MGB Charging System fun

Brief post today about an electrical breakdown deja vu but this time it's Oliver ('78 MGB), not Hapy ('72 VW).

Charging System Basics
Most cars have a relatively simple "primary" electrical system. There's the battery which holds lots of stored power for starting the engine and regulating the secondary power usage. That part is obvious. Wired into that battery are the starter and the alternator (or generator in older cars). These are motors for opposite functions. One, the starter, eats the most power while the other generates power. Connecting these together are wires and the ignition switch. Seriously, that's pretty much it for the charging system. There could be a voltage regulator (VR) between the alternator and the battery, but oftentimes these are integrated into the alternator so you don't need to worry about them independently. The VR is separate on the original '72 bus, mounted on the right side of the firewall in the engine compartment. There are lots of other things connected into the electrical system, of course, but for today I'm focusing on getting the the battery to charge.

And We're Talking about this Why?

from 123ignitionusa

Back when I had the MGB looked at by the local British car experts, they indicated that the charging system was sickly. I swapped out the battery. I still found myself charging the battery up an awful lot so I bought and installed an alternator upgrade (now at 105 amps). Neat. You can find them here. But the little car still died on the side of the road a couple of weeks ago, with an electrical failure. After our adventure coming home from Furthur in 2013 (See Tale of Two Trips) I knew what an electrical failure looked like. Lights dim, wipers slow down, fans slow down and then the engine starts to miss. Soon, it won't keep running and you're gliding to a stop on the shoulder. If there is one. The last tip: the hazard lights don't work. Which is especially great when you break down in an exit lane where there is no shoulder / break down lane. Like here: (45°28'37.3"N 122°47'25.8"W).

Fortunately, it was mid-afternoon on a Friday, so the traffic wasn't too bad. I got AAA on the phone and stood behind the little orange car in the sprinkling rain waving cars around me. While waiting for the truck, an ambulance pulled up behind me. One of the guys helped me push the car some of the way up the ramp. At the intersection, a couple of guys hopped out of a car and helped push the rest of the way up the ramp and around the corner to where I could turn onto Allen Blvd and coast downhill. I came to a stop around the corner on King and Lee where Oliver was loaded onto a flatbed.

Root Cause

LM 11009 (BA7s)
bayonet bulb

In my list of items included in the charging system, I failed to mention one last thing: the charging system failure light (labelled "Ignition"). This seemingly innocuous light bulb does more than just tell you when your charging system is fried. Of course, it does that and it is able to do that because of this other purpose. It provides a light 12v current to the alternator through a means other than the thick battery-direct cable. When that 12v meets another 12v coming from the alternator, no light. When the 12v meets ground, the light illuminates. Cool. This small 12v signal also initializes the magnetic field in the alternator so it can generate electricity. Without this little signal, there is no field, so no power generation, eventual system failure while you're trying to exit OR217. Neat. So, at some point after learning that my charging system was sickly, that little bulb died. Did I need a new battery? Maybe, the old one wasn't too old, but it was a discount brand. Did I need a new alternator? Probably, it was original and had the rust on it to prove it. Besides, 105 amps is far better than the 43 amps you get from the original or direct replacements.

top: blown bulb
bottom: new bulb

So, how do we prove this? Well, first, when you turn the ignition switch to run, you should see that little light. No light? Check the bulb. Assuming you missed that, or just want more proof, start your engine anyway and check the voltage at the battery while running the engine above 2000 rpm. If you're not seeing around 14v, you're not charging. Replacing the bulb is inexpensive ($2.50US per bulb at NAPA), though hard to get to. I was able to access it from under the left side of the dash by running my left hand up along the steering shaft, behind the tachometer. The bulb and harness are pressed into the plastic holder, and held in simply by friction. A slight tug on the harness will free it. The wires are kind of short, so getting the bulb down low enough under the dash so you can see and replace may be the hardest part. Well, that and getting the bulb and harness pressed back into place. Since I was up in there, I checked all of the bulbs, one at a time, to make sure I didn't have to get back up under there again any time soon. Fortunately, there was only the one.

