Dublin Meeting

[banaltra]

Yeah we'll do the spin out to Dalkey next month I reckon! By that stage it'll still be bright at 7pm too!

Im really looking forward to Summer!

Oh bring on the summer. Can't wait, so much fun! All the shows and runs! For selfish reasons I'm happy we didn't do the run this month so I can get my bug out for it too, and hopefully the vico road in Killiney will be fixed too coz its just the coolest road to go for a drive with Killiney beach right beside it.

 

[Mikey]

Tonight was probaly the best night since last September (we had nice weather then).
Their was a great amount of cars there, fair play for all coming out. Many new people didn't get
to chat to all.

Hope you all like the hoodies, we're selling more than I thought. If you didn't get them tonight,
I'll have them again next month. Also as Brian said, I'll have them out to you in the post within the week.
Hopefully get them off very soon.

Lovely split!

Some car!!

Think I may have left some drool on the side of this.

 

[banaltra]

Sounds like it Ross, although I have a feeling because the battery is sitting up for a few months unused that it wasn't fully charged to its 6v capacity when we left this evening. And with the headllights on all night the poor dynamo couldn't charge the 6v battery quicker than the engine/lights etc were pulling from it! Fingers crossed thats all it is.

I'm still struggling a bit with my chargin system too knk. I put in a new dynamo, new regulator, new battery and still it goes dead on me at least once a week! Its gettin more frequent now which is annoying me. But funny, I put in a new fully charged battery, and it wouldn't turn over, and though it was fully charged, I jumped it anyway and it worked??? Jumping seems to work for it even when the bat is full, its so bizzare so I suppose my problem must be a connection or maybe its shorting coz I saw a few wires exposed and possibly broken from the positive cathode when I was puttin in the new battery. I could be wrong but I think the wire is only connected to the radio, but I'm still confused coz jumpin the battery works everytime!

So knk, thats absolutely no help to you, especially coz mine is 12v, but at least I can empathise with you But maybe some1 else can shed light on that problem.

 

[Dirty1]

Nice to get to a meet again, I missed the last few!

Good to meet a few new faces too, forgot about the extra weight in the car when I had Ross in it and mushed the front valance a lil more on a speedbump pulling back in! The joys of it!!! fair play to Keith for making it up!!!

Nice cruise home too with Lazy and Rocky!!! Didnt get a chance to chat to KNK or Ben Byrne so I'll catch you guys next time!!!!

Roll on summer nights - coz I was bloody freezing!!

 

[Endfloat]

forgot about the extra weight in the car when I had Ross in it and mushed the front valance a lil more on a speedbump pulling back in! The joys of it!!!

Well I did offer to get out before you went over the speed ramps! Awesome car though! (And I rarely use the word awesome!) Cheers for taking me for a spin in it!

 

[Dirty1]

Wasnt long enough really, would have been better if I had taken you out on the Mway, hope it helped your engine choice headache a little!

 

[Endfloat]

Ah it did yeah! There's plenty of grunt to get started with from your motor, and I'd have bigger carbs anyway so it should be loads for me. Im going to try to get up in a couple of weeks to Armagh to get that engine from Caddy. Im not in any hurry but if I get it in before the next monthly meet I'd be delighted!

 

[knk]

I'm still struggling a bit with my chargin system too knk. I put in a new dynamo, new regulator, new battery and still it goes dead on me at least once a week! Its gettin more frequent now which is annoying me. But funny, I put in a new fully charged battery, and it wouldn't turn over, and though it was fully charged, I jumped it anyway and it worked??? Jumping seems to work for it even when the bat is full, its so bizzare so I suppose my problem must be a connection or maybe its shorting coz I saw a few wires exposed and possibly broken from the positive cathode when I was puttin in the new battery. I could be wrong but I think the wire is only connected to the radio, but I'm still confused coz jumpin the battery works everytime!

