SORNagain

Alternatively some steel plate, angle grinder, and some patience....

I would have thought so yes. Is there a way you can check the ECU is booting properly?

Surely it would never have run if this was the case? 6 weeks is plenty of time for a dodgy connection to oxidise... I find Mega-confused is the default condition...

Yeah, I reckon that's pretty good. I don't think the bulbs are rated to any more than that anyway. Since posting I realised that my original alternator was actually only 45A, which is why I replaced it. So your 65A one is probably easily good enough too.

The alternator in my classic is a Bosch 90A out of a volvo. This seems to have a fixed output of 14v, but I know that some alternators are slightly temperature dependent and give a higher voltage at low temperatures, to aid charging in cold weather. I took out the original 65A alternator, whose output I found to be a bit 'bendy' - i.e the voltage dropped under load. It's not that it gave me any problem, but i figured it was a sensible upgrade given the addition of split charge and extra loads installed. Unlike finname I am not too bothered about voltage drops on the cables to the battery, since all the voltage critical loads are wired directly to the alternator, and I don't care about those when the engine is off anyway. I know that even with a flatish battery the initial high current charge will only last about 5 minutes max, and after that It will be lucky to charge at much more that 15A. As the charge current drops so will any voltage drops in the wiring, so the only effect is marginally longer charging time. So, I would say that if you have anything above 13v at the bulb thats pretty good, if not try and improve the wiring from the alternator to the bulb (possibly using relays off the existing headlamp loom.) Don't forget this includes any ground straps from the chassis to the engine too. Don't worry too much about the battery since it only presents a load when the engine is running.

That's really interesting finname. What are you measuring the light output with? I want one! The change is power might not be as bad as that because the resistance of the fillament will drop as it cools down, but wikipedia reckons light output is proportional to V^3, which is massive. Your voltage drops actually don't sound too bad to me. I had worse in my RRC, which lead me to fit relays for the headlamps. I used thick wire and short runs, taking the feed off the back of the alternator. I think I have gone too far in the other direction, as while the headlamps burn with the light of a thousand suns are very bright, the bulbs are quite short lived! For this reason I think the bulbs not rated to 14 volts, but I don't know what the rating would be. I guess there could be other factors shortening the life too. It's not easy to do the math, but I think it is possible that if your wiring is poor and you fit 100w bulbs to try and compensate, you might end up with less light than you started with! These high performance bulbs seem to get the thumbs up, and I would love to know how they do it....

I think I read somewhere that if you decrease the voltage to a halogen bulb by 5%, you get 20% less light. 5% ain't much at 14v, so I guess thats why the wiring is so important. (which is the subject of the other thread on here at the moment...) I am wondering if alot of the improvement in these high performance bulbs is obtained by having a lower voltage rating, which is better suited to the typical wiring in a vehicle? What would happen if they were installed in a vehicle with good wiring? Any thoughts?

Another one to look out for is Mikuni - a bit more 'agricultural' than Eberspacher or Webasto, but they tend to be a little cheaper. More easily serviced too....

Got me thinking now...I think it was just that I had to put the change over contact upstream of the other one like this: This is so I got the change over functionality for the 'flash', which the original loom did not provide (both fillaments were on simultaneously) I have missed off the 20A fuse on the live feed, but you get the idea. If your existing loom works how you want you could use 2 SPST relays I suppose. Hope this helps

I got fed up with the very dim headlights on my RRC, which for the main part was due to voltage drops in the wiring. I used 2 relays for each headlight - a change over relay for the dip/main beam and another with a normally open contact to switch power onto the common contact of the dip/main relay. I used separate fuses too - don't want them suddenly going out on a twisty country lane! I smashed a headlight bulb and soldered wire in its place, so I could just plug this into the socket for the original headlight bulb to feed the coils of the relays. This way I could keep the loom original. The live feed I took straight from the back of the alternator. The headlights are now transformed, in fact I lose virtually no voltage in the loom so thay get the full 14v from the alternator. I find I am having to replace the bulbs a bit more often now though! I remember there was some subtlety in the wiring for the relays, but can't quite remember what that was. Will see if I can find the diagram if you like...

You will need two to select one battery or the other of course, but this is no bad thing since you can turn both isolators on if you get really desperate! Do you have a split charge relay or diode pack to charge the battery even though its isolator may be off?

Whack a dollop of paint stripper in there. You can always repaint the paint if it turns out to be too loose...

I believe that some rev counters with a wide sweep often have two coils mounted at 90 degees to one another, and a magnet on the needle shaft. The RPM is converted into a voltage in the normal way, and one coil is fed with the sine of this voltage and the other with the cosine. This gives a linear wide sweep which would be impossible to achieve with the normal moving coil and spring arrangement found in conventional meters. Sounds like one of your coils is not working for some reason....

