Project: The Anal Probe

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

Haha, just count the car as having an alt delete and charge it after every time you drive it . I have seen posts here claiming about 10% gain on FE. Since it don't charge, maybe remove the alt, sell it, and get a new belt for the new config if possible.

That has slowly been dawning on me. The only problem is there's no convenient way to plug the car in at night so I have to carry the battery up 8 stories to charge it in my dorm room. Then again i don't drive a lot so it could be doable.

Does anyone know how long one can drive with a deep cycle battery? Approximate range? What do you do if it runs out?

Originally Posted by FXSTi

Tyler,

Nice pictures of buildings in Detroit, but why are you posting them here? This is a forum about Ecomodded cars and I don't see a car in those pics.

Kirk

Hahahaha great. I really want to do the other side now, and paint over the stock red paint with mountbatten pink.

I think I'll take the car off the market. There's nothing wrong as long as I charge the battery and don't stray too far.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Haha, I hope not!

Google: "Rusty hood"

I cant believe im saying this, but i can actually appreciate the rusted look of that car. I think all the artists here would understand.

[ps2fixer]

I'm not sure of the range, but I would say to use lights as little as possible and no radio. Might pay to have a second battery on hand if you go for a longer trip if you can come across one cheap.

[Sven7]

Cd, the texture is usually pretty cool- IF it's naturally occurring patina from, say, sitting in an Arizona back yard for 30 years. These kids take perfectly good body panels and strip the paint off. It's a matter of preservation for me. A lot of people talk about certain modifications "ruining" a car- a bad set of wheels, for instance. Purposely rusting parts of your car, though, is literally ruining it. You will never get that steel back.

Fixer, I've got the old Fleet Farm battery still but another deep cycle would be great (and something that I won't have to worry about during hard cornering). I'll have to look into that.

"Rat look" cannot be forced. It must be unwittingly bred over decades. Some surface finishes are like wine...


One look in the engine bay though shows you this thing is a fabrication masterpiece with metal flake paint and all.


But I digress

[ps2fixer]

I can't get into the rat look, to me it just looks like a rusted out car and in michigan they are all over and can be a large safety problem. Quick example, my 1990 cutlass ciera I got rusty (first car) with only 100k miles on it. The rear end came loose from the body and the tire started to rub the rear fender. About 2 months later my dad's Buick Century did the same thing, but it looked better on the main body, but under was rusted out.

Now having said that, there are some art pieces in the executive building at my job that are made of copper and stainless steel that have corrosion on them and they look good. I can see it in art, but not in something that depends on being strong like a car.

Just thinking about the "issue" with your car, maybe there is a fuse bad. Seems you should be able to run the positive (large wire) on the alt to the positive on your battery to provide power to it for charging and use the energizer wire to turn it on/off to benefit from the less engine drag.

[1carnut]

Won't Autozone or Advance Auto Parts or a place like that diagnose electrical issues for free? Might be worth a try if there is one close by. At least you would know the issue and then could decide if you wanted to pursue fixing or not.

[ps2fixer]

Originally Posted by 1carnut

Won't Autozone or Advance Auto Parts or a place like that diagnose electrical issues for free? Might be worth a try if there is one close by. At least you would know the issue and then could decide if you wanted to pursue fixing or not.

Correction... they will test your parts for free given your looking to buy the replacement from them and scan error codes thrown by the car's computer. Most likely the new alt is good, but it could be bad. Also I would like to note that part store workers typically don't work on cars for a living, they can talk the talk well since they handle the parts all day, but they don't install or diag the problems as often as a normal mechanic. Don't get me wrong, parts salesmen know quite a lot about cars, I'm just saying in general, different workers come from different backgrounds.

There is a place near me that will diag any electronic problem in a car and guarantee it to be the problem, they do not do any of the work, 100% diag only. Down side is that they charge a hefty price for their service.

If I'm wrong, I never seen the option to get the free diag, and will be looking to abuse, i mean use that service next time I have a car problem instead of dragging my dad out to check it.

[kach22i]

O'reilly's auto parts will loan you (free) their plug-in reader to get the codes (typically where your left driver's knee is). They leave it up to you to go home and surf the Internet and find out what that code number means. Then come back to them if you like, and purchase the parts.

My buddy needed a $40 camshaft sensor on his PT Cruiser which mounts externally on the engine block. The sales person knew what our code was because he sees a lot of them go bad (same as Neon).

[Sven7]

I imagine if my Probe was able to throw codes someone would have mentioned that to me. It's a '92.

I don't trust Auto Zone people to diagnose my car problems. Going to see if I can get the old alternator tested. If that was good all along it'll rule the new one out.

I want to delete the power steering. If it's as easy as pulling a belt and unhooking a connector that will get done pretty soon. Also want to unhook the passenger headlight but I think someone has hard wired it in.

[Dieselman]

Car electrics are pretty simple and an alternator only needs three connections to work.

There is a large +12v wire connected directly from the battery +ve terminal which passes the charge to the battery, a small +12v feed which passes through the ignition switch and dashboard light and is used to excite the alternator windings and the Gnd, which is usually made by clamping the alternator to the engine, but sometimes there is a separate Gnd wire.

Some cars have a relay in the small +12v connection, but most dont.

If the three wires connections are good then the problem is the alternator itself, possibly a u/s regulator/brush pack.

You can buy a digital voltmeter for $5, which will be more than good enough for testing this and all other electrical items on your car.

I've read this thread all the way through and your mpg improvement is healthy and car looks great.