Nemo Re-Assembled

I think this will be a quick post. In my last, rather lengthy, post about Nemo, I described the effort to get him running again. Today, I cover the electrical mop-up and the other little bits to get Nemo ready for regular use... by someone. While this is barely post-worthy, the wiring fix did take me a few hours, so in a way this is just documenting how I spent a Saturday. Besides, the weather has turned too cold to spray primer or paint, so Zed sits waiting.

Car-Toys Vent

I will start with a predictable slam on the hacks at Car Toys. Recall that when they replaced Nemo's stereo, they were directly asked/told not to cut up the wiring, rather to use a pigtail. With a generic response of along the lines of "we'll do it right" wink/finger-point, they did exactly what no one wants a radio installer to do: cut wires off of a harness plug and then direct-wire a new stereo into those bare wires. So, I give them a "that's not right" glower/different-finger-gesture. All-told, they cut the 8 speaker wires, switched and steady power, ground, power antennae and illumination. The part I don't understand is why they do not have a cache of pigtails for common cars. All VW's and Audi's from, like, the mid-80's thru modern cars use the same 2 8-pin female plugs... one 8-pin plug for the speakers and one 8-pin plug for the power, illumination, etc. The corresponding male pigtails run for, like $10US on eBay, and since they plug right in, the install is faster, while also cleaner: at a workbench, the custom pigtail for the new stereo can be wired into the Audi/VW standard male pigtails. Then, you take the stereo head-unit and the cable to the car, plug in each end and you're done. Cleaner, easier, faster. Instead, Car Toys does it lazier, longer, stupider and uglier... and much harder to undo.

Stereo Wiring Un-Hack

With the center console fully opened up, I had great access to the great wire hack. I started with the speaker wires, mostly because bits of the CarToys wire-extensions (1 each purple, grey and green) were still attached to a few wires post-theft, so I could tell what they used to be used for. Once those 8 wires were sorted, the remaining wires were much easier to isolate. The only difficult pair were the switched and steady power sources, because both were plain red wires. A simple voltage test (one had 12V and one didn't while at rest) resolved that. Yes, there was a hot wire bouncing around back there. Once the pigtails were wired up, I zip tied the wires into a cable on either side of the wire butt-joints so any gentle pulling would not cause a wire joint to separate.

Climate Control and Console Re-Assembly

With the loose wires sorted, the center console already looked 100% better. I continued the re-assembly by plugging in the climate control unit. While this has 4 plugs, they are each slightly different sizes so they can only go in one way. Once plugged in, I slid the unit into place and threaded in the Torx bolts to hold it in. Then, the console cover can snap into place. 2 8mm Allen head screws later, the center console is together again. I take satisfaction in seeing the stereo plug through the hole where a stereo should be. I may pick up a cheapy clearance stereo from Crutchfield to completely close the loop... and that hole.

Kick Panel and Re-Lo

All that remained was putting the lower dash panel back on. This panel is held in place by 3 screws: one at the bottom of the fuse box frame and 2 in front of each of the driver's knees. The fuse box frame screw is easy to get to and easy to manage. The 2 in front of the driver's knees, however, require some gravity-defying. I do not know what kind of fastener was originally used; Nemo has slotted bolts. These bolts need to be balanced on the end of the driver and then tilted over about 30* to find the hole in the panel, and then the matching hole in the dash. While this is not hard, it can be frustrating. Once bolted tight, the holes are covered with small plastic bits that snap into place.

Just like that, an interior that looked like it was at a junk yard is re-assembled and looking sharp again. I juggled cars at this point, moving Nemo into a more remote spot, out from under the carport. As before, he started right up like he hadn't been un-start-able for weeks. The juggle created the space needed to get Oliver out for some Summer driving. I did discover, however, that Nemo's front passenger window I replaced also had the front window tracking mechanism damaged when the window was smashed in. So, the window does not go up and down anymore. I will need to hit the junk yard again, to source a replacement window track thing. Neat. I do like going to the junk yard, though, so maybe I'll find some other stuff we need while I'm there. In the meantime, Nemo's air conditioning blows nice and cold, so a stuck window doesn't mean discomfort.

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

Hapy Rides Again

My last 2 posts have been about my efforts to resolve the electrical melt-down we had on the way home from 4Peaks. Today, we hit bottom and work our way back to operational.


No Start
With so many good signals, I wanted to try starting the engine. So, I turned the key to run and nothing happened. At first, this was because the wire to the starter (circuit 50) out of the ignition wasn't connected. Once that was solved, things got worse. I tried the start again and everything went dead. Nothing worked. I went around to check the voltage on the battery and it was crazy low, like 5V. Huh? While watching the voltmeter, it climbed back up to 12.5V. I checked other circuits and they started to show 12V too. By the time I had worked by way to the front of the bus, everything was working again.

I was able to demonstrate this a few times, and it seemed like no matter what wires I tested, I couldn't find a new burned wire. "Could the starter have fried," Boo asked. Why, yes. Yes, it could have. Since so much power routes through the positive post on the starter, the electrical fry that smoked between my knees could have caused a short there too. So, I pulled the starter and tried a ShadeTree starter test.

ShadeTree Starter Test

First, I checked for resistance between the positive and negative sides of the starter solenoid. It was infinite, which told me that the solenoid was probably fine. Still, I couldn't find a good recommendation for testing the starter motor on the internet. Most folks encouraged various tests while the starter was in the car. Mine was on the ground, and I wanted to test just the starter motor without all the other variables. So, I tried my own ShadeTree bench test. I grabbed an old battery that I had lying around. It had around 9V charge. That's enough to trigger the start, but not enough to do much else.

I took my jumper cables, and clipped one black end to the mounting ear (ground) and the negative battery post. I clipped one red end to the positive post on the starter and the positive battery post. I double checked the voltage. No change, indicating again that the solenoid is not blown. If it had been the solenoid, I would have expected current to travel through the starter all the time (solenoid broken with the current open) or none of the time. I worked the leads for the multi-meter into the clips on the starter so I could see how voltage changed when I triggered the start. Using a short section of insulated wire, I touched one stripped copper end to the positive post on the starter and the other stripped copper end to the trigger tab.

The starter did not fire, but the voltage dropped to almost 0. I immediately removed the trigger wire and watched multi-meter. The voltage climbed slowly, but steadily back to 9V. Yep. That starter got toasted, but the solenoid was doing it's job: open the circuit to fire the starter when 12V (or in this case 9V) is applied to the switch. I phoned over to the no-longer-local VW Friendly Auto Parts Store and they had one for me on the following Monday.

Assuming the starter was fried during the initial issue, replacing it should be fine. What if the starter was fried by my test-start because something else was still wrong? Then, the next test-start will cause the new starter to fry as well, right? Eek.

Re-Start-er
My fears, ultimately, were not realized. I swapped out the rebuilt Bosch I installed less than 3 months earlier with another rebuilt Bosch from Discount Import Parts (still only on the east side... and still not Hapy about it). I followed the instructions I laid out back then, and the test start provided the same disheartening click noise. So, I removed the starter and performed a very similar ShadeTree test. I used the battery and battery-to-starter cable from the bus for the positive side. I clamped a black jumper cable on the negative battery post and to the mounting ear on the starter for the negative side. Using the same little jumper wire from before, I triggered the starter and it fired. So, I haven't re-fried a starter and so maybe some of the wiring has been improved. But something remained. So, I looked at what was still an unknown around the starter while I re-installed it again.

