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OP
CJD
Yoda
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Thanks Tush. You know more than anyone all the little things that add up at the end of a project! This week was 2 steps forward, one step back...
So, getting ready to finally install the windscreen...again! This is the way the early mounting bracket looks on the scuttle. It's held in place with 3 screws, and those SHOULD be slot head. This is what TRF sent for them, so they will have to do for now. One of my many little "to get" parts.
And, 6 weeks later the tenax finally held and the hood is finally installed. Whoo hoo!
In general I am very happy with the hood. This is the one spot I am not. I can't say if this is a sewing issue or a handmade car issue. The driver's side is slightly loose, but not so much that it matters. The pax side of the hood has about 1/2" too much material. I am driving around in the 100 degree heat to allow the hood to settle into shape, and then I will decide if it is worth re-stitching the corner to remove some of the flappiness.
Here is the left side by comparison. I have no problem with this side. When I run the measurements, the car is off by 1/4" between the sides of the windscreen...and the hood is sewn almost 1/4" longer on the pax side than the driver. So it appears to be an accumulation of tolerances causing the flap.
So more to come in regards to the hood!?!
The sidescreens have been waiting for the hood to be installed so they could be adjusted and covered. I will post their progress on the sidescreen thread. For here, this is how the early "wedge" style sidecreen mounts look. Thumbscrews hold the screens in place, and the screws point inward.
To be clear...mounting the sidescreens are one of the harder jobs on the TR2/3. The final position of these mounts was the result of about 3 hours of checking, bending, cutting, welding, and readjusting all over again. So these simple looking brackets were very time consuming to place!
While I was messing with the door, here is what the door seal looks like. It is used in 2 locations. First is over the front of the door on the bottom of the scuttle. Second is under the door. The upper seal almost always fits fine. The under-door seal is often impossible to fit. That is normally because the newer seals are harder rubber than the OEM, so it does not compress enough.
These are the clips that hold the seal in place. I thought I had more, so this is another job delayed for now!?!
While we are talking about the steps backward...here is the "new" TRF pedal pad with only 50 miles on it. True, it has been sitting in a hot storage shed for 3 years, but I did expect to get more mileage than that?? Another part on order...uuuurrhhgg!
And the biggest step back was the generator. To back track, this car came to me with 6v headlight bulbs, and I didn't know what to make of that. In the interest of saving money on the resto, I made the decision to keep the 6v's and see how they did . Well, they work fantastically. The extra amps make them look like halogen bulbs...but it comes at the cost of double the amperage. The generator could not keep up. I have the correct bulbs on order, but in the mean time I've been driving the car without the headlights on...until last night. I stayed at the fabric store longer than I planned and had to use the lights for the 10 minute drive home. About 5 minutes into the drive the generator light came on.
Burned up the 19 amp generator. Bummer!
So...the pic above is the 70 year old growler being used to test my 6o year old generator armature. The field windings came out fine, but the armature shorted out internally. It got so hot that there was some solder slung on the inside of the generator housing. Mind you...I knew better than to overload these old generators.
At the risk of upsetting the EE guys...the simple difference between a generator and alternator is where the power is taken off. The field on a generator is attached to the housing, and never sees more than 2 amps of load. The power is taken from the armature and must pass through the brushes. The advantage to this system is you get a DC power. The downside is a spinning armature providing power through brushes is VERY limited in the power it can handle.
The alternator reverses the roles. The rather low current field windings are on the armature, and fed through brushes. The field and brushes never see that much power, so they last much longer. The power is taken off the housing coils, and don't have to pass through limited brushes. The only down side is the spinning field creates an AC current, which must then be rectified.
I know...blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is the weak part of a generator is the armature. The weak part of an alternator is the regulator/rectifier. So, my armature had to be replaced.
The test the growler does that confirms the armature is bad is when it puts a magnetic field around the armature using an AC power source (the wall socket) and a large winding. That magnetic field attempts to build a current in the windings of the armature. In a good armature there is nowhere for the current to flow, so the armature remains inert, and the blade is neither attracted nor repelled. If the windings are shorted, then a current CAN flow between the windings, and the fields become imbalanced...then the steel hacksaw blade is alternately attracted and repelled, making it buzz against the armature. You can't see in the picture, but the blade is buzzing like crazy. The overheating fried the fragile lacquer insulation and shorted many of the internal windings in the armature. I knew this would be the case before I dismantled the generator. The growler merely confirmed it.
Fortunately, I had rebuilt a generator for the TR3, and I no longer have the 3. The TR3 uses spade connectors, while the 2 uses threaded studs for connections. But! The armature is interchangeable. I merely swapped the 55 year old armature into the 60 year old housing. Done!
I will not be using the headlights until I replace the 6v bulbs!?!
Final job of the week was the front bumper. The bumperettes are on back order, of course.