So knk, thats absolutely no help to you, especially coz mine is 12v, but at least I can empathise with you But maybe some1 else can shed light on that problem.

Alice you may have a drain on your battery. An easy way to check is to disconnect the +Positive Terminal and then re-touch it of its terminal pole. If you see any little sparks when you go to reconnect it then you have a drain. The bigger the sparks the bigger the drain!

Finding the drain is a whole other ball-game!

John

 

[Dirty1]

Good choice!!!! It'll be plenty to keep you happy!

 

[Endfloat]

Sounds like it Ross, although I have a feeling because the battery is sitting up for a few months unused that it wasn't fully charged to its 6v capacity when we left this evening. And with the headllights on all night the poor dynamo couldn't charge the 6v battery quicker than the engine/lights etc were pulling from it! Fingers crossed thats all it is.

Just try disconnecting the battery with the engine running. If the engine dies, your dynamo is not working.

 

[banaltra]

Alice you may have a drain on your battery. An easy way to check is to disconnect the +Positive Terminal and then re-touch it of its terminal pole. If you see any little sparks when you go to reconnect it then you have a drain. The bigger the sparks the bigger the drain!

Finding the drain is a whole other ball-game!

John

Right, I'll look into that. I have plnty of unnecessary stuff that could be easily drainin the battery. There is an alarm I never used that I'm hopin to get rid of, and I'm sure my 10 disk changer isn't helpin either. Funny though, when I was changin the batt of my bmw 2 days ago there were a few sparks, but no sparks from the bug when changin its batt straight after. Halfords were a little suspicious when they saw me buyin the 2 batts! I'll certainly give it a shot again though andsee what happens. But I've been sayin since I bought it that I'm gettin rid of that alarm!
Thanks John!

 

[banaltra]

Just try disconnecting the battery with the engine running. If the engine dies, your dynamo is not working.

Is that not a bit dangerous Ross?

 

[Aidan]

I'm still struggling a bit with my chargin system too knk. I put in a new dynamo, new regulator, new battery and still it goes dead on me at least once a week! Its gettin more frequent now which is annoying me. But funny, I put in a new fully charged battery, and it wouldn't turn over, and though it was fully charged, I jumped it anyway and it worked??? Jumping seems to work for it even when the bat is full, its so bizzare so I suppose my problem must be a connection or maybe its shorting coz I saw a few wires exposed and possibly broken from the positive cathode when I was puttin in the new battery. I could be wrong but I think the wire is only connected to the radio, but I'm still confused coz jumpin the battery works everytime!

So knk, thats absolutely no help to you, especially coz mine is 12v, but at least I can empathise with you But maybe some1 else can shed light on that problem.

Did you polarise the dynamo? (guess you must have to get the read light to go out...)

Worth checking the earth strap at the gearbox - I had the same problem once (jumping always worked) and it turned out to be a dodgy earth strap (the gearbox to body strap, not the earth at the battery). Even if the strap looks fine, there may be rust between it and the body. See if it or the battery earth strap is warm after cranking?

 

[banaltra]

Did you polarise the dynamo? (guess you must have to get the read light to go out...)

Worth checking the earth strap at the gearbox - I had the same problem once (jumping always worked) and it turned out to be a dodgy earth strap (the gearbox to body strap, not the earth at the battery). Even if the strap looks fine, there may be rust between it and the body. See if it or the battery earth strap is warm after cranking?

I'll defo check that but I know the tube where the heating comes from under the back seat by the battery has a bit of a gap so since the earth strap for the battery is right beside that, heat is most likely gettin to it and it is very likely that that could either be the problem, or at least add to it. I must get that sorted. Thanks Horizontal

 

[58Panel-Youny]

That was a great meet last night. was great to put a few more faces to names, and loads of great cars & vans there too. Im already looking forward to next month. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer and brighter.
Michael, well done on the t-shirts. was great to pick one up. quality job. Ill definitely grab a hoodie next mnth if there's any left.
Graham

 

[Aidan]

I'll defo check that but I know the tube where the heating comes from under the back seat by the battery has a bit of a gap so since the earth strap for the battery is right beside that, heat is most likely gettin to it and it is very likely that that could either be the problem, or at least add to it. I must get that sorted. Thanks Horizontal

No - sorry - I meant that if the car is started from cold (or if you keep turning the engine and the car won't start), then if the earth strap is warm it means that there's electrical resistance at that point which would be a sign of a bad earth. The heater wouldn't cause problems.

