Friday, May 30, 2008

Alternator Rebuild Part 2

The patient

We continue now with the further adventures of rebuilding an alternator. Let me put this disclaimer before I get critics bashing me or criticizing what I do. I am not a professional re-builder nor do I play one on TV . If you have tips or advice please feel free to help out. Thank you. Ok back to our scheduled program...

Ok so I took this thing home and of course I get the "What the hell is that?" from my wife. Of course I answer "An alternator". She just gave me a puzzled look. Well of course I had to dig deeper. First I look on the outside of the housing for numbers or any identifying marks. At first I don't see anything aside from the "Delco-Remy" on the rear housing. After I took some steel wool to clean the casing I was blessed with information. I found these numbers:



1100639 - 37A
4MI - 12V NEG


That helps a bit more From my own experience I can tell it's a 37 Amp, 12 volt alternator. Ok it's a start. I try and use my trusty friend Google to search for the other numbers. To be honest information was scarce when I searched "1100639" with a number of variations. I had better luck searching Ebay for similar items. Which more or less confirmed what already knew that this came from a 1965 Corvair. It was hard to find a match for these numbers. I believe them to be sort of a batch or lot number from the factory.The "4MI" is what I believe to be a date code which I've not found someone decode this yet.


A couple of sources I came up with were helpful. One of which is very well known in Corvair circles as "Clarks Corvair Parts" of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. I was actually able to find an exploded view and parts listing of the alternator I had. Needless to say this was a huge help to me. They even have rebuild kits for them.

On a side note I had came across Clark's earlier in my life. An ex-girlriend of mine was going to UMass in nearby Amherst, Massachusetts on a roadtrip we took we came across Shelburne Falls. Which is a very beautiful area if you ever have the chance to visit. I remember driving by "Clarks Corvair Parts" on a some what nondescript building along the road we were on. I kind of found it interesting at the time. Little did I know I'd cross path's with them again. I also found an article in Hemming's Classic Car (Aug. 2007, Issue #37) which had bit more of there history and services they provide. Interesting reading if you have the chance to check it out.


Another source that helped me identify what I had was from this site dedicated to Delco Remy alternators was called Alternatorkits.com. I struck gold when I hit this page identifying different models. I knew now what model number I had which was a Delco 10DN 12v/24v . Well now we know what we have here we'll get along with cleaning and disassembly in our next episode. Thanks for coming by and I hope you come back again.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Alternator Rebuild Part 1

First part of the rebuild began at the salvage yard. What car did it come from? What engine? Well the salvage yard was kind enough to write "65 Corvair".Though that did help I wanted to be sure though so I wrote down any identification tags or Vin#'s I could find. I did find such right next where I was working in the engine bay. In a frame to the left of the engine was such tag. I did write down the numbers and they were helpful in narrowing down what I had.I found this website helpful in deciphering the tag. This is what I had:


105375W/50429
"1" = Make - Chevrolet
"05" = Trim - Monza
"37" = Model - Coupe
"5" = Year - 1965
"W" = Plant - Willow Run
"50429" = Sequential Production Number

Well this was more of a confirmation of what I already figured. For the next time I'll get into identifying the the engine and alternator itself. Thanks for coming by stay tuned....

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Alternator rebuild






For some strange reason I've had a desire to rebuild an alternator. Why would someone want to I don't know. I needed a specimen though. On my trip to the salvage yard last week I found one. I spied one out of 1965 Corvair. So I purchased it and took it home. I didn't even worry if it worked or not so I didn't test it before I started taking it apart. For specifics it is a Delco Remy 10DN 37AMP Part no. 1100639, Date Code 4MI. I'm going to share the process of trials and errors(yes I've already made some errors) in my adventures of rebuilding this. Maybe so others can learn from my experience(and so can I). Thanks and stay tuned...

Monday, May 26, 2008

1979 Chevrolet Malibu


1979 Chevrolet Malibu
Originally uploaded by Bob Cutlass
I went out on Memorial Day to a couple of Cruise Night's locally(sort of). The first was at the Haywagon Restaurant (former Bangma's) in Uxbridge, MA. and the other at the Patriot's Diner in Woonsocket,RI. Haywagon cruise night was pretty good and had a nice location. I was disappointed by the Patriot's Diner though. I stopped by to see a whopping 7 cars on display. I felt bad for the DJ playing the music. The reason I posted this Chevy Malibu is that I had one almost exactly like it. It brought back some memories (good and bad). It's not often I go to a car show and say "I used to have one of those". You can check out the rest of the photo's on Flickr(click on picture).

