Filtered Air and Twisted Pair

It has been a pretty chaotic week. To begin with, we are foster-parenting a 6 month old mama cat and her 2 2-week-old kittens. They arrived on Monday or Tuesday. I have been discussing an employment opportunity (after 3.5 years of contracting) with a potential employer. My Mother-in-law flew home after a 2+ week visit. The on-again / off-again band I play in is prepping for our first gig in a year with semi-regular rehearsals. Of course, there is the work schedule / helicopter parenting stuff and, finally, bus stuff to do. There's only so much I can cover in a single post, and this chaos might explain why my postings have been so far apart (and short on pictures) this month. Let's start with the fostering...

Calico Vent
There is s new shelter in Lake Oswego that takes animals that are pregnant and farms them out to foster homes after birthing while the little ones grow. Once the babies are at adoptable ages, the fostering ends and they are all adopted out. Great program. We got the call that there was a mama cat and 2 kittens, so my wife and boys dashed over to get them. We are housing them in the tub-shower in our main first-floor bathroom. Now, everyone is sharing the small upstairs bathroom for showers, etc. Let's call that 'an opportunity to bring the family closer'.

That first night we had the cats, mama cat got freaked out by something. That next morning she was a-top the shower-door and would not come down. We figured she would calm on her own and went about our business. Instead, she pulled the floor register off the floor and crawled into our heating system. It took almost 24 hours to coax her back out. It was feeding the kittens baby formula that got her out, actually. Once she heard those little cries, she popped out of the heat duct and my wife grabbed her. We thought we had the register secured, but about an hour later mama cat tried to get one of the kittens out of the tub(and, presumably down the heat duct), and we heard her. Now, there's a big heavy box on that register... and the cat family has adjusted very well. They even purr now.

Filtered Air
I have spent a considerable part of my free web-time these last couple of weeks trying to figure out my air filter need. I have to filter the air, obviously, but the filter unit needs to fit the MAP (Mass Air Pressure) sensor and it needs a vacuum system nipple so the vacuum system gets clean air too. After looking at the after-market stuff (spendy), Donaldson (also spendy) and stock air boxes, I found my solution. craigslist. Its a wonderful thing for getting rid of unused bikes or getting car parts for next-to-nothing. I looked at LKQ for their asking price on a used VW air box, and they wanted $60. eBarf? $40 plus shipping (of at least $20). craigslist? $10, with a filter cartidge in it (probably needs to be replaced), an extra MAP sensor still attached, and the snow-snorkel still on it. I haven't test-fitted it yet, but it looks like it should fit where the auxillary battery usually goes in the bay window westy.

Twisted Pairs
While watching some mindless television last night (30 Rock), I started making the extension for the accelerator pedal switch plug. To get the length, I had my son T work with me. This represents the first time he has worked on the bus with me in some time, so it was pretty special for me. First, I walked him through the conversion, showing him the different sub-systems and explaining what each one is for. I grabbed a spool of 18 AWG wire, took the end and handed him the spool. While he metted out the wire, I slid under the bus and ran it from the spare wheel well to the accelerator pedal switch. We only need about 14'. Since the 18 AWG came in 15' long spools, I decided an extra foot wouldn't hurt anything. I left the one stretch of wire in-place as a placement guide for later. With 5 20 AWG wires and 1 18 AWG wire, I cut and bound together (with short pieces of electrical tape) the accelerator rheostat cable bundle. Next time I have an hour in front of the tube, I'll do the brake switch cable bundle. Once I have the cables wired into the main harness with the plugs on the ends I'll tape the length with cloth tape (so it looks like the stock harnesses) and then zip-tie it into the path I marked.

Riviera Top
One last bit of news - I started getting the Riviera poptop stuff from my friend Toby. He was nice enough to store it this long, but he needs the space now. I got most of the small stuff and Gr8fulEd will be helping me get the big stuff with his father's pickup truck next week. Fortunately, Ed has a '73 Riviera, so I'll have a template (of sorts) for installing the top, when I can get to it, and can get Ed over with his bus. I don't expect to have time for that until July, but I might surprise myself if I can get this electrical knocked out quickly enough. In the meantime, there is space in front of the bus (under an overhang) where the top can sit while I prepare for it.