Wiring

There's the 30 circuit (always hot) that runs to the front of the bus from the positive post and there's the trigger signal plug (circuit 50). I checked the 30 circuit first next because I felt it would be easy to rule it out. The 30-circuit is a red-with-white-stripe wire that runs from the starter positive post to the fuse box. In the Bentley book it is labeled as a "4" thick. That's in cubic millimeters and translated to AWG 12 (see my handy conversion reference here). The plastic on the wire near the fuse box was a little melted or swollen from the ignition failure, but I assumed (possibly a mistake) that it was just from being near the issues and that it was fine. To prove it wasn't an issue, I tried a few things. First, I did a continuity test to show that the wire didn't have a break in it. I believed that wasn't the case and the continuity test proved it. Resistance tests didn't show anything either (very low resistance). I didn't want to run voltage through that wire again, so I ran a long wire from the positive post on the battery along the ground under the bus through the driver door and into the same spot on the fuse box as the red-white stripped wire. This eliminated that wire from the equation as a variable. Then, I tried to start again. Just a "click" again. I tried swapping out the "50" wire that triggers the starter to fire. "Click".

Clumping the Circuits
In the interests of reducing variables, I considered the wiring as 3 large units or clumps.
There's "front-of-bus": that's the original wiring, including the ignition switch, fuse box,etc.
There's the "back-of-bus": that's the '98 NewBeetle engine related wiring. I include the battery in the back-of-bus not because its in the back, but because there are lots of wires routing to the NewBeetle stuff and only one heading to the front-of-bus.
Last, there's the "accessory" that is the deep cycle battery that powers the cabin lights. The accessory is completely separate, only connected by a common ground: the bus chassis. So, we rule that out.
If we consider that the front and the back only connect through a few wires, and I just tested replacements for them above, maybe we can unplug those and test. So, I disconnected the trigger wire for the starter (50), the always hot wire from the starter (30) and the signal wire for switched power (15) from the front-to-back connections, completely separating the clumps. Using my remote starter, I tried to start. "Click". From this, I concluded that the issue was not a front-of-bus problem nor a connection between problem. It resided squarely in the back. That's when Boo dropped by to see how things were going. "Could the battery have gotten affected," she asked. I had been checking voltage and it had been consistently 12.5V, but maybe there just isn't power (amps) behind that voltage. So, following that question, I put the battery on the charger.

Start
I left the battery charging at low amps (2A setting) overnight while Boo and I went to catch the new Incredibles movie. The next day, I re-set all my wiring was back at normal (front-to-back returned, nothing left unplugged, etc), and verified that the battery charger was complete. Everything looked good. So, I tried the new key. It fired right up. Ahh... much rejoicing.

Dollars and Sense

old housing,
melted and hammered

In the end, we add one starter ($160) to the total of the running costs from the last post, and we're approaching $1000. That's pretty darn expensive, but I can't say it was because of either owner neglect nor because of the engine upgrade. The interfaces between the front and rear of bus are very few, insulated with fuses or relays and weren't part of the problem. Ultimately, 50 year old wiring eventually fails. I need to commit to a complete rewire one of these days... but not while there's camping to be had this Summer. As to the total cost, if I remove the wiring harness I didn't need, the cost of the hotel that was just a bad timing thing and the steering wheel I chipped due to being dumb, this electrical repair cost me $295US ($85 for new housing and switch, $25 sub-harness, $25 headlight switch which is another whole story, $160 new starter) plus a $300 tow.

I do want to point out that the 2 major failures found along the way after the original ignition was solved were both identified by Boo. Obviously, she's amazing, but this also serves to illustrate something so important on projects like this: this is a team sport. You need input from a random friend leaning against the fender while drinking a beer pointing at stuff and asking questions. Or, a helpful wife wandering over with a lemonade innocently asking if the starter or battery could have been affected. I'm looking at trees, and she asked about the forest. Brilliant.

That's the end of the ignition smoked saga. While we may have missed String Cheese in the bus, it looks like our other musical (and simple summering) events can include Hapy. Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB - Ug-lectrical

One of my least favorite things when it comes to working on cars is electrical issues. Unfortunately, most people feel that way so when an older car starts having electrical problems, that's when they start appearing on craigslist. Today, I will cover my efforts on the "green" circuit in the little British car as I try to figure out why the turn signals don't work. First, for my US friends, happy Thanks Giving.

But I Thought...
Just about every electrical realization starts the same way. You're cruising along, doing your thing when some system just stops working. That sinking feeling is universal. As much as you want to direct your mind to a simple and easy explanation, it's not that easy. 'it could just be a really old fuse went bad". Yeah, sure. That's happened. I'm sure we've all read of an account on the internet when it was just a single fuse that went bad for no reason. I've never had that kind of luck. When a fuse pops, it pops for a reason. Regardless, that is the first place to go: check to see if any fuses are bad. Today could be your lucky day.

Wiring Diagramming

Once you've ruled out the fuse just popping for no reason, you need to start thinking about a viable reason for it popping. If it isn't a fuse, your problem is the same: rooting out what stopped working and why. This starts with a wiring diagram. With the advent of the interweb, lots of full color diagrams are available for free (or a small fee). Older cars have much less complicated diagrams, yet they have more problems because of age. I was able to find a nice electronic version of the MGB diagram at advance auto wire.

Diagram Analysis
This could be kind of fun, at least for a simple diagram like this one. When I look at the pages and pages of diagrams for my 2000 Jetta, its really not nearly as much fun. BUT, the modern diagrams are sub-divided well once you get the hang of it. Either way, find the sub-system that isn't working. On the single diagram, it might seem easier, but the many pages style have a table of contents. You just need to know the name of the system you're looking for. "Electrical thingy" won't be specific enough. Anyway, once you find the sub-system on the diagram, study the colored lines, and figure out where they connect with other things. In my case, I can see many components riding on the green wires. Some of them work and some of them don't. Since the turn signals leverage lots of the hazard wiring, I checked the hazards and they didn't work. So, I was able to isolate the areas of the green circuit which are the most likely sources of my troubles: the ignition relay, the wire from the ignition relay to the hazard relay, the hazard switch, the wire from the hazard relay to the hazard switch, the wires from the switch to the lights and the turn signal stalk/switch.

On-car Analysis

Equipped with this, I started looking at the most likely issue: the hazard switch. These are old and crusty, and they fail. The hazard switch pushes out from behind and a multi-wire plug can be removed to enable testing and replacing the switch. With my multi-meter, I checked continuity on the various posts (continuity test position is the icon with an arrow pointing right into a vertical line down near the bottom). I found that the switch would not send a signal to the right-turn post, so the switch was bad, but it should be sending signal to the left side. The switch is part of the problem, but not all of it. I moved on to the relay. I know the car can run, so the relay should be fine. To rule it out, though, I put the negative battery cable onto the negative post and verified that there was 12V at the relay post which powered the hazard circuit. There was, so this leaves the wire from the relay to the flasher, the flasher or the wire from the flasher to the hazard switch. I disconnected the battery again, ran a long tester-wire from the relay to the flasher, reconnected the battery and tried the hazard switch. The left side blinkers started flashing. Cool... except that meant that the issue was the wire from the relay in the engine compartment to the flasher behind the glove box.

Tearing into It

the 3-pin relay. 31 goes to ground

I figured the wire had a kink or was broken. To remedy, a new wire would need to be put in. Rather than have a lone wire routing back, I chose instead to open up the harness and identify the wire failure first. I couldn't find it. I did discover, however, that the previous owner had put an in-line fuse between the ignition relay and the flasher. I verified that there was continuity from the relay to the far side of the fuse, and again confirmed that the wire was not conducting. So, I removed the wire harness wrap. Inexplicably, the wire started working and the blinkers on the left side would flash when I flipped the hazard switch. Relieved that I wasn't going to have to route new wire, I decided to show Boo.