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Here's looking at you


IMG_2568
Originally uploaded by Bob Cutlass
I had a rare Friday night off from work so I hit the cruise night in Cumberland, RI on Route 122(Stop & Shop and MacDonald's parking lot). It was one of those days that had sunshine one minute and showers the next. A good crowd showed up for the event. I loaded up a bunch of photo's on Flickr for all to enjoy(click on photo).

Friday, May 23, 2008

Junkyard hunting






Yesterday I returned to one of my old past times of salvage yard hunting. I went down to a yard which I've gone to before called Henry's Used Auto Parts in Blackstone, MA. In the self service yard they have a wide variety of foreign and domestic models to choose from. I missed the smell of oil and the sight of poor vehicles in there last step before the big crusher. I almost feel sorry for them. Imagine the stories that some of them could tell. One of the main things that keeps me coming back is that they keep a selection of older classics in the back end. It's an interesting selection of vehicles ranging from the forties to the seventies. I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt when I'm there. I did end up picking out an old alternator to try my hand at rebuilding one(a future posting) and an Oldsmobile hubcap which was all that was left of a 71 Cutlass that even had it's rear-end totally cut off. I can't wait to go back again.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

National Drivers Test


Here's a test sponsored by GMAC Insurance. See how you rate. I got a 90% on mine. See if you can beat me. You can challenge others.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Ready for take off!


PICT0007
Originally uploaded by ross-boss34
I just love this shot of a 55 Chevy! I wish I could say I took it. I just had to share here.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Cruise Night Seekonk, MA


IMG_2458
Originally uploaded by Bob Cutlass
Even though it was a overcast a few die-hards showed up for a cruise night at Sam's Club in Seekonk , Massachusetts tonight. I was able snap some photo's before it started raining.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Pontiac G8 commercial

I'm usually partial to Chevy or Oldsmobile but this Pontiac G8 clip looks like fun.


Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Friday, May 16, 2008

Ebay: California Bug in NY


I sometimes surf around Ebay Motors just to see what looks interesting. Sometimes I come across auctions that just make me shake my head and think "What are these people smoking?". What prompted me to write this was this auction for a 1979 VW Bug convertible. Now I'm not an expert on classic Beetles but immediately what grabs your attention is the "Buy it Now" option for $4500. Now first of all this in the category of "Parts Cars". I looked around Ebay and found a lot nicer bugs to be had for around the same price or less. You then glance at the description it's all in CAPS and just over one line long. To me it seems like an awfully lean description for some who wants $4500 for it. I don't know about the rest of you but that's a good chunk of cash to shell out. I'd want more detail and thought put into it. Then you look at the photo's and see the person doesn't even bother clean the car or clean the junk around it to get a good picture. From the photo's shown it looks like the front fenders been primered. You can still see junk sitting on the dashboard and front bumper. Just a poor presentation overall. If it were presented a little better and more detailed description it might go for half of what he's asking. Otherwise I think he's not being realistic. At least clean the junk around away and get a bucket, water and some car wash. I don't think just because it came from California it's worth $4500. This was just my two cents.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Go Speed Racer Go!

I was a big Speed Racer fan when I was my son's age. Already he's bringing home Mach 5 cars.I remember renting video's of it when I was an adult and thinking that "I liked this stuff?" It looks interesting I'm sure I'll check it out on DVD. Enjoy the trailer.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Wheel bearing hub assembly

For quite awhile my wife's 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan has needed new bearings in the rear. It has made awful noise inside the vehicle itself. For some time we just thought maybe it was a tire out of balance. Recently she went to get something else looked at and the mechanic told her it was the wheel bearings going. That sort of brought a sense of urgency for us to get it fixed.
Well to continue from my last post. I returned the original wheel bearings (for 15" wheels) and went about getting the correct ones. It was sort of a pain because the original Auto zone I purchased them from only had one. So the guy called another store to find them. So I had to go to another store to get the other. Kind of a pain but I got them. They ended up being Dynapack Part No. WH512155 which cost about $75 a piece (including tax).



So anyway after waiting for my wife to come home in the afternoon I got to work. Now keep in mind that I doubt these wheels have been off since we've had the vehicle so I figured it was going to give me some trouble. I was far off the mark. First of course I jacked up the car(loosening lugnuts first). Removed the tire. That was the easy part believe me.


I then proceeded to try and remove the rusty drums. Of course being on for years(probably original from factory) they didn't even budge by hand. So in comes my trusty 2 pound sledge and good size rubber mallet to try and persuade these things off. Boy did these need a lot of persuading. After about 45 minutes of persuading (and swearing) with no luck I went down to local AutoZone to see if they had any drum pullers for rental. All the guy said did you try a hammer? Not much help there so I went back to work. By that time I guess the oil I had soaked it with(Liquid Wrench I think I don't have it in front of me). It finally began to loosen. Between pounding and prying with a screwdriver I was able to get the drum to come off.