Even if the "Ignition" bulb weren't critical to getting a charge, it is wise to run with all of your warning lights working. Gauges are great, but when you're enjoying the scenery or enduring bumper-to-bumper rubber-banding traffic, you may not note your gauges as often. A bright red light on your dash attracts the eye. And, in my case, I don't have a battery / charging gauge to tell me how well my electrical system is. I like the stock look, so I doubt I'll change that, but if I wasn't thinking about it before, I kind of am now.

Anyway, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB - engine mounts

One of the first things I noticed that needed to be addressed when I bought the little British car was the condition of the engine mounts. "How?" you may ask. I intended to replace the alternator belt and couldn't because the engine was sitting so low in the engine compartment there wasn't enough room between the bottom pulley and the front beam to fit a belt. Today's post covers the fun of replacing the engine mounts without removing the engine from the engine compartment.

virtually 0 clearance

Parts
This seems obvious, but there's more to the story than just the rubber mounts. They are sold individually, but they're not expensive. The originals are around 10$US, but there are upgraded versions for 13$US. If you're going through the trouble, it's worth the $6.

The mounts attach to the frame of the MBG onto mount points which are welded on, one per side. These have a vertical slot in the center for the body-side bolt on the rubber mount. The other side of the rubber mount attaches to an engine mount bracket. With the age of these cars, the bracket often has issues hidden behind the rubber mount. My passenger-side bracket was both bent and cracked. Neat. These were $6 a piece. So cheap. Crazy cheap compared to modern cars or even the old bus.

Last, you'll need fasteners. Those old nuts, bolts and washers are as old as the car, and probably more rusty. These old British cars have lots of different metals in them, increasing their tendency to rust. So, get stainless if you can or zinc-coated if you can't. Plain steel will rust again. All of the nuts and bolts fit a 1/2" spanner except the nuts which fit inside those welded-on mount points on the frame and the lower bolt on the bracket. Those are 9/16". To replace the mounts and the brackets, I got 8 1/2" nuts with matching lock washers and 4 bolts, each just 3/4" long. These are all fine thread. I also replaced the bolts on the bottom of the mounting brackets. They need to be 3/4" long. I tried longer bolts but they bottomed out.

Tools

bent bracket on right

Similar to most of the other projects I've done on this car, the tool list grows as fasteners get harder to reach or harder to remove. PB Blaster (or a like product from the WD40 folks) is critical. 1/2", 9/16" sockets and wrench. Spanners in the same size plus a breaker bar. Floor jack and a small piece of wood 2x4. With all that hardware, the single most important tool is your patience. I kept running out and having to go looking for more.

Process Out Prep
I read a bunch of different opinions before I started. While the mounts are usually replaced when the engine comes out, it isn't required. Some have found that removing the steering isn't necessary. Not me. I couldn't have imagined this with the steering still in place. See, the steering column runs straight through the welded on frame mount on the driver side, making it all the more difficult to address the nut contained within. Some folks have taken a cheap spanner and ground it down thinner to fit between the column and the mount. Fortunately, I still had my steering unit out, so this was academic for me. My advice: remove the steering rack. See how in (MGB-steering rack).

On the passenger side, the alternator blocks easy access to the mount. This is very easy to remove, and you already have the right tools: 1/2" socket to loosen the belt and then a couple 1/2" spanners to remove the mounts on the top. Don't forget to unplug the 2 wires on the back. And, just like that the alternator is out and you can easily see the mounts.

Once you have clearance to get at the mounts by removing the steering rack and alternator, you're pretty much ready to go. Jack up the front end and put it on stands so you can easily get after it from above and below. Then, put that block of wood on top of your floor jack and set the jack under the rear edge of your oil pan, where it meets the transmission. This is it's strongest point. Raise the jack until the weight of the engine is mostly removed from the mounts, and is instead on the jack/wood combo.

