Hapy Electrical Fix and Planning

A few weeks ago, I rotated the headlight switch clockwise and that caused a short that allowed a wire to release it's smoke. Today's post covers that resolution, with some expected twists and closes with a plan to update the fuse box.

Poof

72 bus wiring diagram

First, I accept that what happened was entirely my fault. I turned a push-pull knob, and the housing was loose so I created a short. At first, I thought I had grounded a pin on the back of the switch. Based on the wire which fried, I'm not so sure, but the grey wire fell off of pin 58. That wire fall was what caused the running lights to not function: they tie into fuses 1 and 2 which control them. It wasn't wire 58 which fried.

So, I dug into the interweb. I found another person who had the buzzing noise from their flasher relay and they discovered the root cause was that the dashboard did not have power. Sounds about right, I suppose, so we remove the dash to see. The dash removes with 4 screws. If you are fortunate enough to have the vent and oily-smelling-air controls, you may need to manage them first. I have the older style controls which originally had the little colored spring-loaded clips. Of course, Hapy didn't have the colored clips, and still doesn't. Anyway, remove anything from the vent control levers which impede the dash removal, remove the 4 screws and detach the speedometer cable. Then, the dash lifts straight out (a little diagonal) to the steering wheel. At that point, I rotate it so the face points to the floor. To me, this puts the least pressure on the wires while exposing them for me to see. From here, I could see that the black wire from fuse 12 that delivers 12V to the dash had it's plastic casing melted off. How and why that wire fried rather than popping the fuse, I don't know. The fuse was and is still there, it was relatively new (like, in the last 5 years), the right rating and it was seated properly.

Clumsy

1 fried wire

Knowing which wire needed to be replaced is a great first step. Getting that wire replaced without negatively impacting anything else in the original electrical system, however, is a virtually impossible task. Such was the case this time. First, I pulled the wrong wire out of the fuse box, and as I did, I dislodged a couple of fuses. Then, I got the wire back in and dislodged some other ones. Finally, I found and removed the bad wire from the fuse box, bumping a wire out of the high-beam relay holder as I did. Neat.

I formed a new multi-female-spade-connector wire, using the fried one as a pattern. With a multi-meter, I confirmed the connectivity between all of the end points had 0 resistance and returned to Hapy's driver seat. I plugged the wire into the tabs on the dash, and dangled it behind, finding the tab in the fuse box. Again, I unsettled a few fuses, but once they were in place again, I started testing. First, I confirmed that the running lights and headlights came on. It being daytime, I could tell the lights were on, but not that the headlights were the high-beams. I turned the key to run and the buzzing was gone. The turn signals worked, the hazards worked, and continued to work when I turned off the key. I even test started the engine to prove things were good. What I didn't test: the wipers. It seems that when I was messing around with the fuses, I failed to reseat fuse 11 (which controls the wipers and the rear defogger) after reseating what felt like all of the others -or- another wire fell off. I didn't discover that the wipers didn't work until I tried to take a drive at night in the pouring rain. So much fun. I don't think Hapy likes the winter weather very much; he does seem quite persistent in staying in the driveway.

About Had It

So, after spending so much time diagnosing issues only to discover the issue was the 50+ year-old fuse box or really the style of fuse used in the 50+ year old fuse box, I have decided to look into replacing it. I say that because the wire that fried was on a fuse that didn't blow and the fuses are in the box so loosely now they become disconnected simply by brushing past them. Based on my research, I understand the fuse-box layout / purpose to be this table below. I will replace with a simple 12-slot 12-independent-circuit box that uses spade fuses instead of the old buss style. It will ultimately use the same circuit numbers as before for all of the things I am keeping (never had ambulance fans, nor ignition buzzer, nor interior lights). Plus, it will include things I need, like radiator fans and the fan for the heater.

Fuse #	Original Purpose	Changed Purpose
1a	front running lights, license plate light
2a	rear running lights
3b	passenger low headlight
4b	driver low headlight
5b	passenger high beam
6b	driver high beam
7*	open? looks like it was for ambulance fans	radiator fans
8*	emergency flasher and interior light	emergency flasher only
9*	ignition buzzer, rear interior light	interior heater fan
10#	horn, brake light warning switch/light
11#	windshield wiper, rear defogger	plus the windshield washer pump
12#	dashboard, emergency flasher
	rear backup light

a: supply-side from light switch

b: supply-side from headlight flasher (dimmer relay)

*: always hot

#: switched

&: inline fuse not in fuse box

I will be adding a master circuit-breaker as well back by the starter (where the main 12V source for the fuse box comes from) so there is a safety on the entire #30 circuit that goes to the ignition and the head light switch via the supply-side of the always-hot fuses. I do not know when I will get after this, though. The joy I have had since removing the rat's nest of wires for the engine control has been significant. The wires for the original bus have their problems, and I will be replacing some of the runs (particularly the rear tail lights), but for the most part, they have been up to the task. I just need to find a way to stay somewhat dry and maybe a little not-freezing so I can get after it. Since it is January, I recognize my opportunities for something this big will probably not appear for a while. Still, I can't keep letting smoke out of the wires, and I would very much like to get Hapy out of the driveway for a safe drive-around before spring. For the Pacific NorthWest, that starts with getting the wipers working again and then getting the high-beams turned off.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Luxury Electrical Restored

As I work through the interior of the 1972 bus, I am learning that there are many layers to the electrical re-visit. I posted about the re-wire of the ceiling circuits (see Ceiling Wiring Rough-In). Today, I go over some of the other modifications I have been doing in the electrical space. I had the interior torn apart, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get after things before I put it all back together again. For example, the cushions have been removed from the rock-n-roll bed, and the cabinets have been emptied. 

Changing Tack

I am absolutely feeling time pressure, as the days get longer and camping season looms. So, I am shifting to getting things good 'nuf for Summer. What does that mean? I am setting aside the headliner. I am setting aside the carpet and the door card stuff. Instead, I am going to focus on getting Hapy operational enough for us to enjoy the Summer. The new reduced scope for the Spring includes the finish electrical (this post), completing the sound deadening (slider door and a few little bits here and there) and getting everything else that was pulled apart put back together. If I have any time opportunities pop up, I will do a little thing here or there so long as it doesn't impact our ability to take Hapy out for a spin or a camping trip.

