Thanks for the replies, guys. I see from the engine pic in this post, Dick has the (alternator) wire bundle lying on the top of the water pump housing - I’m guessing that’s going to get no hotter than the coolant Is that where you mean, Dick? What are those tabs for on the side of my valve cover?
Well, I got to thinking about my old sending unit, and couldn’t remember there being a gasket under it (although there must have been). So I went out to the garage to have a look at it, and lo and behold, there was a brand new retainer and gasket I had put in the same spot, that I had bought from Vans - the manufacturer of the new gas tank. The retainer and grommet I had been trying to fit, came with the new sending unit! The van’s grommet is more like a rubber band, and neatly fits in a groove around the opening for the sending unit.
You can get split wire loom to run the wires thru to the regulator, it’s black and corrugated and looks real good runs from 3/8 to 1" i.d. We have it at ACE.
And the driver’s side has the same doo-dad, but no bendable tabs.
I’m inclined to think the 1958 318’s had bendable tabs for routing the generator wires. I’m forgetting what engine Ed Eckerson has in his '58 - I think I’ll put the question to him.
I tried to install the sending unit today - but the plate of the unit kept shifting as I applied pressure and tried tapping the stops. Rather than damage the tank, I broke down and ordered the tool:
This will permit me to apply uniform pressure as I turn it, and hopefully install it without ripping up the grommet or the tank
Having a custom valve cover, I made the decision to make a new generator harness, and reroute it along the firewall. Not '59-ish? So, sue me! I didn’t like the look of those tabs flapping in the breeze.
I (think! ) I got all the wiring right - I labeled each terminal before I removed a wire - and it’s all back together now. Heat shrink tubing really dresses up the appearance of terminals! But when all was said and done, I was short a wire - the one on the solenoid.
The wiring diagram shows three terminals, and suggests that the unit itself is grounded through the body of the solenoid. Is that so, and is that why I’m missing a wire? Could it hurt to put a wire on this terminal, and ground it to the inner fender? I’d be interested in seeing pix of this area on other '59s.
It occurs to me: Perhaps I’ll remove the wires to the solenoid, apply power to the ignition terminal, and check continuity through the solenoid with a meter - without the proposed ground wire. that should tell me whether the ground wire is necessary, or not.
There was the wire, fallen down along the steering column, right where I dropped it - and, even as I labeled it for the left solenoid post. And now I know why I went searching for a nut for the post, thinking I had lost one - because there wasn’t one! It has a push-on connector (which I cleaned up real well with tuner spray):
And, another mystery solved. Regarding the breaker screwed to the inner fender, which Dick informed me was likely to protect the ignition switch circuit that energizes the solenoid - I said:
I can see that the terminals are actually labeled “BAT”(tery) and “AUX”(iliary), and indeed, I put tags on the wires with those labels. But one of the wires is in the bundle, the other is a single wire home run through a different grommet in the firewall. What circuit is this protecting? And why put the breaker way out in the engine compartment, when both wires originate from under the dash?
What had happened, was that they cut the ignition switch wire in the bundle that derives power from the battery side of the solenoid, to interrupt the circuit by inserting the breaker. The wire remaining in the bundle went to “AUX” side to feed the ignition switch, and I had removed the wire between the battery side of the solenoid and the “BAT” terminal of the breaker. I reinstalled it yesterday.
That other wire that’s a “single wire home run”, and goes to the “BAT” side of the breaker? That feeds the radio! It’s already protected by a fuse. My guess, is that the Sterling girls left the radio blasting John Runkle Jr.‘s Rock n’ Roll Show on Boise KGEM when they shut off the car and flew open the doors. The next person to try and start the car had to wait for the breaker to reset because the combined current draw of the radio and the solenoid coil tripped the breaker, and in frustration Nick ran a wire directly from the radio to the battery.
The new straps are the same length as the originals. No one wanted the old tank, and I got tired of tripping over it - so I fuelishly tossed it, when I could have used it for comparison. But, it can only be that the newer tank is slightly larger than the old. The bends in the straps are not quite where they should be.
It looks like I’m going to have to put my own bends in, and use bolt extenders… (sigh).
Mark, if this thread is to be believed, the Vans reproduction tanks are 22 gallons, not 20. And on the Vans website they say they are actually 23! But, if they planned to make them bigger, why didn’t they supply longer straps?
Is that where you mean, Dick? What are those tabs for on the side of my valve cover?