Process Out
Pick a side. To stretch my patience, I would do a little on one side until I grew frustrated and then moved to the other side. Start with the nuts which hold the rubber mount to the bracket. These are the easiest to get to. The bolt closest to the driver doesn't have a bolt head on it so it could free-spin on you. Yes, that's frustrating, but with some pressure applied with a screwdriver between the free-spinner and the engine block, I was able to get the nut off. Next, get after the nut that is semi-captured within the frame-side mount. A spanner can only move about 1" up/down at a time, and then you need to flip it over or use the box-end to move it another inch. This tests patience. Once the nuts are removed, raise the engine until you are able to free the mount from the bracket and frame mount. I also leveraged my breaker bar as a lever to tilt the engine a little bit so I didn't have to raise it as much.

right (p-side) replaced

With the rubber mounts off, remove the bolts holding the brackets to the front of the engine. Last, remove the bolts on the bottom of the brackets. This last bolt is very hard to get to until after the rubber mounts are gone, and even then it is partially obstructed by the sides of the bracket. Patience. Once the bolt is loose, I was able to spin the bracket off by hand, not bothering with anything other than a socket on the bolthead to keep it moving with the bracket.

Process In
The install is the reverse, but it was advice like that which inspired this blog all those eyars years ago, so I'm going to run through it. Start with the bolts for the bracket. Don't torque it down, just get it threaded on and then shift to the smaller bolts which attach the bracket to the front of the engine. The bolts go in from rear to front. While this may not look as clean, the rubber mount will dig into the end of the bolt sticking rearward if you don't do it that way. Yes, I did this first. Once the bracket is loosely attached, torque down the smaller bolts and then the large one. If you do it in the other order, the bolts in the front part of the bracket can get hung up on a slight misalignment and you'll have to do it over. Yes, I did this too. :)

With the brackets in, re-raise the engine so you can fit a rubber mount in. I did the driver side first, but I don't think it matters. The driver-side bracket has that one weird bolt that doesn't have a head. I found something that would work at the hardware store, but needed to bore out the hole in the bracket to get it to sit deep enough so the bracket would align properly on install. Crazy. Once that is solved, plop the driver-side mount onto that bolt and shift it into position such that the frame-side bolt is in the vertical slot. Short sentence; could be a long effort. I used the breaker bar as a lever to help that last little bit of space to slip the frame-side bolt into the slot. Get the lock washers and nuts onto the bolts. I found gravity to be a terrible partner in this, causing the frame-side nut to fall off the bolt and down into the nowhereland of garage floor multiple times. Patience. Once the nuts are threaded on, tighten as far as you can without tools. Remember how hard it was to get the spanner in that frame mount during removal? Yeah, just as hard on install.

left (d-side) replaced

Once you have the nuts threaded on as far as you can by hand, give them a couple of runs with a spanner and then lower the engine so the jack is no longer holding any weight. I tried to shake the engine a little bit on its way down to make sure it settled, but it didn't seem like the engine moved at all. Just the same, its a good idea. Once all the weight is on the mounts, finish the tightening with a spanner.

Finish up by re-installing the alternator, and the steering rack. Lower the car off the stands, clean your hands and your tools.

This job was a bear, but the engine sits at least an inch higher than it was. Between the bent and cracked bracket and the twisted / flattened mounts, this job was long overdue. While the engine won't run any better, I'd like to believe that any vibrations will be greatly reduced and the drive train is now aligned like it should have been coming out of the factory.

As always, thanks for following along. For my American friends, have a pleasant Memorial Day weekend. I greatly miss the old Hornings Hootenanny which used to fill my Memorial Day and am left unsure what to do with my 3 days this year. Maybe I'll pull out the welder...

A Tale of Two Trips

Since I last posted, Furthur announced they wouldn't tour in 2014.  Within a week of that announcement, VW Brasil announced they would stop production of the VW Kombi (bay-window bus) at the end of 2013.  While seemingly unrelated, for those who drive VW buses around the country to see music, this was quite the double blow.  The day after the VW Brasil announcement, I bought a pair of tickets to see Furthur at Marymoor Park east of Seattle to compliment the pair I already had for the following night in Eugene.  Today's post covers the 3-day adventure.

