“BTW, if anyone uses Ridgid 18volt battery power tools, Home Depot has 2 x 4.0 amp hour batteries for the price of one through 1/7/2018 for $99.00. These are the extra capacity batteries and charge on the same charger.”

Thank You ! Much Appreciated
RIDGID 4.0 AH Batteries are expensive !

 

The measurement I made assumes my cheapie voltmeter is accurate. I'll put my Tripplett on it tomorrow.

 

I was under the impression that 13.8 v is " normal charge" value, but higher isn't necessarily a bad thing, if,the battery its charging is low. Eventually, after the battery reaches its "full" charge, the VR is supposed to retrieve feedback from the battery reducing the charge back down to normal levels

Who knows? I either slept in a Holiday Inn Express, last night, or I'm back to smoking crack again...

 

Does it have to be one or the other?

 

Today I installed the Old Air Products “Hurricane” system and a new stereo head unit (I’ve been living by the tune of a straight piped P-pump and 35” MT tires for over 6,000 miles and have had no heat for the past month or so). Next on the list is installing the passenger bucket seat and building a center console to mount my speakers into....and cup holders would be nice.

 

Do it now. The difference between gonna have to go in again and doing it right is maybe 50% more. Stress the credit card and pay for it in a few months. Put in a good converter, SFI flexplate, shift kit, clutches, and a couple of hard parts.

I put a Goerend converter in. The wife sheared the perfectly fine looking stock flex plate on the way to town with an empty truck. I tease her about her lead foot. It took another tranny pull to install the SFI flexplate. I bought mine used for $100. They can be had new for around $150. They ain't worth $400 for a name. SFI rating will hold together to 12,000 rpm, so it should be good.

Another pitfall is the transmission mechanic put in the TQ pressure mod in the shift kit. That's not to be used on the A518. The result was that the TQ was slightly stretched, and decoupled on engine braking, which is a critical point for me. Goerend warranted the converter. Another transmission pull, however.

BTW, what action or failure put yer truck in the shop?

 

Actually, the full charge voltage will vary with battery temperature. Maybe about 13.5v at hot Summer temps to near 15V at sub zero temps. Most VR's will compensate at least somewhat for that. The difference is noticeable on the Dodge dash voltmeter.

The perfect charge of a lead acid battery at room temperature is 14.4V charge, then step back to 13.8V soak charge, with an occasional (once or twice a day) charge to 14.4v, which will only take a few minutes, mostly to cause a small amount of gas to form and stir up the electrolyte. No, our antique Dodge Vrs or PCMs aren't nearly this sophisticated.

The past era battery charger/maintainer on my bass boat goes to full charge once, then stays on soak. Let it run one winter and the batteries were sulfated in the spring.
The next year I put it on a daily timer that runs a half hour or so per day. Batteries stayed good.

 

I went to shift the NV4500 from 2nd to 3rd and I heard a big pop as the clutch pedal went to the floor and stuck there. Coasted over to a dirt field, popped the hood and sure enough, the clutch master came loose from the firewall. Reinstalled it and all is good. Is there supposed to be a retaining bolt, pin or screw to keep it from twisting and popping off? My donor only had the mounting bracket since it was an auto truck. The master I found out of a 97 1500, which was already removed and laying on the floor of the truck at the junkyard. I have thick rubber washers on the master to provide tension, and it seemed to grip tight... I wonder if I should put a self tapper in there to keep it in position. Any thoughts?

 

There is a black plastic push pin style "Christmas tree" that keeps them in place once the master is screwed into place on the hydro bracket that bolts to the steering column. You must have sourced that hydro bracket from a manual shifted truck when you did you swap...correct? Auto trucks do not come with the hydro. bracket, but the later auto trucks at least have the holes to mount the bracket.

On my '85 crew cabs I had to drill the holes in the steering column brace to mount to hydro. bracket.

 

Could have been worse, right now I would love to be able to lay in the warm dirt and work on the truck, this sub zero stuff sucks big big big time, glad it was simple.

what did it do there yesterday drop all the way down to 74*

 

Here in the desert we have been freezing to death at 47 for the low and suffering at 75 in the afternoon. It is nice,but the problem is that this is our late February, early march weather, not late December, early January...Mark

 

parked the truck when I got home from afternoon on December 22. Plugged it in, and haven't driven it since. Been in single digest above and below 0 since....(TC probably wouldn't even put his hoodie on ) went out this afternoon and the **** thing fired right up......guess I have to go back to work tonight......

 

Yesterday I finished up the work I was doing to upgrade the battery wiring and charging circuit. I measured the voltage at the battery posts with my Tripplett meter and I saw 14.3 volts. I trust my Triplett more than my cheap digital even though the Tripplett is ancient and analog. When I took electronics in High School we didn't have digital anything. We did calculations with a slide rule.

When I was done the wipers would no longer work. I figured that when I had to unplug the motor to get toe wiring harness out where I could work on it I messed the plug up or I didn't get it back in properly. I undid it and checked the voltages and the wiring was good. I finally checked the case of the motor with the wipers on and the case read 12v. There is a ground strap that has to make contact because the motor is mounted on rubber bushings. The strap was no longer making contact with the bolt or the metal bushing the bolt goes through. Cleaned it up and now the wipers work again.

The relay is a plastic case and since I couldn't get a drill in to poke a hole to mount it I just tied it down to the harness.










The wire between the circuit breakers that looks burned got hit with hot acid from when my battery burned up due to overcharging. I checked it and the insulation is fine. I have a 40 amp circuit breaker for the A/C fans and a 30 amp breaker for the headlights which are on relays. They are Hella 100 watt bulbs.

 

JMartin, what was the name of that flexplate, and part number that you got? I got the same one, and Keenan, that flexplate is no joke. Stout as stout gets. Don’t get a second gen one, cause I did, and those crack, too. To this day I can’t tell the difference between the first and the second gen one. Shot peeled they say, but how can one tell?
I bought the same one that JMartin did they Jet.com, and since it was my first time buying from them online, I got like 15% off! Cost me like $120.

 

Edwin,
I had an Eico VTVM wasn't very portable though.
Did you have to watch all of those boring black and white electronics theory 16mm movies with Harvey White?