Furnace Control Moved

Afterburner control

Recall the diesel furnace I added a couple years ago. When I did it, I added a custom computer-based thermostat, called Afterburner, hand-built by a guy in Australia. I had mounted the control unit to the side wall about where the 1979 Westfalia control panel traditionally sat. I decided that I did not need to see the thermostat all the time, and would prefer the less-cluttered look. Also, the LED panel glows whenever there is power (it doesn't have a sleep concept), so at night, it acts like a potentially unwelcome nightlight. I moved that control panel right next to that 1979 control panel: inside the rear cabinet. The wiring was readily available, and simply required another hole to be bored in the wood panel. The temperature probe, of course, needs to be in open space. I had previously routed it up along the C-pillar (between the mid-window and the rear window) and set it sort of hanging on the window frame. Obviously, that was temporary. I am not sure where I will put it now, but according to Ray, Mr. Afterburner, the sensor wire can be extended with CAT5 cable. The extension should work, but if I can avoid adding another variable, I will. Ultimately, I will solve this later. I did, however, run a CAT5 cable from the bottom of the B-pillar back to the furnace control so I could make the modification later, if I so choose.

I discovered during testing, however, that a couple of things are not working properly with the furnace. First, it test-fired okay, and it really pulled the voltage down on the luxury battery. I had forgotten about that, and the fact that I cut off the furnace wire back to the drive battery during the interior tear-out. I will need to upgrade the wiring to thicker gauge to see if that stops the heavy voltage drop, and then maybe re-plumb the wiring to the drive battery. Second, during the test run, it became obvious that the exhaust had become disconnected as exhaust started to appear inside the bus. That's bad. I will need to completely exhume the furnace and re-do the install to make sure there are no leaks. Last, there is something not right with the Afterburner controller. It no longer supports a web access point. So, it has all the other great stuff, but I can't start it remotely. In the end, the furnace will sit unused until I fix the exhaust... and the voltage drop. Maybe I'll figure out what's up with the Afterburner access point after that. Of course, it may be next spring by then.

New Fuse Box

new fuse box

I had been wrestling with a decision about the luxury fuse box for a while. I had been using a spare bay window bus fuse box. It worked well enough, but it was not perfect. It lacked a common positive post, some of the fuses had a common supply side and others did not, and there was a whole relay section that I didn't use. The fuses were the old-style fuses, not the newer bladed ones, and those old-style ones are becoming harder to source, and more expensive. Last, it is kind of big, almost 50 years old and the way I was using it was a hack that would fail. So, I bought a smaller 12-slot fuse box and a master circuit breaker / switch to put between the battery and the fuse box. Since many of the wires were being replaced, and the remaining were going to get at least touched as part of the routing, changing the fuse box was a small incremental increase in scope. I needed to remove the prior box for the noise contain efforts anyway, so I was halfway there already.

Doing the Doing

wire up in process

In the Ceiling Wiring Rough-In post, I described what color wire was going to be used for what. I ran or strung the wires to their destinations, and routed the other end down the driver-side (left) B-pillar, along the front edge of the middle window, under that window around the fridge-cabinet and left things pretty much in a heap right there. I started by completing the routing of the wires along the route that the solar collector wiring ran (See Hapy Gets Solar). I zip-tied the wires together and against the side of the bus and then solar wiring inside the fridge cabinet to hold them secure. Once I determined which fuse spots were to be used for which wire (see below), I mounted the new fuse-box onto the top of the wood box under the rock-n-roll bed which covers the old Westy rectifier.... basically in the same spot as the old one was before.

With the fuse-box in a fixed location, I could determine wire lengths and mount them up. In an ideal world, I would have used ring terminal wire-connectors on the wires. I could not find enough of them on hand, so I just used the bare wires. In classic Paulie Axiom form (See Light a Cigarette, Attract a Bus), I found them after I did this work so I will be slowly retrofitting them onto the wires. Anyway, once the wires were routed, trimmed and connected, I wrapped the bundle in one of those plastic wire tube things.

Fuse Layout

fuse	wire color	purpose
1	Grey	Cab 12V Accessory Plug
2	Purple	Cab Dome Light
3	Yellow	Stereo
4	White	3-switch Dome Light
5	Pink	PopTop Light / 1-switch Dome Light
6	Blue	3-position Westy Light
7	Yellow	Furnace
8	Green	Rock-n-Roll 12V Accessory Plug
9	Green	Sleeping Area Dome Light
10	Orange	Sleeping Area USB Chargers
11	OPEN	OPEN
12	OPEN	OPEN

 

Wait a Second...

wired up

The keen eye will notice that circuit #3 is wired up in the picture on the right, but isn't in the picture above it. Fuse #3 is the stereo. This is interesting only because of the gymnastics I executed to get it there. Before I started the noise project, the power lead for the stereo ran on the floor under the carpet. Yeah, that was not ideal, but it worked short-term. I ran a new power lead behind the dash and through the original wiring harness pass-thru hole in front of the accelerator pedal. From there, it runs along the inner edge of the passenger side frame rail and passes up under the rock-n-roll bed through what looks like a factory drain hole. A closer look at the rear edge of the wood floor will show the yellow wire running along behind / underneath. I didn't stop there, but that's another post I'll write up and post later.

Battery and Ground

Finishing up the circuit, I first confirmed that none of the wires I just hooked up to the fuse-box effectively ran to ground with the multi-meter. I returned the luxury battery to it's old location, and hooked up the ground cable to the same grounding bolt near the fridge cabinet under the seat. With the sound killer installed, it was a little harder to find.

ugly (for now) but functional

My last step was connecting the B+ or positive side. My old set up had many smaller gauge wires all wound together at the battery post. I used a very short stretch of 8 or 10ga wire to bridge from the positive post to a master switch, and then some more of it to bridge from the switch to the fuse-box. The wire was the thickest I had around. I will mind the overall amp usage, but this should not be an issue except for when the furnace first starts up. Even then, I do not expect much system stress. The master switch is a battery/fire-saver, basically, that will prevent more than 100A draw. I don't see this switch ever popping, but it is better to be safe than on fire. Based on the length of the wire, and my uncertainty about it's thickness, it is very possible that the wire will fail before the switch pops. Ultimately, I would need to have every circuit in use and have the furnace kick on to get close to even 50A. So, the switch becomes little more than a means to turn the whole system off.

