1964 Monza Sedan

[66vairguy]

I have alternator questions and comments. Rather than hijack this thread, I want to start another thread. Yes, there are already alternator threads, but I want one SPECIFICALLY aimed towards early model conversions. Dennis

OOPs! I goofed an said 10DN internally regulated - INCORRECT. An internally regulated alternator is a 10SI. A 10DN uses an external voltage regulator. Were is my coffee - LOL.

I posted at your other post ---

[JohnDB]

As this is my wife's car, she has decided to keep the generator. We'll be swapping the mount, hopefully this weekend, back to the generator mount. Now to start cleaning the "new" mount and verify I have a gasket...

[JohnDB]

Thought I posted this yesterday, but don't see it. Oh well. I found a gasket "in stock" in the garage and a new belt arrived, so we ripped into it yesterday:

After what seemed like eternity cleaning mating surfaces, we're ready for re-assembly:

The belt alignment seems to be much better:

We got some miles on it yesterday and again this morning and everything seems to be working well. Belt needs a slight adjustment now that it's "broken in" a bit, but should be in good shape.

[JohnDB]

We had amazing weather yesterday for the Corvair Days show. We took both cars and had a lot of fun

And the Monza won a People’s Choice award!

[66vairguy]

Glad it all worked out and you enjoyed the cars at a show.

One nice thing about a Corvair is the interest folks take in them at the local "cars and coffee" events. The "Nader" thing seems to be mostly in the past now and I get mostly positive inquiries.

[JohnDB]

It's been quite a while, but other than putting miles on the Monza we haven't done anything to it. Since last April when we got it inspected and officially back on the road we've put almost 4000 miles on it! But as the weather has sometimes been a bit colder, the lack of heater hoses has kept it parked in the garage. Today was warm enough to start digging into the install, and I started with the non-working blower motor. That was initially easy to diagnose since it was unplugged. After a few minutes of searching above the trans I found the connector and was able to clean it up. Unfortunately, simply plugging it in did not fix it, though it did have voltage when the fan switch was turned on. I pulled the blower motor and found a thick layer of primer and paint preventing a good ground.

After a few minutes with the wire wheel on the motor I was able to confirm the blower motor is good with a jumper wire on the battery, and a little wire wheel on the housing shows good continuity to ground - should be good to reassemble tomorrow. Then I can look forward to putting the heater hoses in place...

[66vairguy]

The heater blower ground is one of the worse in a Corvair. Folks go to a lot of trouble to make sure the power wire and contacts are good, yet the fan motor works poorly. The fan has to ground to the blower housing, which grounds to a box that finally grounds to the body on the LM. About the same for EM. Even new it was a marginal ground path, now with years of crude and corrosion it gets worse.

I use a ground wire from the motor (under screw to blower housing and run it to the body. Make sure the lugs on the wire are soldered to prevent corrosion. Use the same gauge wire (or bigger wire) for the grounds as the supply wire.

[JohnDB]

Blower motor back in and running on low and medium so far - pretty sure it ran on high once, need to check the resistor and switch. I've also added the ground wire to other cars, and will do that here as well - next time I'm under it, couldn't find any appropriate wire today.

The passenger side heater hose isn't too bad to put in, probably only took a few minutes and that included cutting it to length. It seems to be out of the way of everything and routed itself pretty nicely.

The driver side hose on the other hand, ouch. I think it took me about 3 hours to get the end on the heater box, and I got really close to pulling the starter to make more room. I'm glad I didn't have to though, putting the starter back in with the heater hose in the way doesn't look like much fun. Overall, just really glad it's done!

[66vairguy]

Looks good.

The one critical area is near the starter solenoid. Every so often a duct droops and rubs on the solenoid terminals until the wire in the duct shorts things out!

The blower switch routes power through the wire wound resistor pack for LO and MED. On HI it goes through the switch only and the switch contact for HI conducts the greatest amperage. Some install a relay ONLY on the HI output. No need to with LO and MED as the amperage is lower.

