Bmartin

I picked up a spare from a Mazda Millenium, should fit well and picked up a scissor jack. Good thing too since I got a flat! I noticed it right as I pulled into my neighborhood. So I just grabbed the Jeep and aired it back up for the 200 ft home. Hope I caught it in time since I just got off the highway. Eitherway, I put over 100 miles on the car today and cruised if for about an hour. Ran great with minor issues. Wanted to thank everyone for the all the help, this was my big short term goal, make it to the cruise. Had a blast and only saw one other 46 plymouth (Custom) there. I love this car and can't wait to get back to work on it. Just an update on the spare tire - Since I still have the original drum brakes, there is an alignment pin on each drum. So a hole will need to be drilled in the spare to match - not a big deal. A larger issue is that the hub is too large to fit through the hole of the spare wheel. So I'll need to make that larger. Not a big deal if you don't care what it looks like. To do it clean, you'll need to put in on a lathe or something similar. Right now, I'm thinking angle grinder.

Dan - That is a good point, this is an Oreilly part. I'll inspect the new one for the same issue. I think the generator was already on the way out, but this surely didn't help. Plymouthy - The regulator was new, so no tool needed. But it had been recently replace by a mechanic and could have been arced when replacing the cover. I polarized the generator after installing and went through the tests. Seems to be operating well now. First time I have ever seen a positive value on the amp meter since I bought it. Voltage vaired between 4.5 and 7.5, current was between 10 and 26 amps to the battery. Let me know if anyone has an idea on the neagtive lead routing. Seems too tight in there to be correct. Thanks.

Well, I'm hoping my generator issues are solved. Got the factory one rebuilt but it came back bad, the Arm was not working right. Luckily I had picked up a generator from an old jeep, same part number, different brackets. So they swapped the Arm out of that one and everything seems good. First time I have ever seen a positive reading on the Amp meter. looked to be charging the batt at 12-26 amps depending on load. Voltage varied from 4.5 to 7.5. I took the car for a twenty minute drive with the lights on and the battery was still at 6.6V. Hoping that I'm in good shape for the big cruise tomorrow. Thanks for all the help, I am going to try and hit up the pick a part today for a donut to have in the short term. I'll be getting a full size spare at some point though.

Does anyone know the proper routing of the negative lead from the battery to the starter? Here is what mine looks like.

My amp meter went full negative while driving. I unhooked the batt and i had a short across the pos and neg leads. Tracked that down to a stuck cutout relay on the regulator. Pics of the reg below. The gen is bad and Im having it rebuilt. Rebuilt arm and new fields as well. Im concerned that something else is cuasing the short on the relay. Should I be looking at my starter or other places? Wiring seems good. All lights work. No radio or heater. Any thing in the ignition? I replaced the pos batt cable and plan on doing the neg but no shorts with the meter. All help is appreciated.

Thanks for the input, I'll have to dig into it a little more. I've been tossing around the idea of some chrome wheels down the road. So maybe the donut is the best route. If anyone knows of cars with 16", 5X4.5" wheels, please post up. It would save me some time running to different yards. Right now, I'm still waiting on my rebuilt generator. fingers crossed. gonna start a new post with some questions on that.

Pretty sure its still got the stock wheels on it. I think the tires are original size, but I would have to check. Something like 6.00X16 Firestones.

Thanks for the info, that reminds me that I need a jack as well. The temp spare is good in the meantime, but I eventually want to get a full sized spare for when I take a trip. These tires are just too hard to find if I have an issue. So if anyone knows the backspacing, that would be helpful. I'll just pull a wheel later and measure it if not.

So, I need to locate a spare wheel and tire. Anyone know the backspacing on the factory wheels? Whats the best way to go about getting a spare? New? Junkyard? other? Thanks.

Nice Mopars you got there. Seems that I'm a closet mopar guy. I pick my rides based on looks or capability. I've got two out of four mopars and looking to make it three out of four. Look forward to talking Mopars with everyone here.

Ok, here is the update. I poked around a bit. Then took the battery down to get it tested, just to be sure. Its good, also picked up a 6 volt charger. Came home and charged up the battery while I troubleshot. Hooked the DVM between the pos and neg batter cables and had continuity - NOT GOOD. Went through all the wiring and couldn't find anything, still shorted. Read few articles and about common shorts - brake switch, voltage regulator, light dimmer switch. Popped the cover off the regulator and pushed on the coils. Then checked again and WALLA! No continuity. It fires up and runs and the amp meter sits just below zero. Looking at the regulator, the top coil is showing some corrosion and its go about 50 miles on it. So, here's my theory. The faulty generator is damaging the voltage regulator. Its almost definitely the rear bearing on the generator since I can squeeze the back and change the noise. The bad news is that no gen places are open till monday. Thanks for all the help and the welcomes. I'll keep posting up as I work through all the issues on this beast.

Well, I tried the soap trick, no real change. The generator was still noisy. I took it for a ride and on the way back the amp meter went to full negative at some point and stayed there. It was running OK when I pulled it in, but now it won't start, but does turn over slowly. Battery is at 6 volts or so and drops to about 5.3 when trying to start it. Is it a pheasable troubleshooting step to disconnect the generator and see if it starts? In looking at the wiring diagram, it does not seem that the generator shorting out would cause the amp meter to drop. So I may be looking at a wire shorted out somewhere. If there is a good thread already on here about electrical troubleshooting, please point me in that direction. I'll be in the garage poking around.

Greg, Thanks for the response. Sounds liks I need to pull the gen and disassemble for inspection. Ive got the factory manual with the expoded view. I'll tackle that in the morning as well as check for available replacements. Need it running next weekend. After that, I can take it down for while and go thru everything. I was going through the manual and it did not mention an oil cups. Will they be obvious in the disassembly?

Well, my car has finally arrived from exile and I can introduce myself. It arrived this afternoon on Intercity lines. They were great and got it to me in 10 days from scheduling. Here are couple pics. I found it on craigslist right by my parents, so I had them go pick it up for me and now she's finally here. Its got a bunch of maintenance to catch up on, but it runs and drives and should be good for the big cruise next weekend. Now for my first question. This is my first classic, so I am starting from scratch. I've never even owned a carburated car before. I've done quite a bit with modern cars, so it should just be getting familar with the technology. The generator seems to be having issues, this is new since it left my parents, or at least it hadn't been noticed by them or the classic car mechanic who gave it the once over. I started it up and something under the hood wass squealing like a stuck pig. I think I've narrowed it down to the generator (all original 6V,BTW). I pulled the belt off and moved the pulley, but its not obvious that the bearing is bad. Put it back toghether and the noise comes and goes. I did notice that the amp meter started jumping when the noise came back, then evened out when the noise went away. Voltage seemed to be varying between 5.5 and 7.7 volts, depending on load. This is my first amp meter in a car, it goes negative when the lights are on, but hovers at zero at all other times. It jumped around zero volts when noisy. If you guys could school me on proper generator operation, that would be great. The troubleshooting in the manual makes it sound like I need a amp meter and a DVM to properly diagose the charging circuit. I've only got a DVM. So if I can find an alterator shop open tomorrow, will they be able to diagnose a bad bearing or just charging issues? All help is greatly appreciated. Brian Forgot to add, that generator got pretty darn hot!