, I am assuming that the whole unit will be fine and not defective, but that is always a risk with anything we buy).

Basically, I was/am just after confirmation that I am not overthinking something simple, and just fitting it 'as is' will be fine.

[378S2]

Hi Dave, forgive me if you've already answered this somewhere but how will your new lights work with the motor controller?

[dapinky]

That is still a "work in progress" for me - I know the theory, and I have the parts needed, but I'm waiting for Smiffy to actually reply to the message I sent him a while back (but I'm in no rush for!)

Basically, I understand that the light controller needs to see a certain load to operate the relay to lift the pod (and to not see a load to drop them again). I, personally, have never known quite what that load looks like - but others understand electrickery far more than I do.

I know that for my LED indicators in the green car to flash correctly, I needed to add a 6 Ohm ballast resister to each side of the car....

I also know that the WikiLEC says something about a 100 Ohm 5W resister being what I need (So I got some of those, as well as some 10W ones.... as they were 36p each I could afford to get both values without breaking the bank.

The light units themselves are rated at 30W dipped beam, and 45W main beam - so the load isn't hugely different from incandescent units anyway, and some simple maths using my lessons of many years ago of V=IR P=VI suggests that I don't need a huge value to get it right.....

... and that is as far as my knowledge (or expectation! goes.....

On a practical level, I want someone to tell me what resister to fit to which wire to make it work! Bearing in mind that the pods need to raise with either dipped beam, or main beam (flash), so I assume they fit to the dipped beam circuit, and that the main beam flash has enough load anyway????

Anyway, as I say, not worried about it at the moment as I won't be needing them to do any of that stuff for quite a while yet.

[Tuga2112]

i think light pods movement is completely unrelated to the switching of the bulbs on the later versions of the SE (the ones without the microswitches)

would be interesting to find out i am incorrect.

[dapinky]

Time for a bit of an update....

.... I have still got about 3 times as many jobs on the go as is sensible..... but it's very much a case of "While I'm doing this, it is easy to get to that bit...."

As such, the cambelt job led to fitting the new alternator, whilst the OS suspension was out of the car for re-bushing, treating, painting and generally replacing as much as possible, and taking the prongeron off makes it all a bit easier (and needed a good clean anyway), and whilst that is off, now is a good time to remove the sump to sort out the nasty dents (which don't actually leak, but need sorting out before they do).

So, the alternator is in, still with the larger pulley that it came with - which means that the standard alternator belt isn't long enough (well, it could work, but can't be fitted without putting it onto the bottom pulley, and then fitting the pulley to the crankshaft - not really a viable way to do it) - it only needed an extra inch, but every inch counts! So, I bought a belt from ebay which is a 4pk713 - 23mm longer than the 690 which came off - this is a perfect fit.

In the meantime, whilst waiting for the alternator belt, I fitted the cambelt, tensioner (oh how I hate getting that bloody spring in properly!), water pump and idler.... tensioned the belt correctly at 8mm deflection (measured at 60degrees ATDC) with a 10Kg weight on it.

Refitted the engine mount, then noticed that I'd forgotten to fit the big rubber washers on the chassis beam, so had to take it off again - fortunately, I hadn't fitted the bottom pulley at that point.

Every time I do this job I'm thankful for the cut-down allen key and ratchet spanner - so much easier than the very first time I had to do the job.

It is certainly a lot easier to do the whole job with the PAS reservoir removed, and the High Pressure hose taken off the pump (remembering that it is a 3/4" spanner, NOT a 19mm one - bloody Americans, coming over here, changing our measurements.... oh, wait.

My recent method (it changes every time I do this job) for emptying the reservoir was using a coffee syrup pump - very quick and easy to get the majority out, then release the Low Pressure hose from the pump and catch the fluid which drops out - this was made very easy because the light pods are out of the car at the moment.

Still, the alternator is now fully fitted with the belt being a nice fit - easy to tension before refitting the PAS reservoir (not yet done) - fitting the cable is easy(ish) with the prongeron out, but is even easier with the oil filter off, as then I could get a decent swing on the 1/4" drive ratchet - and pushing the plug on would be awkward with the filter still fitted - I have always done the wiring before bolting the alternator in previously, but because of the trial fitting and getting the belt length right, I thought I'd leave it until last - wouldn't be (easily) possible with the prongeron and filter in situ.

PAS belt was easy, and refit the pipes to the pump before I forget!!!!

The NS suspension is in the process of renovation, but is broken down to it's constituent parts on the bench, so doing a bit when i don't feel like crawling under the car.

There was the usual worry trying to undo the bolts holding the exhaust front (down) pipe to the pre-cat housing dustbin - they always seem like they are really tight and are going to snap off, and being captive thread, there is no way to soak the nuts first - but a long swivel bar and a good socket using a steady pull, not a jerky tug got them all out, and once they had gone a turn, they could be undone with just fingers.

Getting to the sump bolts is straightforward enough - but I nearly forgot to actually drain the oil before taking it off - schoolboy error in my haste to get it done.....

That's about where I am at - still lots of jobs on the go, running out of space on the workbench, so will be doing the suspension before I start the metal beating (possible welding and whatever) on the sump.

[dapinky]

Well, looking at the sump, I'm not at all sure how it has remained oil-tight. The outside looks well bashed about, but the inner surface is completely intact (to my eyesight).

The plan is to clean it up to get all the crap out of the splits/cracks/folds and down to bare metal, then smack it about with a hammer and dolly to try to get the shape back to something like it should be (probably heating it up first to prevent any shock damage to the metal).

I hope to get away without any welding, but if I need to, I will.

If I can get away without it, I'll add a layer of Chemical Metal and maybe a thin sheet of metal to give it some support and (hopefully) prevent any future damage from vibration.

I'll dry it all off, then fill the bottom with paraffin or diesel which should find any gaps which I can't see - if all is okay, then a bit of preparation, paint and refit.

I'll also go off at a tangent and add a job of making up a sump guard like I have on my other car to try to prevent any future damage to the repaired item.

Then it's back to where I started, and crack on with the suspension (all now painted and ready to fit) - shock platforms are set to where I think they ought to be, but will be adjusted much later to get the ride height right....

.... then move on to the front brakes for a bit of an overhaul and the front end will be finished (for now).

[roy666]

Dave - great stuff..especially the head light upgrade. However, I was interested in the 'new alternator' topic; there are loads of loads of threads concerning new alternators and the associated battery charge light staying on all the time. Does anyone know just exactly what causes it.. and is there a definitve fix for it?? Be very interesting to see what happens with your new one. ta M

[dapinky]

Mike,

The issues with the battery light appears to be restricted to some of the aftermarket recon units.....

..... my unit is an aftermarket recon unit, but it was reconned in America (probably outsourced to Mexico though - most of the recon parts seem to come from there), so it is a completely unknown quantity.

I am not yet in a position to be able to think about starting the car, and need to get the sump refitted before I even consider whether to wait until it is back on the wheels, or keep it up on stands.

Whilst I quite like the idea of getting it running as soon as possible, common sense suggests that i put the parts back that I have removed first, otherwise I'll be off down a different rabbit hole and have even more irons in the fire.... Obviously, if it all simply fires up and runs, then it is job done - but as it hasn't run for 7 years, the chance of it being quite that simple is slim, and it will need a bit of fiddling with. I don't want to risk damage to the engine as any oil will have drained down in the last few years, so will remove the plugs and put a squirt of oil in the bores before turning it over to get the pressure up... so I may fit the new plugs and leads at that time - oh, how it all adds up when you think about it (that's why I try not to think too much, but just go with whatever feels like it should be next on the list).