Even after now I'm only half way there on the first wheel. This was not encouraging at all. Of course as my luck would go the actual hub assembly was no better. I removed the four bolts(needs an 18mm socket by the way) and then tried to persuade it to come off. This part was just as bad as the drum removal. No maybe it was worse. I ended up hitting it from behind and pushing it out eventually.

As expected you could tell the hub was bad because it wiggled in comparison to the new one. It was definitely the culprit of the noise. I wire brushed the inner socket where the bearing goes and proceeded to install the new assembly. Needless to say it went together easy (compared to removal). After installing everything back in reverse order I then proceeded to do the other side(I'm a glutton for punishment). It was a similar thought the drum was a tad bit easier to get off otherwise it was about the same.

Well all in all it was an interesting experience. I did take it for a test drive afterward and was definitely quieter and I didn't detect any problems. So I was happy with that. Well that was all for today. Thanks for coming by.

Related information: About.com Auto repair, Haynes Repair Manual #30011 (Dodge Caravan,Chrysler Town & Country and Plymouth Voyager 1996-2002)

Trade in gas guzzler

As the price of gas shows no signs of easing up people may be tempted to trade in there SUV's or other gas hogs. To trade in your vehicle and purchase a newer one just to save a few bucks at the pump may not always be the best financial choice. When you factor in new car payments, trade in, gas savings it may be better to hang on to your vehicle for a bit. I found this article to explain in more detail.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Finally new tires


My continuing saga of my tires came to an end today(at least for now). Our tax(stimulus) check came this week and it was off to Sears I went. I ended up getting a pair of Bridgestone HP50's. I also got an alignment which comes to find out was way off most of the specs. My salesperson was very helpful and courteous and I'd recommend him if your in the area and in need of tires. His name is Peter Paglia he works at the Sears Autocenter in Woonsocket,RI. I'll be looking him up when I replace my other two tires(or other work).

Well at least that part of the day went well. Later in the day I went to the local Autozone to get a set of wheel bearing hub's for my wife's Caravan. The first store only had one(should be replaced in two's) so they located two at another store. So I picked up those. When I got home I realized a big mistake. They were the wrong ones. She has 14" wheels and I picked up the hub for 15" and 16" wheels. Won't work. So now I'm kicking myself for not checking before hand. So off tomorrow morning to exchange them for the correct ones. Oh well.

Future classic: Mopar Minivans?!


I came across this story of the original Chrysler Minivans. Are they future classics? Perhaps. Showing up at your local cruise night would probably draw some weird stares. My grandmother had one of these. I remember coming back from two years in the army in 1987 and all over the road were Chrysler mini vans and Ford Taurus's(yuchh!). They were very functional and practical. Though (as the story get's into) they had an anemic powertrain. I was surprised opening the hood and finding a 4-banger inside. Times were tough for Chrysler then. This car is still around today. My wife has a 2000 Grand Caravan and she loves it(or least liking it better).

Source: Autoblog

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Ebay: 1967 Chevrolet Impala camper?


Yes I said a Chevy Impala camper. I'd have to say this one of the more unusual finds on Ebay. I honestly can say this is something I've never seen before. I think it's safe to say the idea never took off. I'd love to have just the wagon itself me being an Impala fan though it looks like a total rust bucket. Click on photo to see auction.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Mooneyes Street Car Nationals (37 of 321)

These are some of the coolest conversions I've seen. I do give the Japanese credit for imagination and ingenuity.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

The GT-R Legend

I came across these videos of Producer Kazunori Yamauchi(of Gran Turismo series of Playstation games) puts the new Nissan GT-R through it's paces on the autobahn and at Nurburgring. There are many scenes which I recognize the track from the game(Gran Turismo 4). I'd have to admit it looks like an amazing sports car. I'll have to start saving for my PS3 for when Gran Turismo 5 (full version comes out. Like others the only reason I ever bought a Playstation (1 and 2) was the Gran Turismo series and it looks like it push me to buy a PS3 too. Enjoy the videos!






Thursday, May 1, 2008

Hypermiling

I came across this article and found it interesting. Hypermiling is about tweaking the last bit of gas milaege from your vehicle. Who isn't interested in doing that these days? I did a quick search and also came up with (aptly titled) hypermiling.com. I first thought it was one of those fad type of tips or tricks but really it's about is just driving smarter. I think that along with properly maintaining your vehicle will save you gas.I'm going to start using some of there tips.