Unfortunately, the hazard switch chose that time to completely fail, so we could hear the blink-blink-blink from the flasher, but no lights. GAHH!! I love electrical issues. I swapped out the hazard switch, but the new switch had no effect. I checked the voltage on either side of the relay, and it shows 12V all the time now. So, maybe its a bad harness plug that the hazard switch goes into. More multi-meter time needed. Times like these, I ask myself how much work would it be to install an entirely new harness? The answer according to the interweb is 40 hours and $550 for the harness (See AdvanceAutoWire). Eek. Maybe I'll just keep playing whack-a-gremlin.

Relay and Pins
In case you discover your issue is the hazard relay, here's some useful discovery I had while investigating possible causes with the relay: The original 2-pin relays are still available, but 3-pin versions are more so. The 3rd pin (31) goes to ground, which, with old cars where the grounds can get dicey, that's a really good thing. Also, the 3-pin variety are very widespread and used as relays for all kinds of cars, bringing their cost down below $5 each. The original 2-pin relays are around $15. For some, that originality is worth the difference. I just want my flashers to work. Having a relay that is available everywhere is a bonus.

Unfortunately, this is as far as I've gotten on these electrical issues. Lots of cross-wind with the 280ZX, a daily-driver suddenly out of operation, and then there's the usual holiday crazy. Last, work is increasing in intensity as we approach "year end" and managers everywhere are realizing that bonuses are tied to delivered work that hasn't materialized yet. That usually means more pressure from above to get more done which leads to working more hours in the evening or on weekends. Looking forward to January and the return to a measured pace.

As always, thanks for following along...

300

Somehow, I've managed to work my way to 300 posts over the last 7 years.  Rather than a real-content post today, I'm going to reflect back kind of like when TV shows do a "best of" episode.  Frankly, I hate it when TV shows do that, and promptly switch the channel when they do, so my following that model is actually kinda funny.

0 - 100: The Start of Many Things

Ranging from January of 2007 to September of 2009, my first 100 posts ran the gamut of topics.  That's probably true of any cross-section.  In looking at what was happening with the bus, the blog starts with him running the original type4 engine, but I soon started the TDI work.  Early posts ranting on some old air-cooled vehicle abuses like removing the cooling system shifted to engine options and then to solving the install of a water-cooled plant into an air-cooled body.  Deciding on the engine was recorded on April 13th, 2007 (see Engine Decided) and a year later, the engine was still sitting on my garage floor, a failed first attempt on both the fuel tank relining and the engine mount had slowed me.  That winter was spent getting the engine and transaxle to mate for the first time (see first and second attempts).  I broke an adapter plate, and my spirit over that winter.  It took going on the road to see the Dead and starting the separation from my ex-wife to get the project going again in early 2009.  The first 100 posts ended with the new rear engine mount being fabricated, the starter adapter solved (see starter adapter corrected...), the vacuum completed (see what's that soft sucking sound) and the fuel fill set up.

101-200: Transitions

Starting in September of 2009, this block of 100 posts carried through late July of 2011.  I started this period sleeping in a spare room at my now ex-wife's house and ended this period completing a divorce and living in a townhouse apartment.  Still, the middle section of 100 posts started with the same urgency which the first 100 had at the end, in terms of bus work.  The fall of 2009 included the fuel tank (see Fuel Tank Solved) shape / vacuum pump issue, buttoning up the turbo, vacuum, starter, CV joints and moving the bus off the mud and onto concrete for winter work.  Over the Winter, the radiator/cooling was addressed (see Radiator test-fitted, shrouded and Installed) and the bus project really started to roll.  The hatch was finished, intake routed, electrical, clearing codes, finishing the coolant routing, primary electrical, etc.  By December of 2010, my ex- and I had decided to call it quits.  I spent January through March staying on my parent's couch trying to get the bus into a will-travel-under-own-power state before the divorce finalized.  I was able to get him running-ish, and had a muffler installed by Meineke (see Exhausted) during that working-remotely period.  By April, I had a townhouse-style apartment with a dedicated garage space and focused a considerable amount of free time into the bus' interior.  I swapped out the fridge for storage, applied more sound killer, installed an accessory battery and fuseblock (see fused) and ended the late July with installing a Riviera pop-top in place of the original ripped-up Westy top.

201 - 300: Moving

Picking up in late July of 2011, the final 300 posts carry us to today (early November 2014).  I started this period as a divorced father of 2 boys and an old bus, and I now conclude this period remarried father of 4 boys and an old bus.  We moved out of the townhouse apartment when they raised my rent past the point I could afford, and into Boo's condo.  From the condo, we moved into the house we've been in for 18 months now.  Frequency of posts dropped during that housing change and life settled into a very different pattern of family play versus self mechanic'ing.  This period, though, marks the time when the bus went from stationary project to daily driver.  In August, we camped in him for the first time in years (see One Small Step for Van).  Later that Fall, we hit the road to Eugene for Furthur but needed a tow home.  Like I've said before, the journey is the destination, and we had to pull the tank to get re-lined.

I returned the original engine harness to service, and struggled with coolant leaks while trying to keep him on the road.  I discovered a new love of snowboarding, and bonded with a new family at Mt. Hood.  The bus underwent more transformations as well.  He has a middle row bench seat (see Vanagon Seat Install, no longer has a grossly underused kitchenette (see Enter Summer, exist posting) and has a rebuilt jalousie window (see parts one and two).  I dropped his engine 3 times in this stretch of posts, twice having to separate the engine and transaxle.  Both of his bumpers have been hammered straight-ish and painted to an almost good-looking state (see front 1,2,3,4 and rear) and he now sports door cards as well as cards for most of the interior.  The ceiling doesn't sag anymore.  This past Summer, we had 3 flawless road trips to Nye Beack on the Oregon coast, Horning's Hideout and to the Black Sheep Family Reunion.

So, What's Next?
I guess that's always the question when you don't draw a map ahead of time.  I honestly don't know.  Frankly, I couldn't have drawn a map to this point and I wouldn't have ended up here if I'd tried to.  I look forward to many sights like the one below, simply driving the posted speed and enjoying the sights out the front windscreen.  As before and always, thanks for following along.

Holidaze, Hood and Harnesses

Its been 10 days, and I've been on vacation for most of them.  I'l hit the highlights, and describe my final engine harness resolution.

Mt Hood Xmas Eve

Holidaze
The miniature house painting, like so many projects I undertake, took longer than I described in my post before.  In fact, it took as long as I told folks in person: over 40 hours.  It still needs to be shipped, so it totally missed the holiday window.  Once its been delivered, I'll post a picture.  My dad says that the Three Kings actually arrived on the 12th day of Christmas (Jan6), not on the actual birth-night like the songs imply.  So.. I'll stretch that so I can have the finished product in-hand by Jan6 and still meet Christmas expectations.  Its all in how you frame it...

Hood
As I write this, I've been to Mt. Hood to go sliding 13 times since the start of the season.  That is more than all of the times I've ever gone in all my previous years combined.  On Christmas Eve and the 26th, I took the boys to Ski Bowl.  After nearly a month without fresh snow, the conditions were really very good.  Ski Bowl has snow-making machines like the resorts in Vermont, so the sub-freezing weather allowed them to make snow almost every day.  This left an inch of top-powder on top of the packed base.  The mountain was practically empty on the 24th and it was almost as quiet on the 26th.  These were possibly 2 of the best days we'd had to date.