Getting Out of Dodge

Tuesday is a typical workday for me and the Marymoor venue is 3.5 hours from home with good traffic.  Since the show started at 6,  We had to leave by 2 to have any hope of seeing it start.  I'd written off the lot scene.  Work was, well, work, so I didn't actually get Boo and start driving north until almost 3.  With the compressed timeline, we left the bus at home and took the more consistently reliable Jetta.  As speed limits rose, the rain intensified.  We rolled music off my iToy to keep the mood calm.  Outside Fort Lewis, emergency vehicles were on maneuvers, jamming up traffic in both directions without any actual accident scene.  Lost 20 minutes.  We hit Olympia by 5 and the rush hour traffic that usually arrives with evening.  The Jetta handled well, drove fast, and we found the venue with very little trouble.  We arrived less than 30 minutes late, only missing the first song entirely.  We heard the second while parking and the third while walking to the gate.

Marymoor

Marymoor Map

We met our friend Grateful Ed just inside the gate.  He'd driven up much earlier in the day at a much less frantic pace.  Being a park, he was able to settle before 2, fell into a photo shoot for REI and pre-func'd with some heads from WA.  He'd landed us a spot less than 40 feet from the stage, and led us in to a nice 1/2-Step.  As a location to see music, Marymoor is fantastic.  It is one large flat lawn with a small berm ringing the outer edge.  On the other side of the berm are food carts (though the food options were weird and lines non-moving), beverage gardens (no line) and the restrooms.  Aisles through the lawn are painted: no railings, fences or concrete.  I'll absolutely go back for more shows there.  I just wish they'd have some back-to-back nights and a place to overnight camp nearby (EDIT: found a place: Vasa Park Resort).  The crowd was older and small.  We didn't see any wookies either, so we figured that the folks traveling with the band skipped this show and we'd meet them in Eugene.  The show was good, the second set really good with a foreshadowing "Goin' Down the road Feelin' Bad" encore.

Let the Real Adventure Begin

Since Boo and I hadn't eaten since lunch, and it was almost midnight as we left the lot, we concluded we should grab some eats before heading back to Oregon.  A Denny's stop with Ed later, we're ready to go.  Boo and I had been having some sporadic battery issues with the Jetta around town, with the battery light popping on after starting.  After driving for a bit, the light would go out, so we didn't pay it much heed.  I figured the alternator was failing, and had it tested.  "All good," says the mechanic.  I tossed the car-battery charger into the backseat anyway.  So, as Boo drove us through that construction zone between Seattle and Tacoma, we started to get some weird idiot lights firing.  The battery light was already lit, but the ABS light started to flash and the radio started to cut out.  We turned off the radio, but the ABS light stayed on steady.  The air-bag light then lit up.... then the dashboard lights started to dim... the blinkers stopped working.... the headlights turned off... Within a couple minutes we went from safely following Ed down the I-5 to completely failing electrical system.  We couldn't raise Ed on the phone, so we douche-dived the first exit we came upon: Tillicum, WA, and rolled into the Chevron.  While the engine idled, I spotted an electrical outlet on the side of the building.  We hooked up the battery charger and watch the idiot lights turn off one by one.  Boo asked (and was denied) to use the Chevron bathroom and got us a water.  After 15 minutes of charging (1:50AM), we figured we'd gotten enough juice to get going again, but we had the failures cascade again before we made the freeway on-ramp.  We were lucky enough to get back to the Chevron before the engine died.

Tillicum

from Google maps

Sitting in the middle of the Chevron lot in the wee-hours of the morning was surreal.  An older boy / young man was peddling a bike through the lot and helped us push it into a parking spot.  He then asked for a smoke and rode on.  I called in AAA for a tow home, and learned than my membership got 100 free miles.  The remaining 40 were my problem, but the driver would be there within an hour.  Once we got the immediate problem resolved, Boo and I looked around at where we'd landed.  Sketch.  Very Sketch.  Cyclone fencing, closed businesses and boarded up cheap apartments.  Sweet.  We saw the Taco Bell and McDonald's down the street had their lights on, so we walked down there to sit and wait.  Neither business was open, and we concluded they left the dining room lights on to reduce break-ins.  On the walk and wile waiting in the car, we got a more intense sense of how sketchy the area was.  The young guy on the bike kept re-appearing, clearly following a route from one location to another.  A a light blue cab stopped at the Chevron multiple times (though that could have been innocent enough).  And a young woman all dressed in black appeared multiple times, dashing from one boarded up location to another.