Completing the Circuits

I had very little in terms of electricity consumers actually connected at this point. So, my ability to test was fairly limited and I only put fuses in the circuits as they were completed. Still, I was able to turn on the light by the front seats, and test the accessory plugs up front and by the rock-n-roll bed. All good. I checked continuity on the circuits which did not yet have a consumer, but I did not really expect any negative findings, and didn't have any. So, I started down the path of hooking up lights.

not as ugly. functional

I started with the light fixture over the sleeping area (pictured above). I used the mounting bolt for my ground, attaching a ring connector to the white wire, and leaving it inside the fixture. To the black and red wires, I connected female wire connectors. My method has been that the power-supply side wire would get a male connector, and continued that throughout. To the green (to fuse 8) and white (to the switch over the slider) supply-side wires I attached male wire connectors. I discovered, as I attempted to install the light fixture, that that 1/2" thick Mega Zorbe sound absorber was too thick for my bolts to reach the riv-nuts. I considered finding longer bolts, but concluded that the heat produced by the light fixture could have a negative impact on the foam, and chose instead to remove the foam where the fixture went. The fixture effectively recessed into the foam, which, I think will actually look better once the headliner goes in. It admittedly looks pretty trash right now. Once the fixture was mounted, I plugged in the wires, and Immediately, the red LED on the fuse-box next to fuse holder 8 lit. This told me that the circuit was good, and just needed a fuse. I popped in the fuse, and the light came on. Sweetness.

so many lighting choices

I followed this same path for the 3-position light over the window behind the driver seat (pictured above)... mounting bolt for ground, male female orientation, even plugging it all in to see the red LED. I needed to add a mounting plate behind the Mega Zorbe, but that was barely post-worthy. I cut out a small section, cut a rectangle of HVAC and screwed it to the bus. I set the fixture where I wanted it, marked and bored the holes. Easy-peasy.

I verified the pop top light at this point, and then shifted to the modified dome light (See Dome Light Mod to Trigger Other Lights). I had tried to mount this light earlier, and the mod wire broke off. I mentioned that in a comment on that original post, but I simply duplicated the effort with a thinner multi-stranded wire. On my repair version, I super glued the wire end down like before, but also added a 1-inch long stretch of superglue to adhere the insulation to the light housing. That bugger was not moving. I wrapped every bit of exposed metal (chair adapters, bits of relay, etc) with electrical tape so nothing would short out after I popped a couple of fuses. Once they were wrapped, and I could get the relay tucked in deep enough, I was able to settle the light fixture into place.

Testing the Lights

Once all of these circuits were completed, I cleaned up Hapy's interior and then hit it with the shop vac. Clean, and de-cluttered, Boo and I tested / played with the lights. The lights up front will work for checking a map or even reading a book. The original dome light, when turned on as a single creates plenty of light in the main cabin to see things on the floor, and even on top of the fridge cabinet. When the modified light circuit is turned on, the entire bus is well lit, from dash to tail gate. Since the rock-n-roll bed is not together, we could not test the reading lights for reading, but that test/play will be very soon.

With the new plan of just getting Hapy ready for the road, I do not feel the same pressure I did before. The lighting is functional, and I learned along the way that I needed to make modifications which would have been unpleasant after the headliner went in. Removing these fixtures for the headliner install will not be difficult either.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins (final)

Well, it may have taken a while, but with today's post, we are done with the re-wire of the "fuse box harness". I did not mean for this to become such a large endeavor, but that's what happens when you lose focus for a few minutes and cut some wires too close to the fuse-box for you to re-integrate them. I was asleep at the switch and missed my usual release time, so it's a few hours later than usual this week. Hapy last day of the worst US presidency in modern history; may the transition to the new guy be a smooth reflection of 200+ years of our democracy in action.

I realize that for many readers, this series has not been terribly interesting. I get that. Electrical sucks. However, if you were thinking about doing a swap, I think this series helps demonstrate how much of the swap work is done with a multi-meter, and how little is done with a shop-crane / engine hoist (or a floor jack).

Today, I will go over my steps to determine what went wrong in my system test in part 5. Apologies for no pictures of my testing. I'm not sure what would have been picture-worthy, except, maybe, my "fused wire", but that's not terribly interesting, I don't think. I mean, it's just 2 wires, each with a male wire connector on one end (to plug into relay sockets) and a female connector on the other. The two wires are then joined with a bladed fuse plugged into the female connectors on the 2 wires. So: male connector - wire - female connector - bladed fuse - female connector - wire - male connector. Easy peasy.

The T-12

Before I get into it, I realized after posting part 6 that I put a picture from when I was integrating the T12 wires into the front-to-back cable, but I didn't give any context nor explanation. That picture was illustrating that once I cut the cable, it wanted to spring back through the engine compartment and over the driver-side axle. Resisting that spring-effect does not help one make solid wire connections. So, I held the cable in-place with a vice-grip. Some of the ShadeTree solutions are just funny enough to be photographed.

Isolate

I mentioned in part 6 that I removed the diode between the RUN and START relays. This isolated those 2 circuits. I continued down this path by pulling all of the relays and fuses from the new fuse box, disconnecting the two always hot (30) circuits from the battery-top fuse box, unplugging the "D plug" from the alternator and removing the connection to the reverse switch. So, now, the engine and new fuse box are completely isolated. My plan to find the issue is from here, we slowly add things back in, testing each planned connection first.

Original Bus Loom

I started with the main bus. This wasn't touched, but still, if we can eliminate that huge variable, so much the better. So, I turned the key to run, flipped on the running lights and then the headlights. I even flashed the high-beams. Everything was working great at this point, but nothing in the old loom was changed. I did discover that one of the grounds on the front (front-is-front) of the dash was falling off, so I tightened the connector with some needle-nose pliers and kept moving. I felt confident that the test I had just done was not going to trigger a battery discharge. I did not have that feeling for anything I spent weeks modifying, so the rest of the tests below were much more careful. The next step is re-integrating the donor stuff.

New Fuse / Relay Box

My process was pretty much the same for evaluating and connecting the donor stuff and new fuse box: Identify the circuit, and before you connect it, check the amp draw. Pretty much, regardless of the reading, I then tested the connection by bridging the gap with a fused wire. I would select a fuse that was appropriate for the circuit being tested. In the case of the red always-hot wire going to the new fuse box (relays 109, RUN and START), I used a 20A fuse, and it didn't pop. To be fair, this test really only proved that this red wire was not itself going to ground independently of the key going to "run"... which wasn't happening. And, the relays were all pulled when I did this. So, this test was not as meaningful as I thought it was when I did it. I connected the circuit and verified voltage at the relay 109 socket 30,  before moving on.

Once I had the main power to the 109 relay, I popped it in place and the tested the RUN relay socket. Similar to the process I described above, I checked the amp draw between pin sockets 30 and 87. Then, I made the connection between them with a (20A) fused wire. Once validated, I only put the relay in once to confirm that turning the ignition key caused the same behavior. It did. After that, I did not plug in the relay simply because the ignition key is 15 feet away from this fuse box, and I just did not want to have to keep going out from under the carport into the pouring rain. Besides, this kept the testing isolated, as I continued to trigger RUN tests with a fused wire jumping from 30 to 87 in the RUN socket for the rest of the fuse box tests. I validated that socket 30 of the START relay socket was present. Yep yep.

