napoleon_in_rags

Alternator, regulator, starter solenoid are new; battery and cables are newish. I connect a good voltmeter to the cigarette lighter wiring. While cranking, system voltage drops below 11v momentarily; once started it goes to just under 12v and stays there. Adding a load, by say turning on the lights, makes this go down; revving the engine does not make it go up. I pulled out the fuses one at a time while the engine was running -- no change. The battery takes a charge readily with a trickle charger and does not drain when the car is parked overnight. Any suggestions for how to track this down?

Renaissance style, depicts Archimedes as an old man drawing circles in the sand. A Roman soldier stands to the left, presumably about to kill him.

My '79 Lincoln Town Car quit charging: starts and runs, but ALT light is on. The alternator is fairly new, so I decided to replace the crusty old voltage regulator first. The store offered both 60 amp and 100 amp versions, both of which look exactly the same (and exactly like the old one). The alternator is a 70 amp unit, according to its label, so I installed the 60 amp regulator as being the closest. Now I still get the ALT light at idle, but if I rev the engine up, the light fades out.

So . . . should I try the 100 amp regulator? Or would that fry something? Would I then have to get the 100 amp alternator too ($$)? Should I look for someone who'll sell me a 70 amp regulator? Or do I have some other problem?

Any advice from the electrically-knowledgeable would be appreciated. I can build mechanical stuff all day long, engines, auto trannies even, but electrical stuff gives me the squirms. Thanks.

The fuel tank in my '79 Lincoln Town Car is leaking; I can see the pinhole. It rusted through from the inside, no doubt because a previous owner parked it for long periods.

Tomorrow I'll order a new tank (and new straps). I've done a lot of car work, including complete engine rebuilds, but have never swapped out a fuel tank. Other than disconnecting the battery first, is there anything I need to know before crawling underneath and unhooking things?

I wasn't following F1 when JV was driving. Just wondering how he was regarded.

Guy draws a weekly NASCAR-themed cartoon:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sports/racing/cartoons....

The books are good, but kinda old (2001 and 2003). Worth getting if you were watching back then. Newer toons can be found in the online archive. Funny stuff!

So it's not really a question, I just wanted to share this with NSACAR fans. :-)

Seems like his style . . . I would have read it in an anthology in the '70s, perhaps in one of the 'Dangerous Visions' collections. It's a 'gimmick' story, the gimmick being that it's partly graphic.

Two men are in a room when they notice a small black splotch on one of the walls. (The splotch is always portrayed graphically.) They go over to see what it is, scrape at it, etc., but as soon as they both look away, it disappears -- only to reappear, slightly larger, elsewhere in the room. This happens over and over until the splotch covers most of a wall (and half of a page).

Title, author, where found?

Car is a late-70s Lincoln sedan, moderate mileage, owned and not driven much by an old man (friend's late father). Naturally it has power windows and other accessories.

The battery went dead, and looked old and crusty. So my friend bought a new battery and asked me to help with swapping it in. When I went to connect the cables to the terminals, there was so much arcing that I couldn't get the clamps on.

Key was out of the ignition. No accessories, to our knowledge, were turned on. Yet something is obviously draining power . . . .

I'm an experienced shadetree mechanic; have rebuilt engines and auto trannies. However, electrical gremlins are not my forte and neither are FoMoCo products. Any suggestions? How do I go about tracking this one down?