Keep in mind the fan switch worked fine when new and they fail now not due to a poor design, but because the lube in the switch dries out and the contacts corrode and get worn and that overheats the switch. I've taken a few apart and 4 out of 5 are repairable. The switches are NOT meant to be dismantled, but it can be done. If the contacts are not worn, then clean with a brass/metal cleaner and lube with a di-electric (silicone) grease. Even if you find a NOS switch the lubricant will be dried out.

[JohnDB]

Hard to see in the picture, but the driver's side hose has the foam insulator where it gets close to the starter solenoid. I'm happy with how well the hoses are self supporting so far, they are maintaining clearance with everything. Had the car out the other day and the heat is working nicely - didn't really need the blower at all and the interior stayed plenty warm with the outside temp only around 40. Had a CO meter in the car as well and there were no issues and only a small amount of rubber smell for a few minutes as things got to full temp. I'll get back to the fan switch at some point, but it's not too high on the list.

[JohnDB]

Seems to be my week for belt issues I guess. We had a PCA club meeting this morning, and the Corsa still has the spare belt on it, so we decided to drive the Monza. Got to our meeting no problem, but on the way home had a few strange smells as we were driving. It only lasted a few moments and then went away, stopped to take a look at one point and things seemed fine, and we continued home. Decided to run a few more errands and took the Monza out again. Same smell came back a few times, and after the last stop the engine sounded different when it was running - sounded like bearing noise. Got a few miles down the road and then a strong burning rubber smell and the GEN/FAN light came on - pulled into a parking lot and shut it down - Generator is very unhappy and not moving very much. Let it cool for a bit, and decided to start it again, lots of bearing noise from the front of the generator, but the belt is still on and running the cooling fan. Headed towards home and got within about a mile until it locked up again. It's not 100% locked up, but now is causing the belt to slip and shred. I loosened the belt some to try to let it slide better over the stuck generator, seemed to work at least a little bit. We got about a half mile and the belt came all the way off (no big surprise). Let it cool down again, and made it the rest of the way home by running the engine for about 45 seconds in total and coasting otherwise.

At least we looked good on the side of the road waiting for it to cool off:

Belt shreds below the grumpy generator:

I have another generator and a rebuild kit, so I guess I know my next project.

[RexJohnson]

Did you try adding any oil to the 2 oil caps?

[Frank DuVal]

I was told by an old generator rebuilder to drop a drop of oil in each cup when checking the engine oil.

The PE bearing (pulley end) is the same 6203 as an alternator, very common, so readily available. If you put in a sealed bearing then no longer will that end need oil in the cup.

[rcavictor]

I was told by an old generator rebuilder to drop a drop of oil in each cup when checking the engine oil

X2!

[gbullman]

Not your week for belts, glad you got home OK.

[JohnDB]

I thought I had mentioned it in my previous post, but we have been putting a few drops of oil in both ports. I wasn't too regular with it, but at least a little each month.

I was able to remove the generator this morning with no issues, lots of belt dust and chunks everywhere, but the oil cooler is very clean under the cover (and easy to see with the generator out):

Next I took the pulley/fan off the generator, and it was pretty clear that the front bearing had failed in a big way:

I'm sure this bearing failed from a lack of lubrication, but I don't think any of the oil I put in the front port went anywhere. The tube is clear down to where the bearing is installed, but there was a thick layer of gunk there and it seems like it prevented oil from getting into the bearing. The exploded diagram in the manual also shows a felt washer should be there, but it wasn't there. Seems like that would be good for keeping the oil where it should be and transferring to the bearing.

No major damage once the old bearing was out, and after some cleanup with a dremel and the new bearing went in nicely:

I decided to only replace the bearing at this point and put everything back together with a new 3V560 belt. The brushes are at least 3/4 of the size of the new ones, and the bushing in the rear looks perfect and had oil where it should be from the port. We never had any charging issues, so I'll get another bearing at some point and put it back in the rebuild kit for another time. Looks just like nothing happened:

When I went to reconnect the battery, however, the positive cable end broke when I barely had any torque on it. This was a new battery cable about a year ago, not too happy about it. Will need to get a new end at least for now:

I clamped the broken end on, hooked up the negative as well, and polarized the generator. The car started right up and has good charging voltage at idle and above! Hopefully I can get a new end on the battery cable this week so we can get some miles on it again - it's due for inspection soon too!