Mt Hood from Mid-Reynolds
top at Ski Bowl

We went up to Ski Bowl again on the 27th, but it rained.  I was practically soaked through by the top of the first lift, so I only took a couple of runs and called it a day.  We took the next 2 days off, so our legs could recover, and we had family holiday parties to attend.  Our last trip to Mt Hood was Friday Dec30 to Timberline.  Mt Hood was experiencing blizzard conditions, making the drive a little challenging for some, and the sliding a little interesting for us.

Sunset over Ski Bowl Lodge

The drive to Government Camp didn't require chains, but I pulled over into the rest stop/Summit ski lift parking lot and had them on in a few minutes.  All those early trips gave me lots of chain-up practice.  It also gave me some needed snow-driving practice, which came in handy.  We found a front-row parking spot, set the car in gear (leaving the hand-brake off), and stepped into some of the worst weather I've experienced since moving to the West Coast.  In the time it took to get our gear on I had an inch of snow in my back seat and over an inch in my trunk.  The car was completely covered, and we were all cold to the skin.  We hauled our equipment to the day lodge and set to sliding.  Timberline had at least 16" of fresh powder on the ground and more was pouring out of the sky.  Visibility was about 15' and foggy through goggles.  Still, the sliding was slow with the fresh powder, but that encouraged more direct paths downhill. The spills were all the more epic.
I avoided a young woman who was sliding very slowly down the center of the trail (in an outstretched jumping-jack pose), but ended up hitting the drop-in at the top of Thunder with my body out of balance.  I dropped about 10 feet hit a mogul, bounced, hit another mogul and then cartwheeled twice before landing flat on my back with a thud.  If the 16" of powder weren't there, I would have been hurt.  Instead, I caught my breath, checked my extremities, jumped onto my toe-edge and finished the run.  Good times, and more to be had for sure this season.

Harnesses

wires don't go to the same pins

So, I bought a replacement harness.  It wasn't the right one.  I found the part number on the ECU plug and bought a replacement off of eBay.  It looked right, but once I unwound the tape and pulled the dust cover off the back, it was clear that it wouldn't work either.  The picture here shows how the wires don't route to the same pins.  So, even though the part number was right, the implementation was different enough to make the part useless to me.  One more thing to sell.  Great.  So, at this point, I got a little creative.  I looked at the pin-holes that click into the ECU on both the old plug and the replacement.  It looks like the inside of each of those little holes contain a metal clip.  I figured I probably damaged or bent the clips with my connectivity testing.  Next to each square-ish hole is a tiny slot.  I found a tiny paperclip and started working the holes where I could see the clips. I did this on and off while watching football, so I'm not sure how much time this took, but it was more a case of move slow, than bang-it-out.

plug underside

Once the holes looked more like the plug I bought, I took the harness downstairs.  First, I tested the loaned harness with the OBDII trip computer.  I had only one code: P038 - Glow Plugs.  I pulled the loaned harness out, shot every plug on the original with Di-Oxit5 and strung it into the engine and ECU.  Quick test with the OBDII computer and I only had the one code.  Hazah!  I tried to start the engine and it wouldn't start, but its because I hadn't fully primed the fuel circuit.  I'll be completing that this week, and I should be able to drive the bus again.

Well, that's like 2 or 3 posts in one.  There's so much sliding season left, I expect to have lots of outdoor pictures and experiences to share over the next few months.  It seems like the bus is almost road-ready again after a 3 month span.  I plan to prime the fuel circuit this week and he'll be ready.  When he drives again, he'll have a completely refreshed fuel tank, a fan on the intercooler, an operating glow-plug circuit, a freshly painted exhaust and studded snow-tires.  Wow, when I spell it all out, its been a very productive 3 month lay-over.  Like every other time the bus goes back into service, I'll start a list of things I want to work on the next time.  If it goes well, I won't plan for another run of projects until May when the ski season is over but camping season hasn't started yet.  As always, thanks for following along, and I'll post again soon-

Holiday approacheth

What is it about the holidays that seems to make time disappear?  I really didn't "do" Christmas this year, yet I don't have any more time than I did last year.  At least it doesn't feel like it.  Anyway, today, I'll give an overdue update on the state of the bus, and give an update on my elbow.  First things first...

Elbow Whacked
Between Halloween and last weekend, I've been up to the mountain to snowboard 9 times.  On my 6th trip, I was on my last run of the night at Ski Bowl when I caught a toe-edge and was too tired to kick through it.  Instead, I went down.  Now, we had received some pretty decent snow leading up to ThanksGiving, but its been cold and dry since, making the snow increasingly hard-pack and icy.  So, when I went down, it was onto concrete-hard snowpack.  I knew I was going down, so I tried to turn my shoulder into it so I could roll through, but I went down faster than I could react and landed on my left elbow.  It hurt.  It hurt bad.  Sharp pain.  Hard to fully straighten or bend my arm without pain.  Not good. I finished the run gingerly, filled a plastic bag with snow, and applied that to my elbow for the drive off the mountain.
A smarter, more aware person than me would have gone to a doctor.  Nope, I'm a dummy.  Instead, I went snowboarding again a few days later and fell on it again.  Same spot.  Ye-ouch.  Then, in an unparalleled case of extreme-dumb, I went one more time.  I didn't actually snowboard that time, but it wasn't for health reasons.  We got there late and by the time the kids were equipped and sliding, it was 8:PM, so I figured I'd just hold down a barstool at the lodge.  Now, nearly 10 days later, my elbow still hurts when I bump it, move my arm certain ways, and I can't lean on it.  I have a doctor appointment this afternoon.  If I broke it, he may need to do something severe to set it.   I may lose some mobility in my arm for the next couple of weeks, leading to a less fun week off between Christmas and NewYears (when I planned to snowboard at least 3 times).  Lesson learned.
UPDATE: doc says its tendon damage. Keep frozen peas on it, and take ibuprofen.  Apply kinesio tape to help reduce strain on the tendon. If I plan to snowboard, wear an elbow guard like skateboarders wear.  Great news.  Looks like I'll be back on the mountain next week afterall.  hahaha!!!!

Christmas Painting
Every family treats gift-giving differently.  Some enter arms-races to see who can buy the most stuff for someone else.  I never understood those folks, but I suspect they are the same folks who buy a BMW because a neighbor bought one.  Anyway, my family (my parents, brothers w/wives, sisters w/husbands) draw names for the one person for whom you will give a gift.  For years, I have painted a small (around 4" each side) ceramic house for my randomly selected family member.  These take a considerable amount of time, like 40+ hours, so I spend most of my time between ThanksGiving (when the names are selected) and Christmas trying to get the house completed.  Of course, there are all of the other tasks of life sprinkled in, other social expectations, etc, so that's where my holidaze go.  Since the name I received this year is not local, I should have already been finished and had it wrapped and on a southbound truck.  But, since the family gift exchange isn't until the 28th, I have a few extra days.  Thank goodness.  On the side here there's a picture of a couple I painted a few years back for my sister and her husband (different years, of course).


Bus not Busy
There isn't really a great deal of news on the bus-front.  I have the new ECU plug, so I could start the harness surgery at any time.  I just need some time.  With the ceramic painting time constraint and limit, I haven't been able to focus on the harness.  The bus still on jack stands (though he doesn't need to be), and the new snow tires are sitting on the cabin floor.  I've neglected him, though he's been in a warm dry garage, so it's not all bad.  I want to give him some good focus on Xmas morning.  Maybe slap on the snow tires and take a quick spin around the neighborhood with the Justin's harness.  We'll see.