AAA

The flatbed tow truck arrived shortly after 2:30AM, driven by a guy with a long chin-strap beard that ended flat (like ZZ-Top).  He reminded me of a gnome with a plumber's crack.  While hooking up the car, he admitted that he'd worked until midnight, had worked the night before, and had very little sleep.  We climbed into the cab, and Boo told him that we needed first to stop at a restroom.  The driver flipped a U-turn, led her into the Chevron and got the clerks to let her use the restroom.  Apparently, they don't let customers use the restroom because they've been robbed so many times.  Awesome.  With thoughts of "lets get the hell out of here", our gnome wheeled to the freeway and we nosed south.  The truck was bouncy, the bench seat nearly as hard as a bleecher, but fatigue finally caught up to me.  I was awakened by a few big bumps, as was our gnome-driver at least once, motivating Boo to stay awake, chatting him up so he didn't fall asleep.  Her sacrifice meant I could sleep (we thought she'd sleep on the drive to Eugene), and I didn't awaken for good until we were on the Freemont Bridge watching dawn break over downtown Portland.  The Jetta was tucked away on the driveway at 6:AM, and after refusing a cup of coffee, the driver-gnome took my $160 for the 40 miles of towing and headed back to Washington.

Hapy

Boo hadn't slept for more than 15 minutes, and I'd gotten about 2 hours of rough sleep, so we decided to take a nap or a few hours before thinking about Eugene.  At 9, we hosed off, scarfed some instant oatmeal, and started loading the bus.  Since we were going to overnight in Boo's sister's driveway, we didn't need much camping gear, just sleeping bags and food.  We'd agreed to meet at Grateful Ed's at 11:30, and we arrived a few minutes early.  Hapy (the wonderbus) needed to get his gears warmed up, but once we got to operating temperature, he handled great.  I'd driven him to work and back a few times last week to get some confidence up and to confirm that the leak was solved.  Once Mayhem arrived at Grateful Ed's, we started the carabus south, taking turns leading.  Hapy can cruise at 60mph with the RPM's just under 3k.  We discovered that pushing the RPM's above 3k increases the noise significantly, so 60mph became the standard cruising speed.  Because of the late start, we drove straight to the Cuthbert Ampitheater parking lot, agreeing to meet Boo's sister and husband there.  We arrived just after 3, and got a prime parking spot along the main strip (parked with sliders facing each other), but not on Shakedown Street.  We did not see many other old buses, but the few we did see were close by.  Again, we leveraged the removable middle seat as a lot couch, creating seating for all 6 of us easily.  I'm really loving that.  On the whole drive, Hapy's temperature never hit 190*, and stayed at 185* almost the entire time, only climbing above after pulling uphill.  He handled very well, making the drive to Eugene the highlight thus far.

Cuthbert

Furthur farewell

The Cuthbert Ampitheater, unlike the Marymoor, is almost completely pitched ground.  The front now has reserved seats, but the concrete is not flat.  Behind the seats is a narrow non-flat grass area where seats are not allowed, backed by a 18" drop-off down to a cement walkway.  Behind the walkway is the steeper lawn where low beach chairs are allowed.  Simply standing on that grass wears on your muscles like running downhill.  Now, try dancing for 3 hours.  Yeah, that can hurt, but its worth it when the show is smokin'.  They started with a Brother Esau, and kept it funky throughout.  The crowd included many more of the usual road-warriors, supporting our thoughts about them skipping WA.  It also included many of the Oregon old-guard 60's-era hippies.  We sat next to a couple who drove in from the coast, for example, who had been seeing forms of the Dead since the mid-60's.  Ken Babbs was there.  Very cool when you contrast that with the kids dancing on the walkway who were born after Jerry died.  Unlike 2 years ago, the scene in the lot after the show was much more calm.  The staffers weren't trying to cowboy the concert-goers out of the lot 20 minutes after the last note was played.  There were tour-heads swinging beer, T-shirts, posters and coasters.  For the first time since the 90's, I heard a nitro tank filling balloons.  

