I had a similar experience when I bought my first TR3 back in 1978. I
was going to school in Indiana and found the car in Hemmings Motor
News in Kentucky. The car had a blown clutch which I had to change in
the farmers barn before I could drive it. By the time we got it
running it was late afternoon and started the 3+ hour drive back to
Terre Haute. Somewhere still in KY it started getting dark and I had
to turn the lights on. The faster I went, the dimmer the lights got.
finally a sheriff pulled me over due to the lack of forward
illumination, but with the car idling the lights were plenty bright.
Confused about the situation he let me go on my way. I later found
out that it was the voltage regulator that was out of adjustment. I
never made it back to Terre Haute that night, so the lack of lighting
was not such a problem, as I had 2 flat tires at once, and of course
only 1 spare. No one at 9 PM that was open had a 5.50-15 tire for me
to use. I wound up leaving the car at a bar overnight and was able to
find a tire the next morning to continue my journey.
Joe(B)
----- Original Message ----- >
> > In a message dated 11/18/02 9:47:07 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> > Malaboge@aol.com writes:
> >
> > << Did you know that with a good battery and no alternator, you
can drive
> for
> > an hour with the low beams on and the voltage will only drop to
11. It
> will
> > take almost another hour to drop another volt. BUT, after that it
will
> only
> > take another 7 minutes to get so dark out in front of you that you
can't
> see
> > and the motor will stop!
> >
> > In 1963, I was still driving the 1959 TR-3 on the highway. I had
to drive
> > from Washington, PA to Beaver, PA in the dark (about 40 miles)
with a
> > non-working generator. I got about half way there when it became
too dark
> to
> > drive. Fortunately, I was able to pull into a gas station to
charge the
> > battery. I was then able to drive the rest of the way, and get
the
> generator
> > fixed the next day.
>
> Here's three more examples...
>
> 1. 1967, traveling back from Norfolk, VA to Charleston, SC with two
Navy
> shipmates
> in the TR-3 we lost the generator about 10 miles before we reached
the NC/SC
> border at about 4am. We drove the 10 miles to the border, stopped
and had
> coffee
> at Pedro's (i.e. Soth of de Border) until daybreak and then drove
the
> remaining
> 150 miles or so to Charleston on the battery only. Once in
Charleston,
> I pulled the generator, the bruches were shot, and actually then
found a set
> of bruches in an auto electric shop which I bought and then fixed
the
> generator and was back in business.
>
> 2. 1988 - Driving in the One Lap of America, Charles Runyan and I
were on
> the final night transit when we lost the alternator in the TR-250 on
US17
> driving from CT to the next morning starting point (Erie, PA).
Efforts to
> fix (we had a spare) didn't work, so we went back onto US17 and fell
> in behind an 18 wheeler. We called the 18 wheeler on CB channel 19,
> told him of our problem and asked if we could hand behind him with
our
> lights off. He was cool with that and we did. Drove most of the
next day
> and the battery lasted until 20 miles before the finish. Jumped the
battery
> by a fellow One-Lap car and we made it to within visual site of the
> finish...
> jumped again by passing motorist and we limped in to the finish.
>
> 3. Driving home from the SouthEast VTR regional in our TR3 a few
> weeks ago, we lost
> the generator about 100 miles after leaving Jeykll Island, GA. We
drve
> all day on the battery...picked up a charger and 25 foot extension
cord
> at a WalMart in SC, stopped north of Charlotte, NC for the night...
> charged the battery and probably coukld have gotten by all the
> way home to NJ, but Vern Brannon lives in Charlotte and he had a
> spare generator which we installed the next day and we were good
> the rest of the way home.
>
> Cheers,
> Bill Sohl
>
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