Blog Entry #5 May 28, 2017: Huntington, WV to Marion, OH;Hopewell Mounds, Chillicothe, OH

We awoke on the 28th to a beautiful day. Billowing clouds sailing across the sky in the high winds.

Tech Stuff

About 3am on the morning of the 27tha possible reason for the erratic charging behavior struck me. I recall the service manual specifying that the resistance between the base of the voltage regulator and the generator ground connection should not exceed “0.03 ohms”. That translates to a virtually resistance free connection between the regulator body and the generator housing. It hit me that either for convince or copying the prior situation, during the rewiring of the Jeep 2 years ago, I had attached one end of the wire that grounds the voltage regulator body to the generator body to the screw that holds the regulator cover in place. During judging of a Jeepster (the roadster equivalent of my station wagon) during the meet, I noticed that the restorer had attached that end of that wire to the mounting bolt that attaches the voltage regulator to the Jeep firewall.It hit me that that small deviation in where I connected the ground wire might have resulted in just that little more electrical resistance that could throw off the sensitive voltage and current controlling action performed by the voltage regulator.

Before we started out for the day’s travel to Marion, OH, I backed out the screw attaching the ground wire to the voltage regulator cover, gave the area a shot of brake cleaner spray and re-tightened the screw – working it back and forth in an attempt to insure good metal-to-metal contact.

After organizing and repacking the Jeep we got on the road from Huntington, WV to Marion, OH about 10:30am the morning of the 28th. Jeep was running well and the cleaning of the connection at the voltage regulator ground wire appeared to have solved the erratic charging problem – whew.

We took some gently curving and undulating back roads through southernmost Ohio. Beautifully scenic farmland with well-maintained farms.

About halfway through the trek from Huntington, WV to Marion, OH we took an informative lunch break (having our usual chunk-style peanut butter and honey on multi-grain bread sandwiches) at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park near Chillicothe, OH; home of an example of the ceremonial mounds constructed by the Hopewell Native Americans during the period extending from 1 AD to 500 AD. Several such mound complexes exist over a 60 mile span of this part of Ohio, all sharing similar features in size and geometry.

Relics including mica from the North Carolina mountains, sea shells from the Mississippi coast, and flint from the Yellowstone region of Wyoming had been unearthed along with the remains of the deceased in carefully layered soil patterns in the mounds. Really impressive to walk among the mounds and a nice break from the driving.

May 28, 2017: Hopewell Mounds, Chillicothe, OH

May 28, 2017: The usual peanut butter and honey lunch at Hopewell Mounds, Chillicothe, OH

Reached Marion, OH in the late afternoon of the 28th and settled in after a light meal at a convenient Applebee’s restaurant.

Blog Entry #4 May 27, 2017: Huntington, WV – AACA Meet
Blog Entry #6 May 29, 2017: Marion, OH to Ann Arbor, MI; OVERLAND smoke stack, Dundee Park