I don't expect to get to the bus this weekend, but I hope to be able to hit it on Monday. If I can get a few hours without rain, I should be able to get the fuse block done and get the the main harness wrapped up. If things go well, maybe I can look into the radiator fan circuit too, or even the aux battery. You gotta set a stretch goal, I figure :) . At the very least, I'll take some pictures of the stuff I posted about and back-upload pictures.

edit: added pictures
pictures-
top: mama kitty Tinkerbell (6 mo's old) and Pip (about 3 weeks old)
bottom: wire bundle for accelerator and brake switches

Marianne Visits, Pushing Rope

I accept that I have not kept the blog well-updated this past month. I'd love to say it is because I've been working on the bus so much, I haven't had time. Actually, we had a house guest for the past 2-plus weeks, so bus-work slowed down quite a bit. I was able to get some headway on the electrical stuff, though, and I'll touch on that.

Marianne Visits
I mentioned in a previous post that my mother-in-law is battling cancer, and that she had arrived just before Mothers Day. Her visit was very nice, and spent mostly around the house. The kids got to really connect with her, learning again how to play poker and about the pop music of the 1940's. She flew home on Sunday after a visit of just over 2 weeks, and she will return in early June in time for the end of school celebrations. Her battle with cancer is going very well, I'm happy to report. Her doctor had originally expected the cancer to win in a very short time period now gives her multiple years of survival expectation. She is having another PET scan today to confirm the growth / recede-ance in the last month or so. There is no reason to believe the prognosis has changed, though. Her energy seemed very high, and she appeared healthy and vibrant the whole time she was with us. We are looking forward to warmer, sunnier days on her next visit so we can visit the coast.

Un-wired
Around the family movie nights, poker games and the usual scheduling chaos of spring, I was able to get a few hours here and a few hours there on the bus. I finished cutting apart the lighting and climate control bits in my last post. Since then, I have made additional headway. I cut out the trailing end of the main harness, knowing that those plugs were not critical to engine operation. I suspect one or more of those plugs were involved in monitoring operations, though, like the coolant level and the coolant line-pressure. I can worry about that stuff later. I also cut out most of the radiator fan relay circuit, but it may not be for good. I'll get to that later. First, I had to cut the stuff out so I could get the end of the main harness through the hole in the wheel-well and into the engine compartment.

Main Harness - Pushing Rope
There are a few plugs and cables that need to be in the engine compartment - 14-pin plug, the GEN 4-way plug, and the glowplug & main battery feeds. There are others (the 5 colored plugs, and the dash pod, for example) that need to be near the ECU which can't be in the engine compartment. So, after cutting out the parts that either aren't immediately needed or could be re-attached easily, I threaded the main harness through from the cabinet to the engine compartment. Since I had re-taped the harness, it was pretty easy to fit through by myself. After some re-arranging, I was able to get the harness around the top left edge of the intercooler and run it along the upper edge of the rear deck - where the stock bus lighting harness goes. The 14-pin plug is connected, the GEN monitoring plug is connected and even the 5 colored plugs are as well. There is some remaining work in the closet, but it shouldn't be more than a few hours of tinkering.

Fuse Block
I mentioned earlier that I had bought a fuse-block for a Jetta off of eBay. It arrived, and I have determined a location for it: just inside of the stock battery location, hanging from the body with zip-ties. I thought about bolting it, but that would present a great opportunity for a massive short, possibly causing a fire. The support that used to hold the diagnosis plug will be perfect for holding the fuse block, though, now that I've cut some of it away and bent it down. This location places the ends of the main harness about a foot away. With some cable, I will be able to extend the main cable and the glow-plug cable to the fuse block from the main harness. I won't include the coolant pre-warmer circuit just yet. The vanagon folks use this to pre-warm their heating, so I figure it can be dealt with later. Without electricity going to the relays, that circuit is dead. I left all the parts in the harnesses though, so I can re-integrate them when I'm ready to deal with cabin heat. The fuse block area should look pretty good for now. I'll upload a picture once I have the cables done and the block installed.

