I took a drive to Vancouver B.C. this weekend in my Jag. It was going well, but after my fuel stop to get cheap gas in Bellingham, WA, I noticed an odd noise from the front of the engine - almost sounded like rustling paper at first. I couldn’t hear it with earplugs or earphones in place. It varied with RPM.
It got louder and louder until I could hear it even with plugs in my ears. So I cut the trip short and prayed it would get me home without some major failure. There were no negative indications on the instruments. Shortly after crossing the Canadian-US border, the sound got a lot quieter and stayed that way. I could no longer hear it at freeway speed.
Removing the belt silenced the noise, so I put the belt back on and used a stethoscope. Has to be either the timing chain, jockey pulley, water pump, or alternator, right? Only the alternator had a non-rhythmic sound pattern.
Also the cooling fan and the subframe below the alternator were coated in a fine brown-black dust which I had never noticed before. So I’m pretty sure it’s the alternator, with some mechanical failure. No issue with output the whole time.
Since I doubt my local rebuilder can get the bearings and bushings, etc. for a Lucas 11AC readily, I’ll send it off to TAE in Arizona for a rebuild. In the meantime I ordered a SNG Barratt Lucas reproduction (which I think is a modified Bosch.)
(no desire to switch to a 1 wire - I finally think I understand how the charging system works and better the devil I know than the one I don’t - at least until another 4TR fails!) Also I don’t feel like getting rid of my ammeter and I have all the juice I need even with the stock 45 amp unit. (SNG jumps it to 55 amps which I believe will still be OK for the ammeter and not require a shunt.)
But it looks like I’ll have to transfer the cooling fan over from the original 11AC which I don’t really want to do. The SNG unit pictures don’t show a pulley or fan (I have a spare pulley I bought from Moss last year, but not a fan.) Maybe any generic fan would work?
Dave