I repeated this testing process with each of fuses 1-3 (11/15, 12 and 29 respectively) in the new fuse box, and then the connection with relay 109 before inserting relay 109. In each case, the steps were to check the amp draw first, then insert the fuse. Next, I repeated that process with fuses 4-6 (32, 34 and 43 respectively). I had a moment where my relay 109 was humming during the investigation of fuses 4 or 6 (34 / 43) which I tracked down to my not having had two grounds (one for the ECU and one for the main harness) re-attached during testing. Now, after the fact, I think this could have been a big deal, but as I worked through these steps, it was not apparent.

At this point, I had all 6 of the fuses installed and the 109 relay. When I bridged across pin sockets 30 and 87 of the RUN relay, the dash-pod would illuminate, the odometer displayed and idiot lights would come on. After a few seconds, most of the idiot lights turned off. The glow-plug light flashed though, and I realized that I had not yet tested the glow plug relay. I repeated the process for the glow-plug relay (180) and last, plugged the relay in. Once power was applied via the RUN socket, everything was the same except the glow-plug light winked out with the others. I had not yet wired in the always-hot (30) for the glow plug, though, so that was next. Same amp draw and voltage check process, same result.

Front-to-Back Run Relay

I figured testing the RUN and START relays was next. First, I plugged in the alternator "D" plug and tested everything again. As before, everything was as it should be. As I worked through this stuff, I suspected it was one of 2 things: either it was related to the "other 2 relays" I haven't really documented -or- it was because of this plug, since I split this signal to the front of the bus. So, my next test (of the RUN) relay from the ignition switch would be done first without the "D plug" clicked in.

 

This test was rather simple: stuff a standard Bosch-style relay ( I re-used one of the "53's" from the donor) and turn the key to run up front. I had already done this once before so this should not have been dramatic, and it wasn't. The donor electronics did the same thing as before. Feeling confident, I figured that the starter circuit would be just as seamless. That was not the case, and it was here that we found our cause.

On a side note, the relays with a "53" stamped on them appear in a few places in the TDI relay panel, but they also appear in the little relay box for triggering the coolant glow plugs. So, I figure these should be up to the task of carrying some decent current. Not that either of these do that, but the RUN relay needs to be on so long as the key is on, so I would think that takes some stamina. Oddly, in the 10 years since I first did this, the old Radio Shack basic 12V automotive relay never failed me.

Starter Relay and Starter

I started this test like the others: test amp draw, bridge the 30 and 87 relay sockets with a fused wire and see what happens. The starter grunted like it was gonna try to start the engine, so I quickly pulled the wire and figured things were fine. I put another spare donor "53" relay in the socket and turned the key to RUN and then to START. This time, what happened was what happened during my full system test: a pop followed by everything going dark. Concerned that the starter was blown, and that was causing the problem, I pulled and tested the starter.

I have an old battery sitting on my garage floor for things like this. I ran a set of jumper cables from the battery (negative to starter mount tab, positive to positive post on the solenoid. Then, with my fused wire, I jumped from that positive post to the start trigger and the start fired right up. 

Since the starter tested fine, I slapped it back in. While I was on my back working the long mounting bolts back in, I remembered that I had split the START signal at the ignition just like I had split the RUN signal. At the time, I had not yet hosed the wiring in the donor fuse-box with my aggressive wire-cutting, so I was intending to keep the original starter trigger from the ignition, but to also send a start signal to the donor ignition switch wiring so the ECU knew when a start was being attempted. This all made sense at the time, though now in retrospect I realize that the ECU doesn't need to know you're starting. Later, after this effort mushroomed, I connected the starter signal to the T6 like the donor engine was triggered, and forgot about the old start signal wire. So, now that none of that old stuff is being retained, that old start signal was going somewhere... and possibly shorting us out. 

Start Trigger

I very much wanted to test this theory. First, I confirmed that I had not screwed up anything new: get the battery hooked back up, verify it's at 12V or higher and reset for the prior test with the RUN relay, etc. Turned the key, and we're looking at a code-free dash-pod again. Nice. I turned off the key, and cut the wire from the start side of the ignition key to the original bus starter wire, and reset the key to RUN. Back at the fuse-box, I tested the START relay and the engine tried to start. Hoping that we may have found our root cause, I went back up front and turned off the key.

Remember how I removed that diode between the RUN and START signals? I confirmed that the RUN side of the ignition switch continues to deliver 12V when the key moves to START at this point. I simply measured the voltage at RUN when I turned the key to START. Since the START position was now only sending 12V down to the relay socket, nothing happened. We did still have 12V at RUN, so the diode is not part of the new wiring.

Back at the bus rear, I replaced the donor "53" relay into the START relay slot, plugged the alternator "D" back in and returned to the front of the bus. I turned the key to RUN... all the usual lights lit up. I turned the key to START... and Hapy started. He sat idling while I danced around a little bit. I did notice, however, that the battery light on the donor dash-pod was still on. So was the light on the bus dash. So, while Hapy starts and idles, some issues remain. Okay, we'll figure that out... Also, after a few minutes, Hapy's idle increased from bouncing around 900 to... 1200 rpm firm.

Next!

Ugh, the dreaded 1200 limp mode is still around. I'll be working on that next, as well as hooking up the reverse lights, and looking into those other 2 accessory relays that apparently were not part of the problem. I have some documentation to mop up with regards to the diagram, so I'll be spending a few evenings getting that done too.

I will have different blog posts and titles for all of that stuff (may not post on the diagramming), since this was really about simplifying the wiring. You could argue that this "Electrical Gremlins" series started because I couldn't get Hapy to start with any consistency, and now I can. So, that's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins (part 6)

Continuing the saga of fixing the front-to-back (or original bus to donor engine) wiring, today I will cover some of the bus install joy. Consider that the positive battery cable has been disconnected this whole time, and the battery has been on a float-charger. I strongly suggest that you do the same any time you are playing with your electrical system.

Make It Fit

how it looked before

When I left off last time, I had accidentally cut wires from the donor fusebox that I ideally would not have. This led to a complete re-do of the fuse-box wiring harness. After spending my holiday break addressing that harness, and test fitting, I was about ready to start installing it. I plastic-wrapped the clumps of wires, and took the whole thing out to Hapy. I spent a few minutes looking at how things would fit and it quickly became apparent that I could have shortened the wire-clump going to the oval T10 by a couple of feet. Oh well. I stuffed the T10's, the custom T12 and the collection of leftover wires down through the hole in the bottom of my spare tire well. I should probably point out that when I first did this conversion 10 years ago, I cut a larger hole down there, approximately 1 inch across by 2 inches front-to-back.

