Inside Electrical
The morning started cold, with a stiff wind. After gearing up, and mentally psyching myself, I got the bus uncovered and climbed inside. I re-connected the westy electrical stuff that I had pulled out last Fall when I was looking at putting the fuel tank under the rock-n-roll bed. I discovered that the wood box thing that covers the power inverter was never physically attached to the seat frame. Huh. Now it is. I then pondered the impacts of trying to remove the fridge unit.
I had planned to remove the fridge, since I don't use it anyway, and put the harness in there. Then, I was going to build a false-bottom with a piece of plywood and use the cabinet as dry-good storage. Sounds great, eh? The problem is, that would take the better part of a day to do, and I don't have that kind of time anymore. So... that becomes another punt-it-to-Fall item. Instead, I'll be running the main harness through to that cabinet and then under the rock-n-roll bed. I'll lose a little storage for the Summer, but it will take far less time to get good-enough-for-now.
Accelerating
The TDI engine, like most modern marvel engines, is controlled more by the computer than it is by your foot. Sure, when you step on the "gas", you speed up,
but gone are the days of stomping on it and producing a big cloud of exhaust smoke as you rocket forward. Okay... that never actually happened in a microbus, but if you drove one of those carbureted cars of yester-year, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the modern cars have a rheostat (variable resistor like a dimmer for your fancy house lights) connected to the pedal, and that sends a signal to your computer to tell the engine to go faster. Now, the computer is smart enough to know that you can't just throw gas into the engine like a monkey sitting atop it with a bucket. The computer figures out how to get to your intended velocity without wasting fuel, so you take off like a rocket, but no cloud of smoke. I can't really imagine that kind of force in a bus, but I should after this. Anyway...Think, then Act
Before Christmas, Hal and I spent some mental cycles on this issue. After cutting the accelerator rheostat from the donor housing, we slid under the bus an figured that the dangle that used to connect to the old pedal could connect directly to the "V"-shaped bracket on the bus pedal that used to pull on the cable back to the old carb. All we needed was some time, a bar of steel, and some care. I put those 3 requirements together on Saturday, and fab'd the bracket. I'm the first to admit that my welding skills are just crap, but after messing around with is for a while, I got this so it will hold no matter how much pull pressure I put on the rheostat. As you can see, the rheostat housing is not
in a perfect line. That was done on purpose. The "V" on the accelerator needs to travel in a straight line, but the bracket couldn't fit directly under the pedal. So, it is attached on an angle. I drilled 1/4" holes in the bar before welding so I could fit it around the accelerator pedal bolts. The one closest to the rheostat housing is for one of those screws to slide through. This helped with placement.Mount Accelerator
Once the bracket was constructed, install was a relatively simple matter. The bracket slid right over the pedal mounting screw and I marked the 2 mounting holes by scraping the paint underneath. Unfortunately, these 2 holes were almost directly above the steering mechanism, so I had to punch pilot holes from below and drill them from above. The picture to the right here shows where those 2 holes were made relative to the bottom of the pedal. I slid the bolts through fender washers from above. Then, the bracket slid right on to the 1 screw and 2 bolts. I thumb tightened them, and with the use of vice-grips, got the bracket in.
Set Motion
Once the bracket was mounted to the underside of the bus, I had to verify the range of motion of the pedal relative to the motion of the rheostat.
Up until now, I had the accelerator pedal pulled up with a loose bungy cord. Now, it was time to connect the bits. By retaining the original housing, I was able to take advantage of the original adjustability - it has an allen bolt on either side. It was a relatively simple matter of loosening the bolts, and trying the action until I was able to get the accelerator to go to the floor for full throttle and 3-4 inches off the floor for at-rest. The range of motion for the bus pedal will now be less than it used to be, but there is no standing resistance / pressure on the rheostat until a foot is placed on the pedal. The picture to the left, here, shows the pedal after it has been completely installed. It is important to note that this section of the underside is covered with a belly pan. I will be putting in a seal to keep water out, so this should be a safe location for it. If you are thinking of doing this, consider whether you like to ford streams before jumping in. If this resistor gets wet repeatedly, it will fail, and you'll have to replace it.That's it for today. I'm working again today (waiting on a job to complete now, actually), so I probably won't be getting into the bus much today. The weather is perfect for working outside, so it really pains me to say that. I am growing increasingly concerned about my time line. If this work level keeps up, I won't hit my dates, and I won't be camping in the bus this Summer.
Pictures:
top left - my awful welding of the accelerator housing to the steel bar.
top right - the bracket from the other side
middle - mounting holes in the floor. note the base of the accelerator pedal barely visible
bottom - accelerator pedal control switch (rheostat) in place
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