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?
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