With the harness pretty much where it needed to be, I removed the dash pod from it's mount and plugged in the blue and green connectors. The dashpod set back into place, and was bolted back in quickly, like end-to-end in 15 minutes. Next, I plugged in the computer and pressed it into place on the plastic holder/stand. The ECU really didn't move much once I had it set in, which, when we consider the thickness of the cables heading into it, really doesn't surprise. I will be applying bungy-ties eventually to hold it in place. This left the fusebox. I test fit it to make sure the wiring lengths were good and then let it sit so I could finish the wiring of the glow-plug relay.

Last Few Wires

how it looks now

During the harness rewire work, I left the glow-plug relay and related heavy wiring in the bus. I had cut the trigger wires (label-label-cut), but the hotwire supply and to-the-glow-plug wires were left alone believing that splicing wires that thick should be minimized. So, I had to re-integrate that circuit. The wires were clearly labeled, and long enough so the splicing was easy, and the relay holder clicked right into it's designated slot. All that remained above deck was tying down the ground ring terminal from the larger ECU plug; I leveraged the fusebox mounting screw after confirming it was a solid ground. The final result is pictured on the right here. Considering what it used to look like (top picture), it is hard to imagine these are actual before-after pictures.

Next, I moved down into the engine compartment. It was an unruly mess (see bottom picture). I had shoved the harness through the hole, and left everything else as it was. My first steps were to plot out where the various wires would go, and that started with the always-hot lines for the 2 donor relays (109, 180). The 180 supply line was a hideous hack I did when I had no money, but it worked. I have more resources now, but more importantly, I have a long enough wire of the right size. Once I determined how long a run I needed so the wires could run along the top of the engine compartment straight back from the spare tire well, turn 90* over the top of the engine hatch to the battery with some flex in the wires, I spliced in wires with ring terminals for the battery-top fuse box. Next, I moved to the remaining little wires for things like the alternator "D" signal and the coolant level.

wiring T12 to cable

A few of these little wires needed to be extended. I re-routed the coolant level 2-wire cable. It had previously run along the front of the engine. Now, it runs along the top of the engine compartment hatch like the rest of the signal wires from the engine. I wrapped the little wires into another plastic wrap, and tucked the cable into the wire loom holder along the top of the engine compartment over the hatch. I followed that with the power supply wires. Finally, I plugged in all of the T10's, the T12 and the 2-wire glow-plug harness. Believing everything was set, I removed the float charger, and started testing amp draws from the battery post to the battery connector. The draw could be measured in milli-amps, so I figured it was safe to put the battery cable on the battery and see where smoke came out. I'm kidding; with the care I took for the wiring, and the fact that 95% of the changes I made were on that one harness, everything should be fine. The only changes I made that were not on that harness were the always-hot supply lines and tying signals from the rear to the front for things like a low coolant light.

Of Course It Didn't Work

below deck unruly mess

Feeling relatively confident, I put the battery cable on the post. No clicking, no other noise. So far so good. Interesting... the dash-pod was not showing the odometer like it used to. Slightly puzzled, I went to turn the key to run. The starter tried to spin, so I knew I had something wrong. I pulled the starter relay, and tried again. This time, I heard a slight pop noise, and the battery discharged. Clearly something, or many somethings, are wrong. Neat.

Well, that's it for today. I am sure I will figure out what I did wrong, and I hope it will be a minor, simple thing. The wiring was well labelled, and the other modifications I made were small. I can tell you that I pulled the diode between the start signal and the run signal. I've decided that if I need to keep that, I will move it to the ignition switch and out of the fuse box. I will keep posting on my progress until I figure out what's wrong. I don't think it will take many hours of labor, but finding the time for those hours is the challenge. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins (part 5)

Continuing the saga of re-doing the TDI-related wiring in the bus. Recall, this all started because I was not getting consistent signals at the computer from the accelerator pedal, 20 feet (7m) away. I got carried away with some wire cutting and suddenly, rather than just replacing the front-to-back wiring, I was replacing the fuse box. Today's post is about the wiring surgery.

Expose the Harness

I started simply: set the main harness on the kitchen table and then spend hours trying to figure it out. Many of the wires were still hidden within stretches of cloth tape, so that was the first task: cut that tape off. This is simple, but messy because that tape remains tacky. This black tacky ick gets all over your fingers, and sticks to things, like your kitchen table. My wife loves me. I found that Goof Off was very helpful getting the sticky off of the wires (and the kitchen table). Once all of the wiring is separated from the wraps, and wiped down, we can start thinking through the various wires.

Wiring

My first order was to consider how much length I needed between the different pieces. For example, the distance from the bottom of the fuse box to the dashpod is less than a foot. In between them, I have the pass-thru hole below deck. I figured that the cleanest look from up-top would be for only the connectors to be above. So, that moved the T10 connections below, but I wanted them close. So, I shortened the wires from the main harness to the T10 connectors so they were all close together. Into this mix, I
added what I labeled a "T12". I purchased a 12-pin male and female connector to go between the front-to-back cable and the main harness. This is so that I can disconnect it like the T10's. Once the T10's were at length, I started integrating the T12. Not all of these connections go directly into the main harness though. Reference the post listing the T12 here. Circuits 1-6, 8, 9 and 11 tie into the main harness. That left 7 and 10 for the next step: the fuse box.

With the final extra wiring removed, the T10's arranged and most of the T12 integrated, it was time to consider the fuse box. I had already defined where in the bus it would be, but it also needed to be located in the right place within the harness, so the wires were not stressed, nor flopping all around. I used the dash pod plugs as a reference point, and considered the plan above as I decided. Since the middle of the harness will be below-deck, it was okay for the wires to be a little long. Once the location was determined, I started thinking about the relays. The relay box has 6 relay slots, but 5 are designed for standard Bosch relays (30-85-86-87 pins, with a middle pin for 87a). That's great for my start and run relays, but not so great for the glow plug (180) or main power (109) relays. Those have particular pin patterns. So, getting them to integrate with the pre-formed relay slots would take some customization.