Radiator Fan Relays
The last bit for today is my plan for the radiator fans. I mentioned that I bought 2 after-market fans to pull air through the radiator I positioned under-belly. I am unable to find the CFM specifics for the stock fans, so I don't know if the aftermarket fans are the long term solution. As such, it seemed prudent to use the original relay circuit in case I need to replace the fans with something that requires stock-level electricity. To make this work, I will be mounting the NewBeetle relay in the engine compartment just to the right-of center along the rear valence. This puts it within 18" of the fuse block so the wires and plugs from the main harness to the relays will fit without modification. The wires that run from the relays to the fans, however, will need to be extended. I have wire for that, and will need to add an in-line fuse to protect the relay. Otherwise, this should be a few hours of work.

That's all I have time for today. I have lots of wire spools, and lots of little things to tie-up. I hope to be able to do something during the week to keep the momentum rolling as we head into Memorial Day. I'll try to take more pictures, but pictures of a rat's nest of wires isn't really very interesting.... or is it?

Ready for Pirmary School

Today's brief post covers the finishing touches on the wiring harness surgery and my opening thoughts on getting the main electrical in-place. It's beautiful day, and it promises to be a beautiful weekend. I have many family obligations, though, so progress will continue to move at a very slow pace.

Wires Uncrossed
I was able to look into the wiring again Wednesday afternoon and finished removing all of the circuitry for cabin and exterior lighting as well as the AC stuff. I am left with the radiator fan circuits as the lone wire bundle I am a little bamboozled by. With the decision to put the dash pod in the closet, many other decisions can be avoided for now. For example, the ECU doesn't need to know about my brake fluid level, so I don't need to figure out how to fake that anymore. I received the fuse block in the mail this morning, so I should have all the pieces to start laying out the primary electrical.

Primarily Speaking
The primary circuit is basically the charging system (generator, voltage regulator) the starting system (starter, solenoid) and the storage (battery). These sub-systems are connected with big thick wires and are necessary to run the engine. It is the connecting of these systems that I will be taking on next, with the help of the fuse block I just received. In the early ALH TDI engine installations, there wasn't an immobilizer. This reduces the complexity a bit. The starter engagement is limited by a switch connected to the clutch pedal so the driver can't start the engine with the clutch pedal out. I'm going to fake that, since the original bus doesn't have that lockout, and its been working great that way for years. I don't plan to route the battery isolator right away, thinking that it might be easier to isolate engine electrical issues without it first.

I will be implementing the fuse block, though, even if I am only using a couple of the main B+ sources. It will make the circuits that much more like the 98 Beetle install, so, again, it will be easier to identify sources of issues.

I will probably need some more primary cable, however. The block I bought does not have any. The wiring harness has a couple but they are buried deep into the main trunk and may not be long enough anyway. I haven't decided where I will locate the fuse block either, which poses another challenge. Should I put it near the pass-through from the cabin to the engine compartment? By placing it here, it would require fewer changes to the harness, and fewer new-cable installations. On the other hand, if I place it near the battery, it would be closer to the original, and I wouldn't need a thick primary cable running from one side of the engine compartment to the other for the battery : fuse block and then back again for the fuse block : starter. I will look at both choices once the battery is in place, and go with the least confusing looking of the 2 options. At this point, I am leaning towards putting the fuse block near the pass-through to reduce the number of wire cuts I need to make.

That's all I have time for today. I will be getting the battery in-place, and arranging the harness this weekend. Between kids' lacrosse games, piano recitals and my mother-in-law visiting, I don't know if I'll have much time beyond that. Sorry, no pictures today. I'll take some of the electrical as it develops.

Mom's Day Spaghetti

Today's post will cover my mother-in-law's (MIL) arrival, a few events since then and a quick visit into the wiring. Last, I have some decisions to make about where to put / how to use the donor dash pod.

First, some of the things I ordered have started to arrive. For example, the belt for the alternator / generator arrived last week (I posted on that before), so that's now in-place. On Thursday, the battery isolator arrived. Still in-transit is the battery fuse-block. Once that appears, I should be well positioned for getting the primary electrical connected.

