Dashing Thru the Smoke

After returning Hapy to service, I have not driven him much. As has been true for most of the time we have been together, he doesn't have heat. So it's like driving in an ice fishing shed... which probably brings some appeal to some folks, but it's not my favorite. Still, if I had to get somewhere and I could get there without using freeways, I would and have drive(n) Hapy. Why not freeways? This time of year, as I am sure you have noticed, drivers are especially distracted and others are driving specially, uh... nasty. This old bus needs more braking space than modern cars but other drivers don't always recognize that. When you add those factors together, it is tough sledding in the bus. Add in wet or slick roads and it gets scary. Regular roads are bad enough, but freeway speeds are too scary in the winter for me and the bus. With this backdrop, I start today's post.

Smoked Again

can you spot the loose wire?

A few years ago, on the return drive from 4Peaks, we were greeted with smoke billowing out from under the dash (See 4Peaks 2018 - Road Report). Somehow the ignition sub-harness had fried, leaving us stranded, riding home on a flatbed again. There's a song lyric in there somewhere. Anyway, I fixed that once and then again in a not-to-my-best-liking way with now 2 keys to operate the bus: one to unlock the steering and one to start/run the engine. This is working well enough so I leave it alone.

The other night, I had to drive out to Hillsboro for a final recording session with the band I'm playing in (shameless plug: Sunkicks), and Boo had not returned from work. So, I pressed Hapy into service. With the new starter and better glow-plugs, he fired right up and hummed like he was ready for some fun. It was damp out, so the lack of heat meant drying the inside of the windscreen with a towel, but for the ride out, it only needed that one wipe down. Even the driver door closed without too much trouble. It was like Hapy was really trying his best to show he was a real car and could be used reliably. We stopped for some home repair parts at the big box home repair store and he started right up afterwards. Again, "I'm a real car".

After the recording session concluded, the temperature had continued to drop, while the moisture held steady so the interior glass was quite foggy. Hapy fired right up and I flipped on the running lights while I refamiliarized myself with the controls in the dark. I thought I had the switch for the fans in my hand, but it was actually the headlight control... I turned hard it to the right (the fan control switch has always been a little resistant), and rather than turn on the fans, I caused something to ground, causing a wire to release it's smoke. When I saw the smoke, I turned the switch back left (anti-clockwise) but the damage had been done. All that was left was to figure out how widespread it was, and to apologize to Hapy; this wasn't his fault, it was all mine. The smoke was pretty bad though, considering the windows were closed, the bus wasn't moving and the fan wasn't on. The next day, my throat was still sore from it. When I opened the driver window, it must have looked like a scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High with the billowing smoke rolling out.

dripping blue

Starting with the positive... the engine was still running. The cooling fans were on and could be turned on and off. The defogger (doesn't defrost, hardly de-fogs) fan could be turned on and off. As to the negative, the driving lights were out, I think the tail lights were out and there was an annoying buzzer like a seatbelt warning was on. When I flipped the turn signal or hazards, the front lights flashed correctly and the buzzing went away. I was still sitting, idling in front of my bandmate's house, so I decided that I would just drive home and deal with it later.

The drive home was quite uneventful other than the constant buzz noise and concern that drivers behind me could not see us nor tell when we were braking. When I got home, the engine and fans shut off without issue. It was too late and too dark to diagnose, but my hunch was that it's the wire that sends a signal to the running lights.

Wire Still a Puzzler

A few days later, when I could go out to the bus in daylight, I went out and removed the headlight switch from the dash. I could see one of the wires had become detached, but I was unable to see any truly fried wires. Puzzled, I plugged the wire into the open pin on the back of the switch, and tried the lights. Yep, headlights still turn on, dash lights still turn on.... running lights turn on. All of them, including the tail lights. So, I pulled on the hazard switch. Dash directionals flash, front directionals flash, rear directionals flash. At this point, I don't know what's fried, but the engine starts and runs, the cooling fans fire, the dash lights, switches and gauges work and all the lights work. In the middle picture, just above, there's a light blue orb thing on the lower left side of the image. That is a blue drip that I cannot account for, but I think something melted and that's the result. Neat.

I think it is time for me to determine which of the original circuits no longer need to be served and at the very least remove the fuses. After the cleanup I did in the back for running the engine, I think it would be wise to plan to do something very similar up front. I mean, in the end, the only things the "main" fuse box is running now are the dash, and the lights. That's like, 4 fuses tops? Regardless, this exercise should lead me to the smoked wire and reduce the electrical gremlins.

Furnace Update

furnace control board

Our electrician is semi-retired. He used to run a HVAC company and has installed literally hundreds of furnaces before focusing on general residential electrical instead. Now, as he is slowly divesting of his electrical business, he has observed my work on our furnace. In a fit of holiday fever (he swore off furnace work years ago), he popped by for a couple of hours, got the gas line hooked up and leak tested as well as the 110V electrical feed completed, with a worker shut-off switch. He even got most of the exhaust venting put in. He hit a wall when he was unable to connect the control cable because the access screws are hidden behind a panel that you can't get to once the first piece of exhaust venting is attached to the furnace. That's some poor design.

Still, I saw the furnace project as 7 big individual efforts: demo/move/mount, conditioned air distribution, cold air return, gas, electric, exhaust vent and the thermostat/control cable. I had completed the first 2. He knocked down 2 more (gas and electric) and set me up to get the next 2: thermostat control and exhaust vent. Once I have that done, he will confirm things, and test the system. Then, I just need to get the cold air to pull from inside the house and we have a complete system. For testing purposes, I may simply smack a filter on the plenum.

Since I started this thread, I caught a cold, celebrated Christmas and installed the thermostat control cable. As I indicated, I had to remove the exhaust venting all the way to the firebox before I could remove the panel which covers the control board. I ran a new wire from beneath the furnace (where the old one entered) and connected the control wires. Before putting everything back together, I took the opportunity to spray the snot out of the control board with a can of computer-cleaning compressed air. I figured that panel won't be coming off anytime soon, so may as well get the board as clean as I can. After that, it was simple replacing that which was removed, re-using the same fasteners.

That's about where things are today. Hapy appears operational, and I will be test driving him here in the next couple of days. The furnace is almost ready to test. I need to complete the assembly of the exhaust vent and properly suspend it from the floor to retain the correct exit angle, but I think that is a couple of hours effort at most.

Thanks as always, for following along. Have a peaceful, pleasant, hapy new year-