Homing

Belle heading home

Boo, her sister, Grateful Ed, Mayhem and I skipped the after-party, but Boo's sister's husband went and closed The Cooler.  The band played until almost 2:AM.  If we'd gotten more sleep over the prior couple of days, maybe we would have gone too.  Instead, we tipped a couple beers, played with Boo's sister's dog and visited in the comfort of the old hippie Dr. Seuss house.  We grabbed breakfast at Brail's and headed north.  Hapy again, drove like a dream.  This time, Ed led the carabus (see picture at right), setting a slightly slower pace to help keep his temperatures down.  That also lowered the noise in my bus a little bit, making the drive all the more pleasant.  We got home a little after 2, making the entire Eugene run, including to/from the venue, Boo's sister's house, grocery stops, etc on less than one tank of diesel.  I'll know my actual mileage when I fill again, but I figure I drove 250 miles and I put in just under 10 gallons before leaving home.

As always, thanks for following along.  The long trip with the bus has helped me understand what needs to be looked at next (adjust shifting linkage, headliner, deep-cycle battery charger, tighten steering, better seal for engine hatch, fuel gauge, painting the exterior...).  The journey is the destination.

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

February failure

The winter of 2004 wasn't unusually cold, nor was it particularly snowy. It was, however, my first winter with the bus. I hadn't driven an older (20+ year old) car in a long time, so I'd forgotten that as the weather gets colder, the fragile parts start to fail.

I'd decided to take it a little easier on Hapy and I got a Tri-Met bus pass. I thought it would be a good thing if I only drove the bus as far as the commuter terminal. Since I could feel the wind blowing through the doors and windows when I drove on the Interstate, I had a little personal reason for this too. Well, my first part failure happened in November. I remember hearing a slight "pop" as I turned into the parking lot, and smelling a light scent of electrical smoke, but I didn't think too much of it. I popped the engine hatch and there was nothing interesting going on (read: no fire), so I hopped the bus and presently forgot about it.

After a typical office-workday, I returned home on the Metrobus and started Hapy in the usual way. I noticed that the ALT light stayed on after I got him running and that freaked me a bit. I remembered reading that if the light comes on like that, it could be a really bad thing for your electrical system and you should shutdown immediately. I did, and I went to look through my books. Something was wrong with the electrical system, but if the bus started and ran, I figured it couldn't be that bad. Realizing that I was taking a calculated risk, I started Hapy and drove the 2.5 miles home. Could I have fried my electrical system by doing that? Well, sure, I suppose. In retrospect, "no" because the broken part wouldn't have done that.

I got home after dark, and brought my books (Muir & Bentley) inside. I tested the internet resources for a clear direction for what was wrong, but the answers I got were not consistent. So, I started replacing parts and taking 2 Metrobuses to work - one local and one express - extending my commute by an hour each way.

First I replaced the Voltage Regulator. This is the part that most often fails in situations like this, and if it had been the bad part, my drive home would have caused lots of electrical problems. Now I carry a spare, since the original part was fine.

Next, I replaced the battery and cables. This seemed like an easy thing to try (and it was), but it didn't fix the problem. I did get a nice battery out of the deal, and the old one was probably going anyway. I figured the cold-cranking in the dead of winter would be a little better after this. It was, but Hapy still wouldn't start.

Last, I pulled the alternator to have it tested. This turned out to be the problem. Lots of water had gotten into the engine compartment from the heavy rains, and a puddle of water sloshed into the alternator, frying it. Or, at least, that's what i think happened. Now, if you've never pulled an alternator from a 72-79 VW bus, its not like pulling one from a mid 70's GM or Ford. There is a big gray thing on the back (closest to the rear bumper) of the engine called a fan shroud that holds the alternator and directs the air moved by the engine fan. There is a smaller plate in front of the fan shroud that actually holds the ALT. There is a long bolt in the upper left-hand corner that holds the smaller plate and the ALT in place. I won't go into the removal/replacement details here, but in the dark in the rain and in the street this is not an easy job. I finally pulled the old one out and had it tested at Beaverton Auto Parts. "Dis things dead an' I check'd it twice", he said. "Git you a new un in 'bout a week er so. $125". "#$%^," I said. "I'll get back to ya." BusDepot had one to me in 3 days for closer to $85.

Hapy drove well the rest of the winter very well. I had more adventures before Christmas, but that can wait for another day.