View Single Post
  #35  
Old 08-22-2016, 07:22 PM
Tom Vaught's Avatar
Tom Vaught Tom Vaught is offline
Boost Engineer
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: The United States of America
Posts: 31,302
Default

You are correct John on all of your points we discussed.

The Alternator 2 Wire Connector was clocked at 9:00 and the Bat Terminal was clocked at 12:00 (viewed from the front) when I received the car. The Positive Terminal was close to the 63 M/T Ribbed Valve Covers I had installed along with M/T Roller Rocker Arms.

When I was on the other side of the world, My brother drove the car. Apparently he had the Alternator Belt break somehow, and a new belt was installed from a parts house.

My brother was not a mechanic therefore all he cared about was getting back on the road.

So somewhere in my brother's story, the alternator rubber boot wound up being jammed against the Ribbed Valve Cover (when the "mechanic" tightened the belt he had) and the rubber eventually failed, the + post shorted out against the valve cover, and the wiring system was destroyed. The car was towed back to our home and it sat until I returned.

I eventually had the car again towed to a Pontiac Dealer who replaced the entire wiring system. $$$$

The original sin was the clocking of the alternator. Maybe would have worked fine with the chrome factory valve covers but it did not work well with the M/T covers obviously when the slight clearance, (3/8") was removed. I screwed up not knowing how to reclock the alternator correctly.

Tom V.

__________________
"Engineers do stuff for reasons" Tom Vaught

Despite small distractions, there are those who will go Forward, Learning, Sharing Knowledge, Doing what they can to help others move forward.