A Rebuild Story - A Forged MP3 Motor

[TurfBurn]

Wait a second you don't have the stock pcm. How are you trying to regulate the charging system? Does the Microtech take it over? The stock pcm uses several different inputs to determine how much charging the altenator should do. Without it I imagine it would either full field the alt. or put out zero. Maybe you will have to re-wire the set-up to incorporate an old style voltage regulator.

Well for normal applications I have a few tricks up my sleeve so that with the stock ECU left in place the alternator works great... but in my application the alternator was supposedly switched... the wiring is a bit different (two wires go to a connector, and one cable back to the battery basically) and that's it.. but mine is supposed to be an internal regulating alternator... meaning it needs a battery reference and that's it basically... but I'm wondering now... but the other weird thing is that for most of my drive it was fine.. but at the end is when the battery voltage got ridiculous.. so I'm wondering if my battery which is on it's last legs at all... as it barely lets me crank the car before crapping out... I have to use a start assist from the charger to get it to crank decent... or if yet another thing on my car is not like I was told it was and the alternator did need some of the wiring I pulled out.. so I don't know! Project for tomorrow morning.. I have committments for later tonight yet.

Later!

Steve

 

[TurfBurn]

And I can't tell you how to do the Microtech with the stock alternator and ECU because then that'd be the end of our edge as we were the first to manage to get it to work all together without replacing the alternator! But I can tell you that a voltage regulator won't work with the stock alternator (which mine is NOT supposed to be a stock alternator) becaues the stock has a half regulator inside of it.. with the other half in the ECU.. so if you try putting a reg on it you will blow it out.. and if you don't put one on and the stock ECU is disabled you get no charge.

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

hhhmmm sounds like only you are going to be able to find and fix the problem because your the only one that knows what components are on it. Good luck!

 

[TurfBurn]

I'm just hoping the alternator isn't blown! That will be another expense I don't really need.

Later!

 

[changedman]

i dont think that'd be the symptom of a bad alternator... but im talking out of my ass i guess

 

[TurfBurn]

i dont think that'd be the symptom of a bad alternator... but im talking out of my ass i guess

Apparently if the internal regulator fails overcharging is what happens... doing some research though I found that a bad battery cell etc could cause it too... so I'm going to hope it is the battery.. the battery died UNBELIEVABLY fast when I went out to it tonight... I had charged it previously and then had started and run the car on Wednesday night and drove around and the like. Then the car sat until tonight. I cranked the car about 8 times as I was making adjustments and then it was so dead that the ECU's were resetting and so forth... as soon as I put the start assist on it kicked in right away... so dunno... I think I'll do some troubleshooting tomorrow morning... I can always throw my truck battery in the engine bay and strap it down and drive with it and see if it starts to see overcharging... that should answer things I guess . If it doesn't overcharge after 15 miles or so, then I know it's good... otherwise I know the alternator is bad.. I'm going to trace some wiring as I'm not actually too sure as to where some of my signals are coming from for the alternator currently.. I just mostly ignored them because I knew that part of things worked just fine.

 

[robp5t]

Had the same problem with my battery but was a low cell in the battery just one. When I went full stand alone we changed to a mechanical alternator from a 1990 626 and did a jumper I could tell you what we did but I have to make sure with my budy that did it on the wright year and wiring.

 

[changedman]

our batteries are INSANELY weak.
i just upgraded to an optima from ken , which hasn't arrived yet, since it was damaged in shipment, still waiting to hear from ken what the deal is....

i would get a new battery... i wouldnt be suprised if yours was dead. also, i thought they were maintenance free, but they ARENT. mine was completely empty (water) when i was in AZ, so they filled it with water (distilled obviously)

 

[TurfBurn]

Had the same problem with my battery but was a low cell in the battery just one. When I went full stand alone we changed to a mechanical alternator from a 1990 626 and did a jumper I could tell you what we did but I have to make sure with my budy that did it on the wright year and wiring.

Awesome.. thaks for that info... I'll have to check into that further if need be, but definitely let me know! Very much appreciate that info. You are a great addition to this community! Thanks for joining us.

 

[TurfBurn]

our batteries are INSANELY weak.
i just upgraded to an optima from ken , which hasn't arrived yet, since it was damaged in shipment, still waiting to hear from ken what the deal is....

i would get a new battery... i wouldnt be suprised if yours was dead. also, i thought they were maintenance free, but they ARENT. mine was completely empty (water) when i was in AZ, so they filled it with water (distilled obviously)

I figure i'll run the truck battery versus stock battery test tomorrow.. and if it fails out I'll run into sears and pick up a Die Hard and go from there... About 60 bucks.. but sure as hell better than 200+ for an alternator!