I expect the painting to complete in the next few days.  So, I should be able to bang-out the harness by the middle of next week.  Depending on what the doctor says about my elbow, its still possible that I could be taking the boys up to the mountain in the bus before NewYears.  If the doctor needs to isolate my arm, I won't be driving, much less installing a newly repaired harness in, my bus.  Keeping my fingers crossed that my elbow is fine (just badly bone-bruised), my painting completes soon, and the harness surgery is quick and error-free.

As always, thanks for following along, and have a Merry Christmas.

Foiled Again

Cue a picture of a cartoon villain, twisting the ends of a long thin mustache...

what I got on top
early ALH on bottom

Harnessed
The engine harness I bought sight-unseen was not for an early ALH engine.  I take at least some of the fault here since the guy I bought it from called and we talked about what it looked like.  What we didn't talk about, though, was what the ECU plug looked like.  Since this plug is the only one I know is bad on my harness, that one was the single most important one for me to ask about.  I didn't.  So, when the box arrived, I opened it like a kid at Christmas.  I took one look at that plug and knew I'd struck coal in my stocking.

Now, the fun starts.  I was unable to return the harness because the guy I bought it from had already spent the money and indicated that I did get what he said it was: it is an engine harness for an ALH engine.  The fact that it is not an "early", and therefore doesn't fit is my problem.  Of course, this position wasn't articulated until after I'd returned the harness, so now I have no harness, and no money.  Sweet!  ... and just in time for Christmas.  The guy did say he would return the harness on delivery, so I'll have my useless-to-me harness again.  To eBay I go, I guess.  It does have a brand new glow-plug section in it, though, so that alone is worth $70.  Before I go that route, though, I'll look up the part number on the ECU plug and verify what models and years it fits.
UPDATE (2011-12-21): I did some googling and found the harness fits an AJM engine, not an ALH:  fits 1998-2000 Passat, Jetta and Golf with a highest HP output (130BHP) diesel engine available at the time.

I did buy a replacement ECU plug on eBay.  After all this time, I finally found someone just selling a plug with 3" of wire bundle attached.  I didn't want to perform this kind of surgery, but a $30 plug beats a $150 harness if the rest of the harness is good (which it should be).  Had I found a plug like this before, though, I would have gotten it then.  In 3 years, I'd never seen just a plug with some wire bundle for sale.  Good deal, great timing. I'll have to wait on that work until I finish my other Christmas time commitments, but I still hope to get the bus onto the mountain before NewYears.

Tires
As I write this, my studded snow tires are being mounted onto an extra set of 14" rims I got off Craigslist a couple of years ago.  They're black, so its almost like they were designed for snow tires.  Since they're 14" tires, though, I will be retaining my 52mph top speed in the bus for winter driving.  I'm certain this will frustrate other motorists as they try to speed past the beautiful countryside on their way to the lift lines.  Ah well.  I do have a set of 15" rims which fit the rear hubs.  If I had that harness money back, I could probably get a pair of 15" studded snows and increase my top speed... but only by a few mph.  Ultimately, my top speed is controlled by the high-rpm expecting 002 transaxle.  I'll address that next Summer.... if I have the money.  Or, I'll have another year to remind myself that the journey is the destination, and traveling at 50mph allows me a greater opportunity to make the most of that destination.  Later this winter, I will be chanting this mantra as I drive up Mt. Hood at 50mph, heading a line of Chevy Behemoth's and Ford Monstrosity's chomping at my rear bumper.  :)

Thanks for following along.

Road-Ready when Rain Relents

I didn't have the boys last week, so in theory I could have gotten some things done on the bus.  Instead, I went out for drinks, messed around with my media-center-acting PC and worked late a couple of times.  So, that left me entering this weekend with the bus in the same shape it was in when I left it on July 4th, pretty much.  With Fall-like weather pressing in around us in the Pacific Northwest (read: pouring rain almost all day), I appreciated the garage all the more, and I want to be ready when the Summer days (read: sunny and dry) return.  I'm about an hour away from being truly ready, but I'll cover what I got done to get that close.  In the background, I'm watching the Overhaulin' episode when they did a 21 window bus.  Never seen this one...

Harness Swap #7
I mentioned in my last post that I'm giving up on the original harness.  I've lost too much time to it now, though a replacement is spendy at $150 on eBarf.  I've put so many hours into the original, I hate giving up.  I could charge $5 per hour on my time with the original and be able to pay that $150.  I used to decide whether to hire someone to do something based on how many hours it would take me to do it.  We should all highly value our time, and I need to think that way again.  If I'd thought that way, I would have given up on that old harness after a few hours and bought one by now.

I had a "shower epiphany" yesterday for how to use Justin's harness without damaging it while still getting an oil pressure signal.  I don't want to cut a single wire on his harness, but the plug end on his "newer" harness doesn't fit my blade-style sensor.  I could buy a newer sensor, but instead, I took a short 18gauge wire with a female-blade end on it.  I stripped the other end and simply jammed it into the plug.  Taking care not to mess anything up, I verified the connectivity, and a-fixed it with some simple electrical tape.  Will this stand the test of time? Heck, no, but it's not supposed to.  It just needs to last until I have $150, which should be the middle of next month.  So, out came the original for the last time, and in went Justin's... again, hopefully for the last time.  That was this morning.

Cool and Clean
With the engine harness resolved for test-driving, next I needed to be sure the fans would fire.  I hit the Bentley to the test procedure.  I should have done this before, but I was installing this outdoors in the rain, so I'll forgive my self.  On the test, though, it failed.  I dug into the Bentley wiring diagrams, and that big fan control module isn't even useful in my installation.  From what I could tell, it is necessary for A/C, and if you have the auxiliary coolant pump to continue to circulate the coolant if it's hot on shutdown.  I don't have that, nor do I have A/C.  Honestly, if I need that kind of thing, I'll buy an electric coolant pump from a yard and tie it in with a simply relay.

Anyway, by not needing all that, I had a bunch of extra wiring I needed to get rid of. The view from the rear is now much cleaner too.  The small wire bundle that used to run down along the engine harness is now gone.  Now, there's a single fan power wire running from the fuse block a-top the battery running up to the rad.  It passes through the temp-switch there.  It is a "2-speed" fan switch, so I have the front fan running to the "slow" and the rear running to "fast".  I will eventually tie both fans into the "fast", but I need an isolator of some kind.  Regardless, I re-performed the tests, and we have power to the fan.  Just to prove it, I cross-wired the source to the fan, and "whirrr", the fan spun to life.  Sweet... we're ready to test fly.


So that's what I did today.  I messed around yesterday too, but I'll get to that in another post.  With the pouring rain today, and rain forecast into the week, I don't know when I'll be able to try giving the bus a drive.  Remember, he doesn't have a top, he looks like a sunroof model, except... there's no slider!  So, once the rain stops, I'll start test driving to work, the boys to camp, etc.  I guess I should start with starting him and driving out of the garage, eh?  Stay tuned....  This last picture here stands as a reminder to take a seat in the driver's seat from time to time to remind yourself why you're going through all this trouble.  There is no view like the one out the front of a flat-nosed vehicle.  Thanks for following along...

pictures:
top - retrofitting a plug for a spade connector
middle - cleaned up view of wiring through rear-access
bottom - view through the windscreen in current spot. that thing suctioned to the windshield in the middle there is the holder for the UltraGauge

Musical Instruments

More from last weekend... a while back I talked about adding a second OBDII plug output up at the steering wheel.  Knowing that I wouldn't have the TDI dash-pod up front at any point in the near future, I figured I needed some instrumentation.  If you haven't seen the instrumentation on an old bus, Lemme paint a picture for you.