Read this thread this morning, didn't think anything of it but - just this second - received a mail purporting to be from paypal saying I have just sent skype a top up to the tune of £85. Clicking on the refund link gave me a paypal page to confirm my details BUT CLEARLY NOT a paypal URL!!! A quick bit of googling shows this to be a fairly common phishing scam. Gmail generally filters out most of the spam by default, so when one does get through I never know whether to believe it..... Not quite the same as your experience Les, but thought I would post it anyway. Thanks for the warning otherwise I might have become another victim. Hope you get is sorted out OK.

Looks like heating the air is not the answer then! Would only cure the symptom anyway, not the cause. I have found an Eberspacher heater matrix with fan attached, which is quite compact. Its brazed copper construction, so should be ok for a few PSI. Beacuse of its size I will probably bite the bullet and install between the pump & reservoir, and bolt it onto the frame of the compressor itself. That way I can just wire the fan in parallel with the motor, since it only needs to run when the compressor is running. Thanks for your suggestions everyone, they have been very helpful!

I like the Superseal series made by AMP/Tyco. They are properly waterproof, crimp with a fairly ordinary crimper, and you can disassemble them again if you need to. http://uk.farnell.co...-2way/dp/150400 ...obviously you need the crimps and wire seals too. If I am thinking of the same connector, the round indicator connector can be a devil to push the crimps in without the proper tool. (Edit - Econoseal?) Another possibility is an AMP mate&lok connector with the optional waterproofing kit. Same sort of thing - silicone wire seals and mating gasket.

Useful to know. That and a gas bottle is one very cheap compressor!

Wow. I thought there was oil in the refrigerant so you couldn't do that. What pressure are they good for?

Thanks Si, It is a bit thin...about 6mm OD. It has loops at top and bottom and I was going to cut these & parallel them up, but if the restriction is prop to d^4 then I guess this is not such a good idea. Think I will keep it simple with a bit of microbore heating pipe!

Think you are right. One of my neighbours has left an old fridge freezer out for the bin men. Hoping to use the radiator on the back of it as a good condenser! :-)

Thanks everyone, I knew I couldn't be the only one with this problem! Sounds like ideally I need to cool the air down before it makes it into the reservoir, but that would mean changing the pipework on the compressor itself which I am not keen to do. So I will give the 10m hose a go, see if it is any different, and then possibly get some copper tubing to make a condenser. Odd that I started this thread thinking I would have to heat something up, when in actual fact I need to cool it down! I could still heat the air after the regulator I suppose, but there is little point if I can keep the moisure content low enough. As an aside, any one know how to work out what temperature I would need to heat to at 90psi, to ensure the exhaust stays above 0degC at 0psi? Looked at (P1V1)/T1 = (P2V2)/T2 but without knowing the volumes it's a bit tricky. PV is only constant at a constant temperature. I guess I need a coefficient of squashiness somewhere so I can work out the volumes....?

Another great idea, and easy to try too. Sounds exactly like the problem I have, because now I think about it it doesn't ice up to start with, only after a while. (consistent with the reservoir heating up!) Fortunately I have quick release connectors between the reservoir and the regulator so it's just a case of putting an extension hose in there to test it.

Thanks guys, love the tea urn Idea! I think that part of the problem might be that during continuous use the air receiver becomes very hot (its only a 50ltr tank so not much surface area). This might allow the air inside to get quite humid, carrying the moisture through instead of letting it condense out at the bottom. Maybe I ought to be cooling it not heating it! I am guessing a condenser isn't a cheap bit of kit? Also my water trap is a Clarke special, so maybe I should invest in a better one....

Hi Folks, I tend to do little fabrication in the summer for fear of disturbing my neighbours, who live in fairly close proximity. In the winter though, with their windows shut, I think it's fair game. Trouble is, as the weather gets colder so do my air tools, to the extent that they freeze up and nearly give me frost bite! Obviously wearing gloves is not a problem, but the tool freezing up is. I get ice forming in the control valve which gradually impedes the flow of air until the tool is un-usable. Last winter I got better performance by not wearing gloves - the heat of my hand helped to keep it thawed out. Pretty uncomfortable way to work though. So I can either eliminate the moisture or heat the air in some way. I drain the reservoir regularly and have a moisture trap as part of the regulator, but the problem persists. I am guessing this must be a fairly common problem. Any ideas? I am thinking of a fan heater on the air reservoir or some kind of inline heater post regulator....? Almost any suggestions welcome

I think you might have too much air going through the thing. 500mm is quite short for an exhaust, and you have no silencer. I have had flameouts on an eberspacher when running with no exhaust, maybe you are having a similar problem. I think there may be a minimum length specified in the manual, but I can't remember what it is. Perhaps you could restrict the air intake or put a longer length on the exhaust just to test it.