Later,

Steve

 

[Brian MP5T]

Dude, Did you figure it out. Was the timing good or what?

 

[TurfBurn]

Timing was good... it was the fricken spark plugs! I was using stock plugs from a Mazdaspeed, the platinum extended reach... that was the source of my ignition break up. My weird fueling ended up being the difference between batch and sequential fire. I made those two adjustments and she runs ultra sexy! Now today I just have to figure out what the hell the deal is with the battery/alternator.

Later.

Steve

 

[VizaX]

Im glad it was only the plugs, I bet its the battery the last 6 months if I didnt drive the mp3 for 2-3 days my battery would loose all of its charge.

 

[TurfBurn]

Well I'm even more confused on the battery issue now... I just put on about 20 some miles... car runs and drives fantastic... most of the time, the battery voltage regulated at about 14.6... and for a while it regulated at 13.68 which is what I'm use to seeing... But after about 30 minutes of driving the microtech gave me the BAT error again... but I didn't see anything wrong... Highest I was seeing was about 14.8... But then I sat in the car and idled it for about 5 minutes or better and just completely out of the blue while I'm sitting there the car started dogging like it was under a heavy load.. I looked and the battery voltage readings were up around 16.6... I flipped a couple things on and it pulled the voltage down and the car recovered and I flipped them off and it stayed put... so dunno... that seems like a flakey alternator or a loose wire.. maybe a bad ground somewhere... but either way it's pretty darn weird!!! But we'll see... but she is driving great and has great oil pressure and temps and the like.

Later!

Steve

 

[TurfBurn]

Oh... also wanted to mention... the turbo is amazing... blows my mind that this thing will move enough air to make it to 24 psi because it spools soooo fast it is crazy. Basically at 20% throttle I wasn't paying as close of attention as I should have and was at 2200 rpm's... built 5 psi before I caught it... insane to be able to build that kind of boost at 2200 rpm's... I'll have to see what it can and can't do once I can actually start running boost... for now I try to keep the car under 1 psi otherwise.

Later!

steve

 

[TurfBurn]

Found an issue on the electrical system I think. At first I thought I had it solved. I was intermittently getting continuity between the battery positive output of the alternator and ground... I traced wires and found an uninsulated wire. Taped that up thought I was all good... and then I'm still getting the continuity. I don't know if anyone can do a quick check for me with a meter and read how much resistance they have between the positive post of their battery and the ground/chassis of the car. I'm getting about 68 ohms right now. So I don't know if that is good/bad/ok etc... any help is appreciated.. in the mean time... back to checking I guess!

Later.

Steve

 

[VizaX]

Found an issue on the electrical system I think. At first I thought I had it solved. I was intermittently getting continuity between the battery positive output of the alternator and ground... I traced wires and found an uninsulated wire. Taped that up thought I was all good... and then I'm still getting the continuity. I don't know if anyone can do a quick check for me with a meter and read how much resistance they have between the positive post of their battery and the ground/chassis of the car. I'm getting about 68 ohms right now. So I don't know if that is good/bad/ok etc... any help is appreciated.. in the mean time... back to checking I guess!

Later.

Steve

What ground did you use? just curious Im getting "OL" as in no reading i guess on multiple ones (whens it on DC voltage im getting 12.3~ volts. maybe i cant use a multi meter

 

[TurfBurn]

Sweet... very much appreciate it. I traced around and I did find that I had a relay active and getting rid of that helped. I got a couple of "ghost" continuity checks after that though that I'm not sure if they were my meter, or something actually there.. so don't know.. the car is warming up right now so I can go drive and see if I get that battery error or not... so we'll see I guess... I'll check back in a bit to see what you post.. and again thank you much!

 

[changedman]

wow Turf- so much work to get her running right. I guess I'm happy I have the Haltech

but of course,this could just be car specific to you.... have you ruled out the battery or the alternator?

 

[VizaX]

Alright, I went out and wasn't getting any reading on Ohms from the car at all. If you are getting a reading, My dad said it is most likey a Ground not connected or a wire shorted or is crossed somewhere... only reading I was able to get was Voltage DC (12.9v)... nothing on Ohms at all.

I would go through and check ALL your grounds first, then move on to other wires from there