Original Bus Dash
On one side, you have the speedometer.  Next to it is the fuel gauge and on the other side you either have an analog clock (if you own a deluxe) or a big blank spot.  The fuel gauge also is home to all the other "instruments".  First, you have the turn signals.  When you turn on the flashers or fiddle with the turn signal arm, both green arrows flash.  Neat, eh?  Yes, and only a little confusing to a first-time bus driver.  Below the green flashers are 2 "idiot" lights.  The OIL light lets you know when you're out of oil, or your engine is about to explode.  If this light flickers, you need a rebuild, but if it lights up nice and bright, your oil pressure has dropped below 3psi and you're basically hosed.  Shut off the engine, its already dead.  The other light (GEN or ALT) lets you know that your electrical system is in trouble.  Like the OIL light, a fully lit buld means you're basically hosed, electrically.  A dim light means your alternator or generator is failing to produce a full 12V (it should be more like 14V, really).  A flickering light means you have regulator issues, but a full light could mean a bad alternator or a bad regulator.  There could be other reasons too, but those are the 2 most common.

Going above Stock
Why am I going on about this?  Well, those lights won't do my any good with this TDI engine.  Many original-engine drivers add gauges for exhaust temp and oil pressure, a tach, maybe other things.  So, this isn't terribly out of character for a bus.  Rather than spend a small fortune on different monitoring gauges, I wanted to do something a little different.  First, I thought "wouldn't it be neat to be able to plug in the VAG-COM on my laptop and use that".  I've since purchased an UltraGauge, which has all kinds of meters and things on it.  Most importantly, it has the coolant temperature on the front page, which is the most important one at this point.  So, on to the extending of the OBDII...

Add a Plug
I bought a made-in-China 3-wire OBDII output plug.  The plug was poorly documented (as was mine of the install), but I'll try to cover that a little bit now.  The plug has 3 wires: red for switched B+, black for ground and blue for the signal from the ECU.  From the original OBDII plug, the brown/white wire needs to be tapped into and extended.  I had run a few extra wires from front to back, and with the interior all torn open, the tie-in (after figuring out what to do) was pretty easy.  In an earlier post, I showed a picture of an early mounting.  I've since removed it from the e-brake mount and moved it up into the stock-radio hole.  It needs to be a-fixed, but that should be relatively straightforward once I get around to it.  I need to figure out what I'll be using that hole for before I do that.

Add-on OBDII Testing
Actually testing the install turned out to be very easy.  Apply B+ to the red wire.  Plug in the UltraGauge.  Turn ignition key to run.  Wait.  It was at this point that I discovered that my engine harness efforts were not yet complete..... much to my dismay.  The P-codes returned.  I swapped Justin's borrowed engine harness in again, and the codes lingered, but it may have been because the ECU remembered them from before.  So, I figured I missed a bad wire and completed the verification of the harness, even some wires I had no reason to believe were bad.  This is where things got interesting.

Broken Harness.  New one needed
I documented every wire, and verified connectivity through them all.  I'll convert the documentation to a colored drawing later, but the important bit is every wire was confirmed.  When I put the original harness back in, not only were the codes back, but now the ECU thought my engine temp had increased from ambient (69*) to 419*.  Clearly, that wasn't right, but it was telling.  I think my efforts to diagnose the problem actually caused the problem.  Argh.  I've spent a few hours trying to find a replacement plug or harness, or some other solution, but I think in the end, I'll be needing to buy another harness at a premium - eBarf prices.  Sigh... I did mention I was flat busted in my last post, so that won't be happening soon.  Rather than cut up the borrowed harness so it can receive my oil pressure signal, I may take short flights in the bus to see if the fans come on when they should.  I figure it shouldn't take much driving to figure it out.  I'm afraid of losing my window of opportunity this summer.

That's it for today.  I still have one last chunk of effort from last weekend to talk about.  I've had the boys this past week and it's been awesome.  Lots of computer gaming and movie watching after days of heavy play involving camp and hitting the apartment complex pool.  They head to their mom's on Sunday, and I'll be returning to bus work shortly thereafter.  Thanks for following along...

Where'd May Go?

I'm probably not the only one asking that this weekend. All those great plans we made over beers during Cinco-de-Mayo turned into timing conflicts and over-scheduling, resulting in less than planned getting done. At least that's my story. My last post was almost 4 weeks ago, and I apologize for not sharing along the way. I'll bring you up to date on things. We still have almost a week of May left, and this weekend is open, so let's get crackin!

Boys and Beaverton
The pattern of the boys being with me on Tuesdays and every other weekend has worked pretty well. With school nearing a close for the Summer, schedules rotate a bit and I'll have them every other week instead of this night, that weekend as it has been. We'll go back to that when school re-starts. Between lacrosse practices and games, our time together just hanging out has been constrained. We still have lots of fun though. They've really settled into it, and I still greatly enjoy hearing their voices whenever they're here. I think in some respects we're actually closer than we were before.

Harnessing the Electrical Demons
Even though settling into this new place has taken twice as long as I expected, I was able to attack the engine harness problem. After unwrapping nearly all of the harness tape, and checking the connectivity on about a third of the wires prior to that (before finding a breach), I found the problem. It seems that when the engine was removed from the donor, Jason (the guy I bought the engine from in GA) pulled a little too hard on the harness when it got caught on something. Within the taped up wires, there was a crimp that cover-bared a few wires and cut through a couple. Ah Ha! This was a simple fix, once found: strip, twist together, tape heavily and tightly. Since 80% of the cloth tape was removed to expose the broken wires, I re-taped it - this time with blue cloth tape It'll kinda match the final paint color now.

Installing the harness was something I was concerned about. The last time I wrestled an engine harness into this bus, the coolant temperature sensor was such a bear to connect. I did it wrong a few times back then, and even ended up with the coolant sensor not fully seated at one point. Removing Justin's borrowed harness was surprisingly easy, simply threading or peeling the harness out back to the cabin pass-thru. Installing the original (now blue) harness wasn't nearly as much trouble as I expected. Working from the end (oil pressure sensor), through the 10-pin plug to the coolant sensor was a snap. I needed to think a bit about the coolant sensor, and cram my arm under/around the intake, but it snapped into place with a satisfying "click". Routing the rest was easy now. In fact, with the custom intake, it needed a different route than was originally there, and different from the good-enough-for-now placement we did with Justin's harness.

Charging along
When I moved in, there was a lot of chaos. During that chaos, I didn't turn the key all the way off after parking the bus. So, the battery ran down to empty. Doh! Adding insult to injury, I misplaced my battery charger in the move too. This did give me the opportunity to dig through all my garage boxes, underscoring the need to unpack in there. I need shelving first. Sigh. The fun never ends. Anyway, it turns out that my kids' mom lent my charger to a neighbor before I moved, which is why I couldn't find it. Now that I have it back, I'll be charging the battery this weekend. I also need to fix the cab-to-engine-bay starter switch. For some reason, it didn't work on moving day, and I had to use the remote starter switch.

So, for today...
In an earlier post, I made a punch list of all the things I need to do to have the bus "complete". Clearly, I won't get all that done before camping season starts. I need to get the electrical working reliably, and get the clutch adjusted so I can test-fly. If I can, I'll attack the strip / clean / re-install of the interior too, but even living on my own there are limits to how much time I can create for this work. After I post this, I'll be heading for the garage for the day. With good fortune, I may have a lot to report later this weekend. Thanks for following along-

pictures:
top - harness surgery. lots of tools, reference material. most important: kitchen table
middle - the "crimp" where the broken wires were found
bottom - harness ready for install, sitting a-top my other VW's hood.