Marianne arrives
Saturday was a typically crazy day. T had a 9:AM lacrosse game. C was picked up by a friend for an overnight on the Oregon Coast. A new tv we had ordered (and paid for with our taxman refund) arrived and was installed. Marianne's plane arrived early (shortly after noon), and my whole family came over for a big Italian feast. It was nice to have the family over. My brothers both have little ones and my older brother has a step-daughter too, so we have about 14 in total. Marianne made her secret-recipe (her father's) meatballs, and we all ate too much. Good times.

Mom's Day
I had arranged for the boys to make cards this year, so both my wife and my MIL were greeted with cards when they awoke. Knowing my wife is up too early to try to make breakfast-in-bed, I'd prepared for a picnic lunch after church. Instead of going to a park, though, we picninc'ed in the backyard so Marianne wouldn't tire too much. C arrived after the picnic, but his bouncy energy was felt immediately. I kept the boys distracted so my wife and MIL could watch a movie undisturbed, but I was still able to get about 45 minutes looking at the wiring harness. Good thing the weather was as picture-perfect or I would have been "distracting" more interactively inside. Instead, it was just a matter of keeping all questions going through me while they played outside.

Spaghetti and Oil
I've already posted about some of the success I've enjoyed with the 2 main engine harnesses. There are still a few connectors on those harnesses that I can't trace to a purpose, but I suspect they will become clear eventually. I also noted that I had some connectors in the engine compartment for which I did not have a corresponding wired plug. Fortunately, I tagged every plug I could last November, so when I pulled out the main harness, I found the 2 I was missing: the coolant level plug and the coolant pressure plug. The trick was going to be getting these plugs into the engine compartment without having the entire trunk in there.

I started working the trunk (main harness) on Sunday with a pair of scissors and some wire cutters. Since a bunch of engine oil got on the harness during shipping, it was pretty messy, but I was still able to identify clusters of wires I didn't need and remove them. "How?" The first cluster of wires was related to the in-dash stereo components. There were plugs for the stereo and the CD changer, for example. These were not to be re-used, so I un-wired them back to the main trunk. Then, there was the AC controls, and then I started on the exterior lighting. The lighting was a little tricky because so many of the donor plugs were left unlabeled. It turned out, though, that I was able to trace many of the wires through the main trunk and out the other side to where the wiring headed to the rear of the donor vehicle was cut. That iced it.

Within 45 minutes (or maybe an hour) I had removed over 3 pounds of wire from the main harness. I know there is considerably more I can remove, like the rest of the exterior lighting, any interior lighting, window and door lock controls, etc. Once all of the accessory items are gone, I will have (a) a much cleaner harness and (b) many many feet of donor wire in all kinds of colors and thickness to extend things like the coolant level sender circuit. The next time I can get out there I hope to finish the harness clean up. If time allows, I'll start the plug extension after that.

Dash Pod Decisions
During a quiet moment, I pulled out the donor (1998 New Beetle) dash pod and sat it on the steering wheel. It doesn't look like it will fit in the original dash pod hole without some modification. I tried placing it on top of the dash, but it blocks too much view, even if I place it in the center. I looked at placing it in the center of the dash where the stereo sits, but that would take some hacking too. So, I'm now leaning towards leaving the old dash pod in place and stashing the new one under the rock-n-roll bed. This leaves an open question about the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). If I'm not using the NB dash pod, I don't need that speedometer to work. Since I'm not putting in cruise-control, do I need the VSS at all? Same goes for changing the fuel level sensor. I will need to do something for a tachometer, but putting the NB dash pod out of sight is a game-changer..... and it significantly reduces the amount of work I need to do to be road ready.

More next time. I welcome your input on what purpose the VSS will serve if I don't use the speedo nor the cruise control system.

All Work and No Play....

... makes Jack a dull boy. I've been working too much at a desk and not enough on the bus. Still, there's been some headway. First, I'll complain about the too-much-desk bit, and then go through the electrical progress. The next few posts probably won't have much in terms of photogenic moments. I mean what's so interesting about some things that are plugged in? Once we get to tying the harnesses into the stock wiring things will get interesting, but photogenic? We'll see.

