We slept in on a beautiful Charleston morning, eventually making our way to the famous Hominy Grill for some grits.
Today was the day. The day I finally made it to all 48 states. So hammer down, we roared out of Charleston and steamed towards Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville is a gorgeous mountain town, full of mist and mystery. We arrived late, just before sunset, and decided to walk around downtown to find something to eat. That is surprisingly difficult in Asheville. What appears to be a charming little mountain hamlet turns into something more akin to Maine at night: in other words, punk.
Having visited Asheville on many occasions, I refused to eat the Tupelo Honey Cafe. There’s always a line going out the door and the food is always mediocre. I just don’t get it. Besides, we were nowhere near Mississippi, so why eat at someplace named “Tupelo?”
In retrospect, not eating at the Honey Pot (or whatever) was probably a mistake. Instead, we wandered from restaurant to restaurant, inspecting menus. Most were overpriced, so we finally settled on a vegetarian Mexican restaurant, which was revolting (and I don’t mean that in a revolutionary sense). Our waitress, a scrawny girl bearing many tattoos, piercings, and dreadlocks that would make Bob Marley proud, was an unappetizing sight. Dinner, however, turned out to be more unappetizing–blobs of soy and more soy accompanied strips of cardboard covered in fruit-flavored salsa.
We’re going to stick a 52 amp voltage regulator in the car. And this time, I’m going to make double-damn sure that the thing is polarized and that the voltage is set at operating temperature (200 degrees).
“In the vast majority of the time when we have an issue like this, it’s a ground issue. The field wire of the generator typically controls the grounding of the generator. In our context, we are calling the “ground’ a ‘field.’ And insulated ground comes out of the generator and goes to the field terminal. A three-unit voltage regulator consists of three coils: cutout coil, a voltage limit coil, and a current limit coil. The current limit coil controls the ground, which controls the amount of amperage that the generator puts out. Somehow, the generator is being allowed to ground.
A 1119175, which fit a 1957 Brougham regulator,” is also interchangeable with your car. Doing those voltage regulators are like doing brain surgery. They are sensitive! The voltage regulator is so sensitive, check the values. run the car 20 minutes. test it. Put on the cover. Test. if you overtighten the regulator, you may change it. Each particular car has their own particular needs and may need to be tweaked up or down. More than 2/10ths of a voltage drop was a problem. Guys that have original cars, they had 300 or 400 ignition coils. On your car, your car should have taken coil number 087, which is the standard GM service replacement voltage coil.
Dead short? Something on the inside of the generator is shorting. Faulty brush holder? If your brush holder has an open–if it’s going to dead short–it would run wide. It wouldn’t show the output on the voltage regulator. Should have a ground wire.
The only time something like that, momentarily increase the ground.
A generator on a test bench shows is wide open or nothing. You don’t polarize the generator on the bench. You can’t. It’s impossible. It must be done on the car. Guy in TX who comes out to work on cars where you are. 214-533-2203
The part number for the Brougham’s voltage regulator is 1119605. You can no longer buy that at the store. Most people seem to readily have a 111601, which is a 45 amp version. So yesterday, I called a guys all over the country, burning the phone lines for 4 hours trying to find a 605. No dice.
55 amp regulator for European, Standard Ignition, (VR 124), hotline # 800-227-7441
http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/21934/
chapter of CRAS (Cadillac Rescue Aid Society, a fake but entirely useful organization started by me and my Birmingham Cadillac buddy, Jeffrey Klinner)
Black cover. Terminals down, lower right corner. Stamped on steel base. Three screws that hold it in. On the base with 1 screw. Terminals poined down, it’s on eh right side on the underside.
Resistor number different on the Brougham.–very minor differences. Generator is a raging river, regulator is the dam.
Regulator has a bad ground?