 

Integrating the Donor Relays

I had designated on my wiring diagram that relay slots 1 and 2 would be the glow plug and power relays respectively. In the original relay plastic, they used to slot into #10 and #12 respectively. Each of these original plastic retainers have a little cut out to allow the fit of a specific relay holder. Fortunately, #11 is exactly like #10 (while #12 is different). I realized I could cut #11 and #12 out of the original retainer, clean them up and super-glue those retainer into slots 1 and 2. With some careful cutting with a hacksaw, I removed the 2 holders, and managed to fit them into the fuse / relay box. In order to interact with the wiring for the fuses, I needed to clearance the top, front edge. Also, because of the super-large size of the 180 and 109 relays, as well as the size of the relay retainers, they are super-glued in along the bottom edge, leaving about 1/4" of overlap for the super-glue to hold. Still, super-glue is amazing stuff, and with just that little edge, these original retainers are absolutely held fast, even when I put a little wiggle-pressure on the wires.

Fuse by Fuse

With the original relay retainers in place for the 2 big relays, I was ready to get after the fuses. Now, recall that I had this bus running with about 7 of the original fuses still plugged in. I discovered, however, that I really only need 4 of them: 29, 32, 34 and 43. I still had fuses 11, 12 and 15 plugged in and wired up, though. I have ported all of them over. Former fuses 11 and 15 share a fuse in the new box (fuse #1) because they appear to not really be necessary, but the wiring was there, so they are wired up now. Fuse 12 (now fuse 2) is to supply power to the OBD-II port in the wiring compartment. I expect this to be consumed almost never.

 

The other 4 had been clearly marked during my label-label-cut process. I had left myself plenty of wire so I did not have to extend any of them, which was very fortunate. For all of the fuses, the "consume" side is the front or furthest-from-the-relay side. As I wired in, I set the wires down so they would exit the fuse / relay box towards the front. Next, I did the supply side of the fuses, wiring fuses 1-3 together and then over towards the "RUN" relay and fuses 4-6 together and then towards relay 109. In the wiring diagram, fuse 29 gets it's switched power from the ignition, not through relay 109 so this is a correct reflection, though a little weird. I think it is through this circuit that the ECU is notified that the key is in "RUN" so it should trigger relay 109.

Relays

So, the fuses are done, the relay retainers for 109 and 180 are super-glued in. Next, we get the other relays wired in. I actually did 4, but I am only going to write about the "RUN" and the "START" relays. The other 2 I'll get to later. RUN and START are basic Bosch-style relays. A signal arrives from the ignition switch into pin 85 or 86, that signal difference is compared against a ground at the other 85 or 86 pin. Once triggered, pin 30 is connected to pin 87. So, for our purpose, the pin 30 for both of these is connected to always-hot, the 86 pin is grounded, the 85 pin wires into the T12 (7 for start, 10 for run). Pin 87 is where things get interesting. Pin 87 from the START relay connects to T6 to send a start signal to the starter. Pin 87 from the RUN relay connects to fuses 1-3.

 

Similar to the relay set up I had before, I wired in a one-way diode between the START trigger and the RUN trigger. Recall, this is because some ignition switches will not send a 12V signal down the RUN circuit while sending one down the START. When this happens without that diode, the second you try to start the engine, the computer thinks you turned the key to off, so it won't start. This diode allows 12V across from the START side to the RUN side, but not the other way. With a multi-meter, you can check this: negative on one and then the other, you can read connectivity, but only one way. Very cool. Last, the reverse light signal will be integrated into the switched circuit, but that is the only bus-related cross-wire (with an integrated fuse. of course). I did that because switched power was needed, and the consuming wire for it going to the switch on the transaxle was less than a meter away.

 

Last, I did the wiring related to relay 109, leaving the always hot circuit 30 to be determined once I got back out to the bus. Without that all the extra relay stuff, the hot wire had been cut out. I can now see that the actual demand on the 109 will be minimal (like 30A) in my implementation, so I will be replacing the old 2ga supply wire with a smaller one.

 

Once I was satisfied with the kitchen table wiring job, I took the whole contraption out to the bus for a test fit. Everything looked workable, so I brought it all back inside to wire-wrap. I used that plastic tube style available at Harbor Freight for all of the wiring clumps that run from a plug to the main harness, and from the fuse / relay box to the main. This left a few wires that still have label tags on them for things like the alternator signal and the coolant level. Both of those (alt and coolant level) are related to idiot lights I wired into the 6-wire cable when I did the oil pressure stuff (see Oil Pressure and Temperature - Part 4) so I will deal with those once I get out to the bus. All of these little wires have a partner in the engine compartment, so I will solve for them as part of the next phase: install.

That's all for today. This literally took me days. After many years of working at a place that shut down between Christmas and NewYears, I have grown very accustomed to having that week. In past years I have redone the seats in the MG or rebuilt a front end. This year, I spent most of that week doing the wiring, fuse / relay box stuff I just described. Yeah, this is a serious time killer. But, if Hapy starts on the first try, doesn't drop into that 1200RPM mode ever again and the wiring is no longer an eyesore, then it was all worth it. Thanks, as always, for following along. Please keep wearing your mask. These CoViD numbers are still very scary--

Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins (part 4)

Before I begin, I hope we all have a 2021 that allows us to all forget just how bad 2020 was. That really capped off quite a decade. Anyway, with the new decade now in front of us, let's all work together on making our little worlds more friendly, livable and Hapy. On that, I spent way more hours than I could count over the last few weeks clowning on this wiring. I work slowly, so even when I have a huge block of time, meticulous work takes nearly forever. I got so carried away in fact, I missed my usual posting day this week, so this one is a little late. HNY!

 

Wiring Diagram

I have completed the wiring diagram. I mentioned in a comment on that last post that I had to start over because of differences between the Jetta and New Beetle of the same year. So goes. I now have a 12-page custom wiring diagram for this build. It includes things that I have not yet completed nor posted about (like a glow-plug light), but it does NOT include anything about the original bus. So, when working on something related to the TDI, we use this new one. When addressing something in the 50-year old transporter, we reference the Bentley. I expect that I will be making small modifications to the diagram based on what happens during the harness surgery. I figure that if the diagram isn't accurate, it really isn't very valuable.

 

Complete the Cut-Apart
When I last posted, I was in the process of cutting down the part of the wiring harness that ties into the fuse box and relays. I have worked on this area before. In retrospect, I maintain that leaving the engine harnesses that go to the ECU untouched is the right answer. I had looked at cutting them down too, and concluded that is playing with fire. Besides, just this one harness was quite a time consumer. This harness has the T10 plugs (white, black, orange, blue) and a T6 that in the NewBeetle's case is red, but on other cars it is brown. As I mentioned, this also has the fuse box, and relays. It also includes the dashpod, an OBD-II plug, an oval "T10" that is also black that lives in the engine compartment and there are a handful of little 2 or 3 pin plugs for the alternator, air conditioning and coolant level. It's really a random collection of things; making a decent custom harness from it is not all that easy. Anyway, my goal was to label-label-cut enough so I could remove the harness and thin it out. After the over-zealous cutting I mentioned in my last post, this was going to get much bigger. I got the last few of that "handful of little things" label-label-cut so I could bring the whole thing onto my kitchen table. I will get into the thinning in a future post (probably my next one).