Workin' in a Coal Mine...
In the work economy, I should be glad for any hours I get. I'm a contractor, so if I don't work, I don't get paid. So, more hours means more money, of course, but your body, your mind and your family can only take so much. I remember the early internet start-up days when fellow IT folks would boast about their hours, and it would really enter the ridiculous after a while. Working a 40 hour week is plenty if you have a family, or any kind of life outside of what you do for a living. Take 10 hours away from that other life, and it is a significant impact. Figure that's more than another workday to your week. I remember some boasters saying they worked "80 hours" - not possible, really, (unless you're looking for a divorce or an early grave) but the point I'm getting at is I've worked over 50 hours a week for the month of April, and some of March. I'm getting worn down. I worked a day-shift on Friday as well as a graveyard shift that night, and then a day shift on Saturday. As I write this, I'm working a swing-shift on a Sunday, and I expect to work a full week of day-shifts minimum next week. There are rumblings about going all night tonight. I hope it doesn't come to that. I'm grateful for the work, and the team I work on is dedicated to the task, but there are limits.

Marinara on the side
With help from AndyBees from the TDIClub, I have been able to start working in-earnest on the electrical stuff. He sent me the output of his work on his electrical efforts while installing a 2002 Jetta TDI into his vanagon. He also supplied copies of the 1998 NewBeetle wiring diagrams for my engine. In my few idle moments, I have been pouring over those diagrams.

This morning I attacked the 2 main engine-compartment harnesses. Recall last November I put toe-tags on every plug that I could identify through the ETKA. With those toe-tags and the wiring diagram, I was able to connect most of the remaining plugs. I have a few the still need homes, but I feel like that bulk of the engine compartment harnesses are wired in. The main harness, though, has a few plugs on it that need to thread into the engine compartment. I will look into that soon.

Generating Juice
Early last week, I ordered a few things to help get the generator working with the battery and the battery working with the harnesses. First, there's a belt. I don't have the power steering unit (1972 bus, remember?) nor do I have the air conditioner (again, 1972 bus), so my serpentine belt doesn't need to be very serpentine. Simply, it needs to wrap the main pulley on the crankshaft and run around the generator pulley, under the tensioner pulley and back to the crankshaft pulley. Simple. With an extension cord, I measured the length of the trip and then ordered 2 belts that were close. The winner was GoodYear (4060295) - 29.5" effective length. Buy one here. The tensioner pulley is eased with a 5/8" cresent wrench on the exposed nut, and the belt is popped on. Easy-peasy. I was able to get the belt on while waiting for the mac-n-cheese water to boil (making kids lunch).

The other belt I bought will be returned / exchanged for another of the same size for the parts bin. I also bought a battery fuse-block on eBay. (the picture from the eBay listing is above) This is a critical bit that I didn't get from the donor car. It should arrive this week, so integrating that fuse block into the electrical will come up pretty soon. With it will arrive the need to get a primary battery installed. When we sold my wife's old '85 300TD, I kept one of the batteries we had for it. The battery holds a charge and used to run (and start) an old diesel, so I figure it has the horses to start the TDI. I popped it onto the HarborFreight charger so it's topped off.

Last, I bought a battery isolator online. The Westfalia accessory battery circuit relies on the separate voltage regulator to trigger juice rolling to the accessory battery. There's a picture of it (albeit small) up above to the right. The newer TDI generator has a built-in regulator, so a newer isolator is in order. I'll verify this with the installation instruction that will come with the unit, but, in theory, this box will live between both batteries as well as the generator so the generator powers the primary battery first, then the accessory battery and neither battery can discharge the other. Should be pretty straightforward once its in-place. In the interests of full disclosure, its a Stinger S12023 120-Amp 4 Post Design High Current Isolator. Buy one here.

That's it for today. Once the isolator arrives, I'll be focused on getting the primary electrical running. This means getting the primary battery installed, running the primary ground and B+ thick cables, installing the isolator, wiring up the starter, the generator, solving the clutch pedal switch, etc. It may sound like a lot, but I should have all of it resolved in a few hours time.

Thanks for following along, and thanks for all the comments. It really does help keep me honest knowing there are all of your watching and waiting.

pictures:
top - fuse block from eBay lsiting
middle - original 1972 voltage regulator. Need one? I have an extra :)
bottom - new battery isolator