New Job, New Additions

Again, I find myself without my pictures. I'll upload a few tomorrow. Today, I'll touch on my job change, my new nephew and a little progress I slipped in around the end-of-school chaos.

New Job
I mentioned in an earlier post that I interviewed for a job. Well, I was offered and I accepted it. Its been a pretty steep adjustment curve over the last few days (started Monday), but I'm sure I'll settle-in given enough time. I've had to be on conference calls twice already this week, and I have more tonight. Eek. That pretty much kills any not-work stuff, like seeing T's lacrosse games or wrenching on the bus. I think it is just because of the transition and where certain projects are in their respective time-lines. Basically, I think it will pass.

New Addition
Out of respect for my sister-in-law, I probably didn't mention that she was preggers with her second child. Well... they are now the proud parents of a 9-pound baby boy. 9 pounds! That's more than an alternator, in fact, I think its more than my turbo. hehehe... he's adorable - perfectly round head with that peach-fuzz hair. Mom is doing very well, as are my brother and their daughter.

Pluggin Along
On the bus side, I have clowned with the wiring a little bit, but my time has been very hard to come by. I did extend the wires from the main harnesses to the pedal switches. This involved creating 2 cables of AWG18 and AWG20 wire (4 wires for brake switch, 6 for accelerator) at 15 foot lengths bound together with electrical tape every 6 inches. I ran the cable under the bus along the main channel where the clutch cable goes. There are factory holes that the cable fit through, so it never hangs more than a couple of inches below the floor, and is always above the beams. The 15 feet of cable was perfect - there is some slack in the cable, but there was enough so I could operate through the westy closet to get the wires spliced in. If you find yourself doing this, note that of the accelerator wires, 2 of them look very similar - white/gray and white/skyblue. I don't know who the genius was at VW to put near-duplicate wire colors in the same circuit, but be advised.

Failed Primary
I also started on the primary electrical stuff. This was kind of a bust. I thought that the thicker wires could be soldered together to create a better electrical connection, but even with a blowtorch I couldn't get the ends of the wires hot enough to melt the solder. I bought a bunch of "butt-splice" kits online that consist of a crimp-style splice with a shrink-wrap sleeve. They should be in-hand soon, and then I'll be able to finish off the primary circuits.

Cool Fan
This leaves the radiator fan circuit. I have decided to re-use the existing relays in case I have to revert to the original fans. I just need to define how the relays will mount and run the wire. I don't think it will be much of a job. Most of my time will be spent making the wiring look pretty, and tying in the temperature sensor on the radiator.

That's it for now. My wife graduates on Friday, and her mom is back in town for another 2 week stay. I suspect my progress will not improve during that time, and having the bus in running order for Summer camping is looking pretty unlikely. Regardless, I'll keep at it and I may be surprised.

edit: added pictures.
pictures-
top: brake switch wire bundle (aligned left to right as appears in switch plug)
middle: brake switch wire bundle with main harness wires in same L-to-R order
bottom: brake switch wires mated and taped