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For ye of short attention spans, I recommend skipping to the EPILOGUE and CONCLUSION sections.
Fred is dead!
- Thread starter moparedtn
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Glad it was just a dead battery
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Thanks, but I'm well aware something actually killed that battery through a slow drain over the last month...Glad it was just a dead battery
Something that was throwing quite the nasty spark yesterday.
Between all the numerous testing and minor repairs to this and that, we got it skinned though.
Truth of the matter is, who knows how long the drain had been going on, since before the last month, I had
been driving Fred fairly regularly and putting the maintenance charger on him otherwise.
It took a month solid of no driving and no charging for it to become the problem that it did.
Regardless, the battery was a casualty, not the cause.
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congrats Ed, it's usually something simple......now go for a ride!
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Aye. The reliable ol' Ram will now fetch Fred a new battery and we'll be taking him out soon.
1 Wild R/T
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FWIW The battery taking that final jarring bump could be the cause of it failing, one of the plates could have been weak & that shot could have caused it to fail & internally short out the battery..
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Sheesh.So watch where you're going Ed.
Poor Fred.
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This whole thing did remind me of a question I've always had about Fred, though:
Why does he have an alternator with two FLD hooked up in back? Wouldn't a '68 have a single FLD?
Why does he have an alternator with two FLD hooked up in back? Wouldn't a '68 have a single FLD?
1 Wild R/T
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Does Fred still have the early style regulator? If so the dual connection style alternator can be used by simply grounding one terminal....
Good early style alternator cores are getting harder to come by so many rebuilders simply substitute the later unit with instructions to ground one field connection..
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No sir, he has an electronic regulator and each of the two "bladed" connections are wired up.
I suspect the previous owner might have transplanted all that from a newer car (he did the electronic ignition
conversion the same way).
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Bob Miller did that when he owned Baby Blue during the 70s. He also installed automatic brake adjusters and a reverse warning light he pulled from junkyard donors. He saved the original numbers matching alternator and the wiring, along with the original fuel pump when he went electric. I passed those parts on when I sold the car the first time, sad but not surprising, they were gone when I got the car back in 2013.
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71dodgechargerrt
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Great news Ed, enjoy the rest of the summer.
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Thank you, you as well sir!
1 Wild R/T
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Fred Lives!!!! Long Live Fred!!!
Is that an NOS bungee cord?
What's the code date on it Dennis?
Wasn't that the same car I saw the Carlisle Police chasing down. ?
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