Install Plan

Few things that go well happen purely accidentally. You have to make a plan. With the fuse box, relays and dashpod out of the way, I could re-assess the spare tire well which I'm now calling the "wiring compartment". I need to keep the dashpod wired-in for the engine to run correctly. Since it is rather small, I planned for it to go into the far end of the compartment, with the rounded top slightly pitched so I can see it when I'm tinkering with the compartment exposed. On the other end, nearest the rear hatch, I planned to put the ECU, with the new fuse/relay box in between. For this to work, I'll need to shorten many wires in the harness I just removed, but the result will be a wiring compartment with a few cables, but no spaghetti. The T10's will plug into the thicker ECU harness below deck, so there will be some cleaning, arranging or obfuscating I'll need to do there.

Dashpod Mount

The donor pieces I received included the plastic surround for the New Beetle dash. The front/top cover snaps in place, hiding the screws that hold the dashpod to the plastic mount. This cover, however, makes the dashpod too wide to fit in the spare tire well, so I tossed it. I also had to cut down the plastic mount so it would fit, leaving the front-most flat section and the lower plastic bits that support the screw-holes for the dashpod. The second picture from the top shows the dashpod in 2 pieces. The upper 2 pieces were cut apart. I set and reset, fiddled with and eventually arrived at a spot for the dashpod. I marked holes, drilled them out and sent long screws thru the dashpod mount into the front curved side of the tire well. The dash pod clicked into place, and was quickly screwed into place. I checked clearance for the 2 cables that click into the dash pod, and there were no issues.

ECU (computer) Mount

Mounting the computer was not as simple. I received what looked like the plastic ECU holder back when I first got the New Beetle TDI, but I could not figure out how to orient the ECU so it would fit between the base and the protective flap door thing. So, I tossed the base, and screwed the flap door into the spare tire well instead. The ECU sits quite nicely on there and the cables are unimpeded. I will need to either Velcro the ECU to the mount or use something else. I will use short hook-end straps (like these) for now, since I have a few of them, so they are free. I intend to treat myself (and Hapy) to a Malone tune, eventually. I'll go Velcro after that, since I don't know how the Malone tune thing works with sending a computer in or if you get a flash download or what. Something to learn, and post about later, I guess.

Fuse / Relay Box Mount

final-ish look

With the ECU and dashpod located, there was really only just enough room for that fuse/relay box to fit between them as you can see from the picture on the side here. I chose to locate it on the inside of the wheel well, but it could just as easily gone on the other side. This way, the fuses are furthest from the rear hatch, but the orientation is consistent with my drawings (where I have the fuses at the top). This was a relatively simple matter of aligning the top of the closed fuse box with the top of the rear deck, marking the spots and boring them out. A standard hand drill doesn't fit there, so I put the drill bit in my Dremel. That is probably not the best solution, so I don't recommend it, but without one of those fancy 90* air-powered drill things, we make do with what we have.

 

That's it for today. Next time, I intend to get into the harness surgery. Thanks for following along and Hapy New Year-

Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins (part 3)

Continuing on our journey through the darkness of the wiring rat's nest.

 

Shouldn't Have Cut That

not quite "before",
dashpod already pulled

I'll just jump right into the interesting part. Well, mostly. I started in the engine compartment and removed the wiring related to the coolant heater first: the relay box, the wires down to the glow plugs, etc. That much was great. Then, I moved on to looking at some of the wiring above, and as the bold-faced line implies, I cut something I would best not have.

 

Reflect back to the last time I clowned around on this wiring, I dug deep into the fuse-box. I started by pulling the fuses for circuits Hap doesn't need. Circuit by circuit, I cut that unnecessary wiring by referencing fuse sockets where the fuses had been pulled. That plan worked great. Lots of extra wiring got removed, and the engine still ran. I still had the sporadic not-limp-mode, and the occasional Hapy-don't-wanna-start issues, but they both seemed improved. Well, this time around, I got into the fusebox and saw a few wires that did not appear to have a partner on the other side of the fuse. So, I figured I just missed them the first time, and cut them. Well, that was wrong. Their "missing partner" was actually a common-line always-hot (circuit 30 in VW-speak) that was kind of hidden from view. Well, I didn't see them anyway. The wires I cut are for powering "engine control" circuits, of course. So, kinda important. Ugh.

Fuse Box Smaller

don't actually need
any of these relays

Once I realized that the wires I cut were critical, I needed a new plan. A while back, I bought a small relay box thing off eBay that has 6 relay slots and 6 fuse sockets. Once it arrived, I looked at how many fuses were in the donor fuse box and how many sockets were in that smaller box and the math did not add up. That was all before I did the clear out I mentioned above. After that, I was down to 7 fuses, and one of them was for the OBDII plug that I don't actually use. So, I think the fuse socket numbers may work. As for the relays, I only need 2 of the donor relays: the infamous 109 (main power) and old 180 (glow plugs). All the other ones can go, which leaves me 4 slots for other things, like the "RUN" and "START" trigger relays I have connecting the ignition from the front to the electrical from the donor. Neat. I didn't mean to change the fuse box and the relay plastic holder thing, but when I cut those two engine control wires the die was cast.

Label, Label, Cut

smarter way to remove
extra wiring

So, into the darkness we go. I started with the more obvious wires, like the thin little wires on the 180 (glow plug) relay. Then, I moved on to the T10 plugs. There are 5 (Blue, White, Black, Orange and Brown) 10-pin plugs in the mix of all that rat-nest. I unplugged them, and started dissecting by labeling either side of the cut, describing what is on the other side, and cutting. This picture on the right here explains the wire coming from the ignition switch position 86s as an example of how I dealt wit the wire-snarl.

While that sounds like quick work, I have moved slowly, researching each wire first, to make sure I don't have another "engine control" mishap. And, I want to do more than just label where it went; I want to know what it does first. This is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle where the more you do, the faster it goes until you eventually have all of the wires you intend to cut labelled and cut apart. I am almost done, which means the next post on wiring should include some building back up.

