My first M151A1

[leadfarmer]

I made it an hour drive and back to a parade. No real issues.



I need to figure out my process for hot restarts. I need to crank awhile if I don't touch the throttle or choke. If I give it a little choke and give the throttle a little blip while cranking it seems to start up easier.

I also noticed my turn signals only flash about 10% of the time I try to use them. I will clean the wire connections first before going for another flasher unit. I have the large old style one.

[Horst]

when hot I need to give full throttle with no choke. For my 151 that is the best way to start it.

[leadfarmer]

I will give that a shot next time!

[rickf]

Every vehicle is different on hot starts, cold stats also for that matter. You do not have a mechanical accelerator pump on there so pumping the gas ahead of time does nothing. On mine if it as been sitting for an hour or so I will try it once and if it does not start I will pull the choke out all the way and hit the button to crank it and push the choke in immediately. You only need a little shot of gas to get it going.

[leadfarmer]

Still haven't sorted out the hot starting issue, but I have a charging system problem.

If I charge it up before going out I pretty quickly drop from green to yellow on the voltmeter. And yes I understand it is not an ammeter. After cruising for 2 hours with the lights on I drop low in the yellow but not red.

I can tell my horn sounds weaker and it cranks slower to restart after driving an hour.

So this probably isn't helping the hot starts.

I'll start troubleshooting the generator and external regulator, but I wouldn't mind upgrading to an alternator with internal regulator. I might even go civilian, given the price of military alternators. I can make brackets. That's simple stuff. Getting the right size pulley on it will probably require more brain power.

Back to the hot starting issue, I went to a car show Friday. Drove an hour there. It sat for 2 hours. Had to crank it a lot to start. My dad was there and he put his hand over the tail pipe. Smelled like raw fuel. I cranked it a little without choke or gas, then switched to giving it some gas and choke and eventually it sputtered to life.

Has anyone installed a thick non-metallic mounting gasket spacer for the carb? I have one coming. The goal being to isolate the carb from the heat of the engine intake. It is a cheap enough thing to try. I'm not excited to install longer carb mounting studs. Hopefully the intake doesnt break.

[glcaines]

On both of my A2s starting after being hot is almost instantaneous. No choke and I push the accelerator wide open and hold it there. Both will start without issue - 1 or 2 revolutions only. Interestingly, both start differently when cold. One takes a full choke and starts after about 4 or 5 revolutions and then the choke knob is pushed all the way in once started. The other one starts cold with no choke and once running needs a small amount of choke for a minute or so. Both idle and run great once started. In winter temperatures (20s F.) , both need full choke to start, but start very easily.

[leadfarmer]

I think wide open throttle will be my hot start method, but I need to get my charging system squared away. It's cranking slow when hot. I bet it will hot start easier when fully charged.

I went to a parade on the 4th. I had charged the batteries to 28V+ on a tender. The voltage indicator showed in the green when I left. Hours later when I returned I was low in the yellow. My batteries showed 23V. I have a new solid state voltage regulator on the way. If that doesn't do it I will pull the generator and see if the shop down the road can test and rebuild it. I have several good alternator/starter rebuild shops in my area.

[rickf]

Check out this place, They have about everything you would need. Plus if you call they are very knowledgable on military alternators and generators.

https://www.southernautomotive.com/about

[leadfarmer]

This thread has fantastic information on troubleshooting the charging system I have:

https://www.g838.org/viewtopic.php?t=40 ... g&start=15

I saved the info in a word document for referencing down the road.

After following the steps and diagnosing that something is wrong with my generator I pulled it last night. Taking it to a local old school rebuild shop this morning for bench testing.

[rickf]

If you do not already have it do a search for the Pam 750-33, or pam 75 manual.

Here it is. I have all of these manuals on file but I have no idea how to send large files. I have never gotten Dropbox to work for me.

https://radionerds.com/images/c/cb/DA_P ... 750-33.pdf

[leadfarmer]

The electric shop called and the armature in the generator is the problem. One of the brass bars separated from its mount and is protruding. So I'm shopping for another generator unless someone has a loose armature around they want to part with.