Help needed

I actually am at chars right now. Worked on it yesterday. Alternator was ok but something in the exciter wire to the alternator is only providing five volts vice 12 so the alternator doesn't kick in. We have a temp solution and we will finish the car up this morning so i can drive it home. I like how the wheels turned out but i'll post pics later.

so, if I understand, you go one year without your car, the shop fixes everything but the alternator. Then you drive it out without the alternator working properly? Chip, go the extra mile and don't take the car yet.

good to hear the car is alive again and that the engine repairs needed were far from the worst case scenario

I dont know if i'd say far from the worst case scenario but it could have been worse. There is an unknown electrical issue. The alternator was good just the exciter wire coming into the alternator was not putting out enough voltage to excite the alternator. We installed a simple switch to take care of that. Drove 480 miles home today and everything worked fine except my temp gauge isn't working. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow morning after I give it a good cleaning!

I am excited for you.

 

woot

Glad you finally got it back, hope you can enjoy it now!

I dont know if i'd say far from the worst case scenario but it could have been worse. There is an unknown electrical issue. The alternator was good just the exciter wire coming into the alternator was not putting out enough voltage to excite the alternator. We installed a simple switch to take care of that. Drove 480 miles home today and everything worked fine except my temp gauge isn't working. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow morning after I give it a good cleaning!

 

 

Well it didn't require the entire bottom end to be rebuilt right? IIRC you had oil pressure issues, and the bottom end sustaining damage is very suseptible to this, or could have been the cause of the low oil pressure.

 

It's your car but please, don't drive it with the temp guage not working!

 

Picture from today

Glad you have your car back!! You have to get the temp. gauge working. You are really taking a risk driving it without knowing what temp. it is running at. You had a lot of work just done to it and if something is wrong you might not have a clue until it is to late. It is good to see the end of your ordeal with it is done and you can enjoy the car.

+1 on the temp gauge.

 

450 miles without knowing if I was going to blow up would be too much for me.

Picture from today

Don't worry about him driving it without the temp gauge working, he can't drive it at all now. His wheels are missing!

If need be I will hook up a temp gauge to a separate line from the thermostat. Even before with the engine troubles and the pump not working correctly, the car never went close to overheating. Also it was in the 60's on the way back and I took it easy. It's definitely not something I'm going to leave broken though. No worries guys.

my excite wire was doing the same thing. The cause of it was the bulb in the dash-battery warning idiot light-. when you turn the key on, does the battery idiot light come on? This is where the exciter wire gets its signal. check that. You may be having a dash issue, because the temp gauge isnt working either. On a seperate note, I installed a mechman alternator and I didnt notice any crazy difference in anything. It did charge a little better but not night and day. My car never had an issue running with all the lights on and ac going.

Dave, you always end up being a huge help haha! That battery light has been on so that makes sense. So it's the bulb that needs to be replaced and if so where do you recommend getting one? I will take a look at that this weekend. I dont have a spanner wrench to get the dash pod off though, i'll have to try to find that too.

I don't think these bulbs are specific to Lambo. As you know, the borrowed lots of bins.

 

Pull the bulb, and go down to any large auto store.

I'll do that! Man if its something simple im going to be thrilled. The oil pressure is so fantastic now. Chadbourn does great work. Very thorough!

Jason when are you getting back in a lambo??

I'll do that! Man if its something simple im going to be thrilled. The oil pressure is so fantastic now. Chadbourn does great work. Very thorough!

Jason when are you getting back in a lambo??

I wish I knew. There are forces outside my control that are dictating my timeline.

It'll happen!

I'll do that! Man if its something simple im going to be thrilled. The oil pressure is so fantastic now. Chadbourn does great work. Very thorough!

Jason when are you getting back in a lambo??

 

Whats your oil pressure read now I just got mine working today and mine hot is just over 6 bar is that typical??

The manual says different but at startup, it's almost 9. Very warm Idle between 5 and 6 and rotates in there slightly. Night and day difference from what it was before!

I put a new bulb in. It's still lighting up. Put a new battery in (optima) and not noticing much difference either although it did seem to crank very quick. I think the old battery may have been deep cycled a few times.

 

Tinkered around with the temp gauge wires. Even tried plugging up a new Autometer gauge but the only connection that made the needle move pegged it on 120. Which I know isn't possible. Not really sure what is going on there. The only thing I can think of would be to trace all the wiring which doesn't sound good.

 

Any further suggestions would be much appreciated.

I put a new bulb in. It's still lighting up. Put a new battery in (optima) and not noticing much difference either although it did seem to crank very quick. I think the old battery may have been deep cycled a few times.

 

Tinkered around with the temp gauge wires. Even tried plugging up a new Autometer gauge but the only connection that made the needle move pegged it on 120. Which I know isn't possible. Not really sure what is going on there. The only thing I can think of would be to trace all the wiring which doesn't sound good.

 

Any further suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

I just went through the same problem but with my oil pressure sender and guage I ended up using a 150 psi guage and sender for a vw which is also vdo it fit right in and looks stock other than its in psi instead of bar which I prefer anyhow my problem on the stock guage and sender was also wiring so I went this route and now it works perfectly.

Thanks bud. I'll look into that.

my excite wire was doing the same thing. The cause of it was the bulb in the dash-battery warning idiot light-. when you turn the key on, does the battery idiot light come on? This is where the exciter wire gets its signal. check that. You may be having a dash issue, because the temp gauge isnt working either. On a seperate note, I installed a mechman alternator and I didnt notice any crazy difference in anything. It did charge a little better but not night and day. My car never had an issue running with all the lights on and ac going.

 

Hey dave glad you mentioned this cuz when I pulled my dash out to put in new guage I put everything back together and guess what my alternator didnt work so I checked the single feed wire on alt and it had no power so I pulled dash again and noticed wire that goes to alt idiot light had come out I re-installed wire and everything is perfect now thx dave for putting that out there I wouldnt have thought in a million years that is how alt is excited thx again

Thanks bud. I'll look into that.

 

If you need link to guages and senders let me know I'll post it for ya.I got guage and sender shipped expedited for a grand total of $105