Going Racing at the Sonoma raceway this weekend!

[Jerry]

We should be the only Cortina on the track. If you come to watch, stop by and visit.

Jerry
1967 Cortina

 

[dougie]

Jerry -

You should have a great time if it's dry. Here's what it looked like for me in 2011. Not so fun.....

Stay safe and give us a full report when it's over.

 

[Jerry]

Had fun, but we had to stop Sunday morning. Lots of grinding from the rear differential. We put an IR gauge on it, and the diff was 210 degrees! Hotter than the engine. As we were standing around the car trying to decide if we were done, a Cortina Mk 1 drove by. We asked him if we could borrow his rear end, but he did not like the idea. It was a beautiful weekend, very nice to race in the low 70s for temperture. Our bump steer problem had been corrected. The new radiator keep the engine at 185. But we still went through two alternators and regulators this weekend. That is a total of 5 for the last 3 races. What is causing them to quit? There are very few wires in the car, so we are sure it is not a short. Someone mentioned to us that the Master switch sometimes causes back spikes when you turn the battery on and off. We have to use a switch that also has terminals for the alternator. Any ideas?

Jerry
Cortina 1967

 

[aeronca65t]

I run a standard Group 26 battery and no alternator. My car runs electronic ignititon and electric fuel pump plus gauges and brake lights.
Even if I have to start it several times (for pit stops), it can easily run 2 hours with no issues.

For night events, I have fit a small Mitsubishi alternator (less than 40 amps). I also have a custom, large pully on it (to slow it down).

If you are running a GM alternator, I can only say that I fried two of those myself. I think I was spinning them too high.

 

[Jerry]

The Lemons race goes all day for two days, so we can't run just on a battery. But you bring up a point. We have a larger 5 inch pully to slow the alternator down. So we don't think it that problem. I did find on the internet last night a master switch which promotes no spike to the alternator when you switch it off. Could that really work?

 

[cheseroo]

Some alternators don't seem to like having the master switch flipped on them. It's still producing juice and that juice has nowhere to go and it takes out the regulator which ends up taking out the battery eventually. The RX7 alternator would hang in there with the regulator toasted but the batteries were getting cooked. Basically you get a 4 pole master switch. You wire one of the small poles to the pole that is connected to the battery and the other small pole gets wired to the alternator output. I'm not sure where it dumps the juice but the alternators seem to live with that setup and everything shuts down when the switch is cut.