57 Nomad Project

[Ketzer]

I’ve read some negative stuff about using the 1 wire method on alternators but don’t have any experience with them...


Jeff-

[kwhizz]

Update...…. First of all Thanks again to Mark and Gordon for helping me out getting the car shipped back home…..So... PowerMaster shipped a new alternator to Gordon and he and Mark were going to put it on for me..... But after having concerns about the way I had the GM Connect and Cruise Fusepanel wired up I asked them not to install it as I didn't want to take a chance on ruining it if the wiring was a problem...…

So...…. I get the car home and when I tried to install the new alternator I found out they sent the wrong one...…..So.... I went out and bought a "Original" GM internally regulated alternator...…. Getting back to basic's....Got it installed and although it bolted right in I had to get a longer belt as it wasn't the same dimension from the mounting holes to the pulley C/L...……. Then I changed the wiring around to the Correct way of doing it...Took me a while to find the alternator plug in the GM harness as originally I didn't need it so I taped it up and moved it out of the way.....LOL...… Anyhow...… Originally when I would start the car up the Voltmeter would always be right at 15 Volts Never moved..... Humm !!! I didn't like that but I didn't understand why that was..... Now that I have everything wired correctly, when I start the car for the first second or two the Voltmeter is at Battery voltage then the ECM starts talking to the Alternator and it go's to between 13.5 and 14 volts...….. Just like GM designed it...…… So.....In retrospect , the way I had it wired sure didn't help the Powermaster unit...….. After driving the car most of the day yesterday I now have a greater degree of Trust in the car...…..(and I got a Edumacation)….LOL

[kwhizz]

Update on this old issue from last fall...... After the stock GM alternator install I thought everything was OK....... After driving the car for a while.... I noticed that after starting, the alternator (Hooked up with the stock Connect and Cruise wiring) wouldn't start charging until I stepped on the gas...... ?????..... So, in the mean time I received the correct alternator from PowerMaster........ and since the GM alt wasn't powdercoated black..... It looked sort of out of place...… So I installed the Black Powermaster unit (wired correctly) and it's happy again...….LOL...… For now...Looking good again...…… Just need the weather....

[kwhizz]

Bought some new wheels for the Nomad from Billet Specialties...…… Just wanted to change it up a little...….. LOL

[kwhizz]

Update........This car stuff is hard....LOL..... So....After getting the car pretty much sorted out, I started driving it more and everything was back to normal.....except for one thing.......In driving the car on the Highway in a straight line, if I had to correct the steering at all the car never came back to center on its own.......so when i corrected it continued in that direction.......so back and forth it went.......so I had to drive the car without the pleasure of riding in the car......LOL.....A couple of years ago I had it at a car show and was talking to a guy sitting next to me......he asked me how I liked the car and I told him about the steering issue......He told me the ball joints were bad....I figured he didn't know what he was talking about as everything was new and greased regularly.......So this spring I was looking for something to do and I ordered a set of Moog ball joints and took the front end apart and when I took the spindles off and tried to move the upper ball joints.....LOL....They were so galled I had to get a pipe on the uppers to move them........and the lowers had about a 1/16" of slop in them.......WOW!!!!........put the new Moog parts in and took it for a ride......LOL.......Drives like a regular car now.....How could I allow that to be a problem for years as I am smart.......LOL.....

[andrewb70]

Glad you got it sorted out!

Andrew

[clill]

What brand were the bad ball joints ?

[kwhizz]

Originally Posted by clill

What brand were the bad ball joints ?

They were the ball joints that were supplied with the Ridetech arms......

[syborg tt]

Thank you for sharing this as my buddy has been complaining about this on his car and yes they are RideTech arms.

Originally Posted by kwhizz

Update........This car stuff is hard....LOL..... So....After getting the car pretty much sorted out, I started driving it more and everything was back to normal.....except for one thing.......In driving the car on the Highway in a straight line, if I had to correct the steering at all the car never came back to center on its own.......so when i corrected it continued in that direction.......so back and forth it went.......so I had to drive the car without the pleasure of riding in the car......LOL.....A couple of years ago I had it at a car show and was talking to a guy sitting next to me......he asked me how I liked the car and I told him about the steering issue......He told me the ball joints were bad....I figured he didn't know what he was talking about as everything was new and greased regularly.......So this spring I was looking for something to do and I ordered a set of Moog ball joints and took the front end apart and when I took the spindles off and tried to move the upper ball joints.....LOL....They were so galled I had to get a pipe on the uppers to move them........and the lowers had about a 1/16" of slop in them.......WOW!!!!........put the new Moog parts in and took it for a ride......LOL.......Drives like a regular car now.....How could I allow that to be a problem for years as I am smart.......LOL.....

[kwhizz]

Thank you for sharing this as my buddy has been complaining about this on his car and yes they are RideTech arms.

That's the beauty of these car sites......Posting issues that we all experience and helping others out !!!!!.....

Ken