Marianne Visits, Pushing Rope

I accept that I have not kept the blog well-updated this past month. I'd love to say it is because I've been working on the bus so much, I haven't had time. Actually, we had a house guest for the past 2-plus weeks, so bus-work slowed down quite a bit. I was able to get some headway on the electrical stuff, though, and I'll touch on that.

Marianne Visits
I mentioned in a previous post that my mother-in-law is battling cancer, and that she had arrived just before Mothers Day. Her visit was very nice, and spent mostly around the house. The kids got to really connect with her, learning again how to play poker and about the pop music of the 1940's. She flew home on Sunday after a visit of just over 2 weeks, and she will return in early June in time for the end of school celebrations. Her battle with cancer is going very well, I'm happy to report. Her doctor had originally expected the cancer to win in a very short time period now gives her multiple years of survival expectation. She is having another PET scan today to confirm the growth / recede-ance in the last month or so. There is no reason to believe the prognosis has changed, though. Her energy seemed very high, and she appeared healthy and vibrant the whole time she was with us. We are looking forward to warmer, sunnier days on her next visit so we can visit the coast.

Un-wired
Around the family movie nights, poker games and the usual scheduling chaos of spring, I was able to get a few hours here and a few hours there on the bus. I finished cutting apart the lighting and climate control bits in my last post. Since then, I have made additional headway. I cut out the trailing end of the main harness, knowing that those plugs were not critical to engine operation. I suspect one or more of those plugs were involved in monitoring operations, though, like the coolant level and the coolant line-pressure. I can worry about that stuff later. I also cut out most of the radiator fan relay circuit, but it may not be for good. I'll get to that later. First, I had to cut the stuff out so I could get the end of the main harness through the hole in the wheel-well and into the engine compartment.

Main Harness - Pushing Rope
There are a few plugs and cables that need to be in the engine compartment - 14-pin plug, the GEN 4-way plug, and the glowplug & main battery feeds. There are others (the 5 colored plugs, and the dash pod, for example) that need to be near the ECU which can't be in the engine compartment. So, after cutting out the parts that either aren't immediately needed or could be re-attached easily, I threaded the main harness through from the cabinet to the engine compartment. Since I had re-taped the harness, it was pretty easy to fit through by myself. After some re-arranging, I was able to get the harness around the top left edge of the intercooler and run it along the upper edge of the rear deck - where the stock bus lighting harness goes. The 14-pin plug is connected, the GEN monitoring plug is connected and even the 5 colored plugs are as well. There is some remaining work in the closet, but it shouldn't be more than a few hours of tinkering.

Fuse Block
I mentioned earlier that I had bought a fuse-block for a Jetta off of eBay. It arrived, and I have determined a location for it: just inside of the stock battery location, hanging from the body with zip-ties. I thought about bolting it, but that would present a great opportunity for a massive short, possibly causing a fire. The support that used to hold the diagnosis plug will be perfect for holding the fuse block, though, now that I've cut some of it away and bent it down. This location places the ends of the main harness about a foot away. With some cable, I will be able to extend the main cable and the glow-plug cable to the fuse block from the main harness. I won't include the coolant pre-warmer circuit just yet. The vanagon folks use this to pre-warm their heating, so I figure it can be dealt with later. Without electricity going to the relays, that circuit is dead. I left all the parts in the harnesses though, so I can re-integrate them when I'm ready to deal with cabin heat. The fuse block area should look pretty good for now. I'll upload a picture once I have the cables done and the block installed.

Radiator Fan Relays
The last bit for today is my plan for the radiator fans. I mentioned that I bought 2 after-market fans to pull air through the radiator I positioned under-belly. I am unable to find the CFM specifics for the stock fans, so I don't know if the aftermarket fans are the long term solution. As such, it seemed prudent to use the original relay circuit in case I need to replace the fans with something that requires stock-level electricity. To make this work, I will be mounting the NewBeetle relay in the engine compartment just to the right-of center along the rear valence. This puts it within 18" of the fuse block so the wires and plugs from the main harness to the relays will fit without modification. The wires that run from the relays to the fans, however, will need to be extended. I have wire for that, and will need to add an in-line fuse to protect the relay. Otherwise, this should be a few hours of work.

That's all I have time for today. I have lots of wire spools, and lots of little things to tie-up. I hope to be able to do something during the week to keep the momentum rolling as we head into Memorial Day. I'll try to take more pictures, but pictures of a rat's nest of wires isn't really very interesting.... or is it?

Ready for Pirmary School

Today's brief post covers the finishing touches on the wiring harness surgery and my opening thoughts on getting the main electrical in-place. It's beautiful day, and it promises to be a beautiful weekend. I have many family obligations, though, so progress will continue to move at a very slow pace.

Wires Uncrossed
I was able to look into the wiring again Wednesday afternoon and finished removing all of the circuitry for cabin and exterior lighting as well as the AC stuff. I am left with the radiator fan circuits as the lone wire bundle I am a little bamboozled by. With the decision to put the dash pod in the closet, many other decisions can be avoided for now. For example, the ECU doesn't need to know about my brake fluid level, so I don't need to figure out how to fake that anymore. I received the fuse block in the mail this morning, so I should have all the pieces to start laying out the primary electrical.

Primarily Speaking
The primary circuit is basically the charging system (generator, voltage regulator) the starting system (starter, solenoid) and the storage (battery). These sub-systems are connected with big thick wires and are necessary to run the engine. It is the connecting of these systems that I will be taking on next, with the help of the fuse block I just received. In the early ALH TDI engine installations, there wasn't an immobilizer. This reduces the complexity a bit. The starter engagement is limited by a switch connected to the clutch pedal so the driver can't start the engine with the clutch pedal out. I'm going to fake that, since the original bus doesn't have that lockout, and its been working great that way for years. I don't plan to route the battery isolator right away, thinking that it might be easier to isolate engine electrical issues without it first.

I will be implementing the fuse block, though, even if I am only using a couple of the main B+ sources. It will make the circuits that much more like the 98 Beetle install, so, again, it will be easier to identify sources of issues.

I will probably need some more primary cable, however. The block I bought does not have any. The wiring harness has a couple but they are buried deep into the main trunk and may not be long enough anyway. I haven't decided where I will locate the fuse block either, which poses another challenge. Should I put it near the pass-through from the cabin to the engine compartment? By placing it here, it would require fewer changes to the harness, and fewer new-cable installations. On the other hand, if I place it near the battery, it would be closer to the original, and I wouldn't need a thick primary cable running from one side of the engine compartment to the other for the battery : fuse block and then back again for the fuse block : starter. I will look at both choices once the battery is in place, and go with the least confusing looking of the 2 options. At this point, I am leaning towards putting the fuse block near the pass-through to reduce the number of wire cuts I need to make.

That's all I have time for today. I will be getting the battery in-place, and arranging the harness this weekend. Between kids' lacrosse games, piano recitals and my mother-in-law visiting, I don't know if I'll have much time beyond that. Sorry, no pictures today. I'll take some of the electrical as it develops.

Mom's Day Spaghetti

Today's post will cover my mother-in-law's (MIL) arrival, a few events since then and a quick visit into the wiring. Last, I have some decisions to make about where to put / how to use the donor dash pod.

First, some of the things I ordered have started to arrive. For example, the belt for the alternator / generator arrived last week (I posted on that before), so that's now in-place. On Thursday, the battery isolator arrived. Still in-transit is the battery fuse-block. Once that appears, I should be well positioned for getting the primary electrical connected.

