The morning of May 26th presented us with a warm, sunny day. A welcome respite after driving through 2 days of nearly continuous rain showers. I pulled the Jeep out of the dark, dank parking garage on onto a stretch of parking in the sun in front of the hotel and proceeded to look for the source of the erratic charging performance.
Tech Stuff
There, with the assistance of two fellow antique car owners, I pulled the cover off of the voltage regulator and inspected the three sets of contact points for any unusual signof wear or overheating. All appeared normal for a three year old voltage regulator, so I just lightly manipulated and then cleaned the coil contacts in an attempt to alleviate any possible sticking issues. After reinstalling the cover on the voltage regulator, which necessitated reattaching a ground wire connector under a small, barely accessible screw, the charging action performed normally – for the moment.
Not too surprisingly, since I had not really “repaired” anything on the voltage regulator, the over-charging problem reappeared on our trip to tour Blenko Glass Company in Milton, WV about 20 miles outside of Huntington. We decided to live with it for the time being.
Stained Glass at Blenko Glass Works, Huntington, WV
Blenko Glass Company was founded in 1893 and is one of the few remaining moderate sized manufacturers of hand-blown decorative glassware in the region. It was very interesting to observe the manufacturing process, with skilled individuals assigned to the various stages of the process (dipping, forming, blowing, mold handling, trimming, annealing, etc.)
May 26, 2017: Blenko Glass Company Showroom
On our way back to the host hotel, we visited the Rose Garden at Ritter Park in Huntington. Established in 1934, it contains over 200 varieties of rose plantsbeautifully presented in the midst of extensive Ritter Park.
The Jeep’s charging anomalies ever in the back of my mind, after some on-line investigationwhen we got back to the hotel, I called the local NAPA auto parts store and arranged to have a replacement voltage regulator delivered to them for our pick up on the way to the antique car meet the following morning. The thinking was that if the situation warranted, we could at least try replacing this most suspect component “on the road”. NAPA has been my reliable go-to parts store for most maintenance items for the 1950 Jeep for the past 40 years.
Prior to driving to the AACA meet show field I gave the Jeep a reasonable washing in the parking garage stall, as I did not want to relinquish our choice location to seek a commercial carwash.