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.
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