Now the table is changed over to sewing mode. With any luck, this will be the final mode for the restoration!
So, getting ready to finally install the windscreen...again! This is the way the early mounting bracket looks on the scuttle. It's held in place with 3 screws, and those SHOULD be slot head. This is what TRF sent for them, so they will have to do for now. One of my many little "to get" parts.
And, 6 weeks later the tenax finally held and the hood is finally installed. Whoo hoo!
In general I am very happy with the hood. This is the one spot I am not. I can't say if this is a sewing issue or a handmade car issue. The driver's side is slightly loose, but not so much that it matters. The pax side of the hood has about 1/2" too much material. I am driving around in the 100 degree heat to allow the hood to settle into shape, and then I will decide if it is worth re-stitching the corner to remove some of the flappiness.
Here is the left side by comparison. I have no problem with this side. When I run the measurements, the car is off by 1/4" between the sides of the windscreen...and the hood is sewn almost 1/4" longer on the pax side than the driver. So it appears to be an accumulation of tolerances causing the flap.
So more to come in regards to the hood!?!
The sidescreens have been waiting for the hood to be installed so they could be adjusted and covered. I will post their progress on the sidescreen thread. For here, this is how the early "wedge" style sidecreen mounts look. Thumbscrews hold the screens in place, and the screws point inward.
To be clear...mounting the sidescreens are one of the harder jobs on the TR2/3. The final position of these mounts was the result of about 3 hours of checking, bending, cutting, welding, and readjusting all over again. So these simple looking brackets were very time consuming to place!
While I was messing with the door, here is what the door seal looks like. It is used in 2 locations. First is over the front of the door on the bottom of the scuttle. Second is under the door. The upper seal almost always fits fine. The under-door seal is often impossible to fit. That is normally because the newer seals are harder rubber than the OEM, so it does not compress enough.
These are the clips that hold the seal in place. I thought I had more, so this is another job delayed for now!?!
While we are talking about the steps backward...here is the "new" TRF pedal pad with only 50 miles on it. True, it has been sitting in a hot storage shed for 3 years, but I did expect to get more mileage than that?? Another part on order...uuuurrhhgg!
And the biggest step back was the generator. To back track, this car came to me with 6v headlight bulbs, and I didn't know what to make of that. In the interest of saving money on the resto, I made the decision to keep the 6v's and see how they did . Well, they work fantastically. The extra amps make them look like halogen bulbs...but it comes at the cost of double the amperage. The generator could not keep up. I have the correct bulbs on order, but in the mean time I've been driving the car without the headlights on...until last night. I stayed at the fabric store longer than I planned and had to use the lights for the 10 minute drive home. About 5 minutes into the drive the generator light came on.
Burned up the 19 amp generator. Bummer!
So...the pic above is the 70 year old growler being used to test my 6o year old generator armature. The field windings came out fine, but the armature shorted out internally. It got so hot that there was some solder slung on the inside of the generator housing. Mind you...I knew better than to overload these old generators.
At the risk of upsetting the EE guys...the simple difference between a generator and alternator is where the power is taken off. The field on a generator is attached to the housing, and never sees more than 2 amps of load. The power is taken from the armature and must pass through the brushes. The advantage to this system is you get a DC power. The downside is a spinning armature providing power through brushes is VERY limited in the power it can handle.
The alternator reverses the roles. The rather low current field windings are on the armature, and fed through brushes. The field and brushes never see that much power, so they last much longer. The power is taken off the housing coils, and don't have to pass through limited brushes. The only down side is the spinning field creates an AC current, which must then be rectified.
I know...blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is the weak part of a generator is the armature. The weak part of an alternator is the regulator/rectifier. So, my armature had to be replaced.
The test the growler does that confirms the armature is bad is when it puts a magnetic field around the armature using an AC power source (the wall socket) and a large winding. That magnetic field attempts to build a current in the windings of the armature. In a good armature there is nowhere for the current to flow, so the armature remains inert, and the blade is neither attracted nor repelled. If the windings are shorted, then a current CAN flow between the windings, and the fields become imbalanced...then the steel hacksaw blade is alternately attracted and repelled, making it buzz against the armature. You can't see in the picture, but the blade is buzzing like crazy. The overheating fried the fragile lacquer insulation and shorted many of the internal windings in the armature. I knew this would be the case before I dismantled the generator. The growler merely confirmed it.
Fortunately, I had rebuilt a generator for the TR3, and I no longer have the 3. The TR3 uses spade connectors, while the 2 uses threaded studs for connections. But! The armature is interchangeable. I merely swapped the 55 year old armature into the 60 year old housing. Done!
I will not be using the headlights until I replace the 6v bulbs!?!
Final job of the week was the front bumper. The bumperettes are on back order, of course.
Now the table is changed over to sewing mode. With any luck, this will be the final mode for the restoration!
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