Diagramming

One last thing I have been doing, is crafting my own wiring diagram. I started by scanned the wiring diagram for the early ALH engine (80-pin ECU) from the Bentley. There are 13 pages. I am examining each circuit across the diagram and editing the image of the page to reflect what my circuitry will look like. I am retaining the original circuit numbering, etc. but adding the number of the fuse that I am using in the new fuse box to the documentation. Perhaps more importantly, I am erasing the wire references to things that I no longer have, like the coolant warming glow-plug stuff. My thinking is that this way someone who knows the original wiring (looking at you, Justin) can understand the diagram just as well as I do. This diagram will replace the diagrams in the 3-ring binder, since the 2 sets in there are both for later ALH models, so they are informative, but not exactly 100% representative. Between the cold and the dark, the diagramming effort helps me feel like I am moving forward while also creating clarity around the work.

My CoViD-19 Plea

I take a 2 mile walk pretty much every day to shake off the cabin fever and to get some exercise. Every day, I see 20-30 people also out taking walks, riding bikes or taking a run as well. That's great except I can count on one hand the number of people I encounter with a mask on at all (even worn wrong). The other day, I counted 3 people out of 28. Seriously. Our tiny state is consistently seeing over 1200 new cases a day, which is alarming when you consider our "summer peak" was 430 cases a day. Please keep your masks on, its not a political statement, it's not a chin-strap and it doesn't work unless it covers your nose and mouth. It's to protect others from you, not the other way around. We don't know if you have the virus or not, and quite frankly, if you're wandering around without a mask, and hanging around with others who don't have masks, then even if you had a test today... you don't know either. Just because you're outside doesn't mean you can run/walk/bike right past other people a-huffin and a-puffin (and sometimes a-coffin) without a mask. We are all tired of this, but that doesn't change anything about the importance of respecting it, and each other --

MGB fuse box

While waiting for the box of parts to arrive from Moss, I wanted to look into the brake lights. They worked initially, but then stopped working after the test drive.

Check Your Fuses First
Since both brake lights went out at the same time, it wasn't a bulb, but it could be electrical. I started where I should always start: looking at the electrical diagram to see what the circuit does. If you thought the fuse box for the VW bus was simple with 12 fuses, the MGB fuse box will blow your mind. There are 4 fuses.

I'll pause while that sinks in.

4 fuses.

pic swiped from MGB forum

To be fair, there are 2 additional in-line fuses floating around near the box, but the box only has 4. The brake lights run through the same fuse as most of the rest of the car (the top, #1, fuse). This fuse also runs the wipers, lights, turn signals, etc. Some of those systems worked, but all of them were temperamental. I checked connectivity with my multi-meter, and the #1 fuse wasn't reading consistently through the box. One of the fuse-holders was flaky.

New Box
Swapping out a fuse box for a modern car is a huge undertaking. Even for a bus it could be a little tricky. Doing a 4-fuse box, however, was ridiculously easy. Circuit by circuit, I simply moved the old connections to the new box. the box sits on the passenger-side wheel arch and is held on with a couple sheet metal screws. A replacement is $8. Seriously. I paid many times that much for a used fusebox for the bus. While this did fix all the other systems, the brake lights still didn't work.

Brake Switch

how to test brakes on a roadster

After getting the fuse and fuse box to pass electrical signal, the brake lights still wouldn't light up. After checking the electrical diagram, I traced the electrical to the mechanical switch in the pedal box. The switch, like so many of the systems in the MGB, is extremely simple: a depress switch with 2 wires on it. It's basically an open door switch in your modern car: when the door is open, the little spring-loaded shaft extends, and the electrical connection is made / unmade. With the brake switch, it follows a similar principle, but unlike a door switch, the trigger sensitivity can be set. Around the outside of the trigger shaft is a threaded housing that is held in place with a thin nut. By varying the depth of the nut on the shaft, you can control how early or late in the travel of the pedal the brake light comes on. Neat. Seeing how this is a little car driving around in a world of really large SUV's and luxury sedans, having those lights fire as early as possible is the best idea. At this point, of course, I just want the to fire at all. So, I threaded the nut down so that moving the pedal less than an inch will fire the lights.

As you can see from the picture on the right here, I verified my various solutions by depressing the brake pedal with a roller pole. In the picture, you can see that I got the brake lights to work.

That's it for today. There continues to be a lot going on with the project. Multiple efforts are mid-progress, so there could be a delay in  posts while I finish one of them. As always, thanks for following along.

Putting it to Bed

By now, most of the hard parts had been completed. Today's post covers the final bits and pieces, putting the project to bed, so to speak.

Rock 'n' Roll

bed, before

With the bare floor painted grey, the first of the last phase was getting the rock 'n' roll bed in. I'd pulled the contents out prior to its removal, but the bed is still pretty hard to move around by yourself. Still, with a mixture of dragging and heaving, I got the bed up and into place... without making the floor look too shabby in the process. Since the floor no longer had wood sheeting on top of it, getting the bed to align with the holes on the top of the engine bay wasn't quite as easy. It found it's home, though, and I was even able to get the little 2-bolt bit from the passenger tire well to slide home.

In the Light
Under the bed fits the auxiliary fuse box and battery. While in previous incarnations of this set up the battery powered a few different things, all it powers now are lights and 12V adapters. I already touched on some of this effort in an earlier post (see bump bump bump under "Cabin Lights"). Once locked in, I could move on to the refer cabinet.

bed, after

The Crunge
The fridge cabinet had previously just floated around, but I hadn't known that until removal day. Between removing the rear closet and the stove/sink, it held in place through simple inertia. There is supposed to be a bolt that threads into the fridge from the bed. That's now back in place and the cabinet is locked in tight. Between the fusebox and getting this cabinet in place, there were some wire-management issues too, but they're all well routed now, so no furniture is sitting on top of a wire. I still need to get the shore-power capable of charging the battery or simply feeding the lights and such, but that's something for another day.

Kashmir

middle seat in

We're getting near the end. I put in the rails for the middle row seat, following the holes and some blurry photos I took from the prior install. Without the wood floor in place, it seemed like the rails synch down tighter, but really, they were just lower, making the placement of the seat in the rails a little harder. After first just setting the rails in and finding that they were too close together for an easy fit, I took another tack. With the bolts in finger-tight, I tapped the rails as far apart as I could make them. Then, tightened them down for a fit. The seat slides in as easily as it used to (which isn't all that easy). I may need to Lithium grease the rails so the seat goes on easier.

In the middle picture, you can see that I've covered the rear driver-side window. I posted in "Whatcha Hiding?" about the screens I made a few screens to cover that window. As a final preparation, I painted the side that faces the inside of the bus with the same grey paint.

Well, that's really it for getting the bus back together. I was able to get it all done before the Memorial Day weekend so I'll post on that next time.