madmax442.com

I drove my car on Saturday to a car show about 25 miles away, round trip I probably drove it 70 miles, ran great no issues. I get back and park and go inside my wife's shop. Someone calls us about 15 minutes later, "your car is smoking". I run out there, the wiring harness is smoking, pretty much on fire from the voltage regulator around to the generator. I immediately, disconnect my battery.
Damage done, it burned it pretty good. I get it towed home and start going through it. Found the culprit, the armature lead from the generator when to ground. See photo, the wire welded itself to the harness clip (which is conveniently grounded to the chassis!). So after 68 years, it managed to chafe through the insulation and electrical tape. I am going to just count my blessings on this, could have burned the car down. Ordered a harness from Fusick and spent yesterday and today removing the main harness. I will have some questions on a view items. The dumb shop manual does not have color codes. Spent a ton of time taking pictures and diagraming everything as I unplugged it. I found some rigged stuff someone did prior with the dimmer switch to bypass the Autronic eye.

Olds64

Glad you caught it in time!

no1oldsfan

No doubt. Glad you caught it. Electrical fires have killed many a cars. That sucks. Good luck on your new project.

madmax442.com

Got the main harness removed finally. Fixed the fender well damage, new harness coming on Friday. Hell bent to get Eye working again as previous owner bypassed and did a terrible hack job on the harness and to the dimmer switch. I was going to live with it, but now that I am replacing it, that crap has got to go.

stellar

The armature wire should be dead when the key is off. Better check the regulator cutout to see if itdid not open and kept the wire live when the key was off. Check the generator too. Armature may be smoked.

madmax442.com

Yes, 3 voltage regulators on this car (Chinese crap now). Last time it didn't cutout and powered the generator, but the belt held the generator so it over heated and melted the generator, but didn't smoke the wiring. It all need replaced....again.

madmax442.com

Along those lines, you know anyone that converts the Delco D618 Voltage Regulators to solid state?

stellar

I do not, but there are usa made regs available. The D618 is for gen 26-31 amps. be sure to match the gen to the correct reg.

madmax442.com

Can you tell from this photo?

stellar

Not sure if I can read the number, but if it is 1102003 It is 30 amp and that would be the correct reg. That is providing if the unit was rebuilt it was done with the correct windings. Good luck with the repair. let us know how it goes.

stellar

That is a very good looking genny. You seldom see a number date tag that nice on a genny that old. This is why I suspect it has been rebuilt. The 1102003 was superceded by 1102168 which is a 35 amp genny. At this point no one knows what is inside the case. A 1102168 would take a different reg.

tnswt

In a like manner, I too almost lost a classic car while working with a cigarette lighter upgrade. Before I realized what was going on the cockpit filled with smoke. Lucky for me I had installed a quick disconnect on the battery when I first brought the car home; otherwise, I would have burned the car to the ground running around looking for a wrench to cut power at the battery. I spent weeks replacing melted under-dash wiring, which is no fun.

Now my old cars always receive a quick disconnect. It is one of the cheapest safety features one can install on an old car, that and a fire extinguisher.

madmax442.com

It was from Glen & Blake, should be correct. https://www.ebay.com/itm/266133169608
They also advised the following: "The original Delco Remy voltage regulator used on 1953-1956 non A/C Oldsmobiles was 1119001." Of course, these are upwards of $250 if you can find one. https://www.delcoremy.com/find-a-par...etails/1119001

madmax442.com

Yes, I had quick-disconnect, immediately went to it when I ran out and saw the smoke. I am going to add a terminal fuse on the starter power post, so the whole car has a 100 amp fuse. A short will pop that for sure.

madmax442.com

...and it begins

madmax442.com

You have to re-use 2 of your connectors as they are no longer available. The gear selector plug and the left kick panel body harness.

madmax442.com

You have to feed the whole engine portion of the harness from inside the car thru the hole. I installed everything in the engine first, buttoned up the clips, etc. then moved to the inside. Doing the fuse panel first. You have to take your time to get the positioning right, but so far so good.

stellar

looking good

madmax442.com

Wiring done, everything works except the generator that's probably fried. I installed a 100 amp fuse on the wiring that goes to fuse panel and voltage regulator BAT terminals.

madmax442.com

So yes, the brushes lead wires got burned and severed. Hoping to rebuild it. I installed a Wilson generator for now, its charging. Looks dumb, but it works.

madmax442.com

So my rebuilt generator has a fried armature. The local shop quoted me $377 to fix it. I just bought the same one again from Glen & Blake, shipped to my door for $273, go figure.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266165810181

Tedd Thompson

I have gone through 4 Wilson generators in the past, not my favorite. One came in not working, two worked for a week or two then puked and quit. The last one I had rebuilt by an independent shop in Orland Ca. and it's been going strong for a number of years. Like a dumb *** I let my first original core go back and lost all my badging, live and learn...Tedd