The main one to check is the gearbox to earth strap - that's the one that's more likely to be affected by corrosion and therefore more likely to cause problems. Problem is that you'll have to get under the car to check it and there's no guarantee that its the problem - just one to check.

 

[banaltra]

No - sorry - I meant that if the car is started from cold (or if you keep turning the engine and the car won't start), then if the earth strap is warm it means that there's electrical resistance at that point which would be a sign of a bad earth. The heater wouldn't cause problems.

The main one to check is the gearbox to earth strap - that's the one that's more likely to be affected by corrosion and therefore more likely to cause problems. Problem is that you'll have to get under the car to check it and there's no guarantee that its the problem - just one to check.

Right, ok. Well usually it does start from cold. Its if it has been driven already that day, like an hour previous or whatever. But right, I'll check that out. So I'm basically looking for corrosion, and check if it feels warm, or could I check what kind of amps might be goin through it. Sorry only know circuits etc from school physics and a little in college so I'm a little new to it in relation to my vw.

 

[Aidan]

Right, ok. Well usually it does start from cold. Its if it has been driven already that day, like an hour previous or whatever. But right, I'll check that out. So I'm basically looking for corrosion, and check if it feels warm, or could I check what kind of amps might be goin through it. Sorry only know circuits etc from school physics and a little in college so I'm a little new to it in relation to my vw.

If its starting easily enough from cold then its probably not an issue - the strap'd only get warm if there was a heavy load, say from prolonged cranking. There's probably no point in checking it for heat if there's no prolonged heavy load.

You'll probably need to get a multimeter and check that there's over 14V going to the positive terminal on the battery when the engine is running at,say, 2000 rpm. If that's the case then you can probably move on to suspect a short circuit or a dud battery - its possible that the battery isn't holding its charge even though its new. To check for a short circuit, you need to take out all the fuses and replace each one seperately while checking the reading at the battery - that'll narrow it down to a particular circuit and you'll have to go from there.

An unscientific way to do it is to disconnect the earth at the battery. Take out all the fuses and tap the earth connection to the battery earth. You shouldn't see any spark. Replace each fuse one by one and tap the earth connection against the battery earth terminal each time. If you see a tiny spark then there's a draw on the circuit that you last replaced the fuse on.

Any chance you could swap out the battery with a known good one and run it for a few days just to eliminate a dud battery as a possibility?

 

[BRENDANGOBRIEN]

Right, ok. Well usually it does start from cold. Its if it has been driven already that day, like an hour previous or whatever. But right, I'll check that out. So I'm basically looking for corrosion, and check if it feels warm, or could I check what kind of amps might be goin through it. Sorry only know circuits etc from school physics and a little in college so I'm a little new to it in relation to my vw.

There car will start from cold? and after driving it for a while if you turn it off it won't start again, is that the problem?

 

[banaltra]

There car will start from cold? and after driving it for a while if you turn it off it won't start again, is that the problem?

Ya, if I turn if off, it'll start up straight after I turn it off. But If I walk away and come back an hour later or even just half an hour and try to start it, it wont always restart. The battery warning light will come on and it wont crank over or anythin, it is completely dead! And then once I put in my new batt I assumed it'd start first time round but I had to jump it? I must check my fuses also while I'm at it, its been a little while since I checked them out But I suppose if there was something wrong with 1 of the fuses a jump wouldn't sort that out!