Marianne arrives
Saturday was a typically crazy day. T had a 9:AM lacrosse game. C was picked up by a friend for an overnight on the Oregon Coast. A new tv we had ordered (and paid for with our taxman refund) arrived and was installed. Marianne's plane arrived early (shortly after noon), and my whole family came over for a big Italian feast. It was nice to have the family over. My brothers both have little ones and my older brother has a step-daughter too, so we have about 14 in total. Marianne made her secret-recipe (her father's) meatballs, and we all ate too much. Good times.

Mom's Day
I had arranged for the boys to make cards this year, so both my wife and my MIL were greeted with cards when they awoke. Knowing my wife is up too early to try to make breakfast-in-bed, I'd prepared for a picnic lunch after church. Instead of going to a park, though, we picninc'ed in the backyard so Marianne wouldn't tire too much. C arrived after the picnic, but his bouncy energy was felt immediately. I kept the boys distracted so my wife and MIL could watch a movie undisturbed, but I was still able to get about 45 minutes looking at the wiring harness. Good thing the weather was as picture-perfect or I would have been "distracting" more interactively inside. Instead, it was just a matter of keeping all questions going through me while they played outside.

Spaghetti and Oil
I've already posted about some of the success I've enjoyed with the 2 main engine harnesses. There are still a few connectors on those harnesses that I can't trace to a purpose, but I suspect they will become clear eventually. I also noted that I had some connectors in the engine compartment for which I did not have a corresponding wired plug. Fortunately, I tagged every plug I could last November, so when I pulled out the main harness, I found the 2 I was missing: the coolant level plug and the coolant pressure plug. The trick was going to be getting these plugs into the engine compartment without having the entire trunk in there.

I started working the trunk (main harness) on Sunday with a pair of scissors and some wire cutters. Since a bunch of engine oil got on the harness during shipping, it was pretty messy, but I was still able to identify clusters of wires I didn't need and remove them. "How?" The first cluster of wires was related to the in-dash stereo components. There were plugs for the stereo and the CD changer, for example. These were not to be re-used, so I un-wired them back to the main trunk. Then, there was the AC controls, and then I started on the exterior lighting. The lighting was a little tricky because so many of the donor plugs were left unlabeled. It turned out, though, that I was able to trace many of the wires through the main trunk and out the other side to where the wiring headed to the rear of the donor vehicle was cut. That iced it.

Within 45 minutes (or maybe an hour) I had removed over 3 pounds of wire from the main harness. I know there is considerably more I can remove, like the rest of the exterior lighting, any interior lighting, window and door lock controls, etc. Once all of the accessory items are gone, I will have (a) a much cleaner harness and (b) many many feet of donor wire in all kinds of colors and thickness to extend things like the coolant level sender circuit. The next time I can get out there I hope to finish the harness clean up. If time allows, I'll start the plug extension after that.

Dash Pod Decisions
During a quiet moment, I pulled out the donor (1998 New Beetle) dash pod and sat it on the steering wheel. It doesn't look like it will fit in the original dash pod hole without some modification. I tried placing it on top of the dash, but it blocks too much view, even if I place it in the center. I looked at placing it in the center of the dash where the stereo sits, but that would take some hacking too. So, I'm now leaning towards leaving the old dash pod in place and stashing the new one under the rock-n-roll bed. This leaves an open question about the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor). If I'm not using the NB dash pod, I don't need that speedometer to work. Since I'm not putting in cruise-control, do I need the VSS at all? Same goes for changing the fuel level sensor. I will need to do something for a tachometer, but putting the NB dash pod out of sight is a game-changer..... and it significantly reduces the amount of work I need to do to be road ready.

More next time. I welcome your input on what purpose the VSS will serve if I don't use the speedo nor the cruise control system.

Accelerating, slowly

I haven't been able to do anything on the bus these last couple of weeks. The project that I'm working on is nearing the end of its development cycle so we're working lots of evenings and weekends to get it tight. Basically, I've worked some every day since I've gotten back from Mt. Bachelor. Good times. Better to be getting worked too hard than not have work at all, though. Anyway, I did get a few hours yesterday, so I focused again on the electrical. I'll flap about the accelerator pedal today.

Inside Electrical
The morning started cold, with a stiff wind. After gearing up, and mentally psyching myself, I got the bus uncovered and climbed inside. I re-connected the westy electrical stuff that I had pulled out last Fall when I was looking at putting the fuel tank under the rock-n-roll bed. I discovered that the wood box thing that covers the power inverter was never physically attached to the seat frame. Huh. Now it is. I then pondered the impacts of trying to remove the fridge unit.
I had planned to remove the fridge, since I don't use it anyway, and put the harness in there. Then, I was going to build a false-bottom with a piece of plywood and use the cabinet as dry-good storage. Sounds great, eh? The problem is, that would take the better part of a day to do, and I don't have that kind of time anymore. So... that becomes another punt-it-to-Fall item. Instead, I'll be running the main harness through to that cabinet and then under the rock-n-roll bed. I'll lose a little storage for the Summer, but it will take far less time to get good-enough-for-now.

Accelerating
The TDI engine, like most modern marvel engines, is controlled more by the computer than it is by your foot. Sure, when you step on the "gas", you speed up, but gone are the days of stomping on it and producing a big cloud of exhaust smoke as you rocket forward. Okay... that never actually happened in a microbus, but if you drove one of those carbureted cars of yester-year, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the modern cars have a rheostat (variable resistor like a dimmer for your fancy house lights) connected to the pedal, and that sends a signal to your computer to tell the engine to go faster. Now, the computer is smart enough to know that you can't just throw gas into the engine like a monkey sitting atop it with a bucket. The computer figures out how to get to your intended velocity without wasting fuel, so you take off like a rocket, but no cloud of smoke. I can't really imagine that kind of force in a bus, but I should after this. Anyway...

Think, then Act
Before Christmas, Hal and I spent some mental cycles on this issue. After cutting the accelerator rheostat from the donor housing, we slid under the bus an figured that the dangle that used to connect to the old pedal could connect directly to the "V"-shaped bracket on the bus pedal that used to pull on the cable back to the old carb. All we needed was some time, a bar of steel, and some care. I put those 3 requirements together on Saturday, and fab'd the bracket. I'm the first to admit that my welding skills are just crap, but after messing around with is for a while, I got this so it will hold no matter how much pull pressure I put on the rheostat. As you can see, the rheostat housing is not in a perfect line. That was done on purpose. The "V" on the accelerator needs to travel in a straight line, but the bracket couldn't fit directly under the pedal. So, it is attached on an angle. I drilled 1/4" holes in the bar before welding so I could fit it around the accelerator pedal bolts. The one closest to the rheostat housing is for one of those screws to slide through. This helped with placement.

Mount Accelerator
Once the bracket was constructed, install was a relatively simple matter. The bracket slid right over the pedal mounting screw and I marked the 2 mounting holes by scraping the paint underneath. Unfortunately, these 2 holes were almost directly above the steering mechanism, so I had to punch pilot holes from below and drill them from above. The picture to the right here shows where those 2 holes were made relative to the bottom of the pedal. I slid the bolts through fender washers from above. Then, the bracket slid right on to the 1 screw and 2 bolts. I thumb tightened them, and with the use of vice-grips, got the bracket in.

Set Motion
Once the bracket was mounted to the underside of the bus, I had to verify the range of motion of the pedal relative to the motion of the rheostat. Up until now, I had the accelerator pedal pulled up with a loose bungy cord. Now, it was time to connect the bits. By retaining the original housing, I was able to take advantage of the original adjustability - it has an allen bolt on either side. It was a relatively simple matter of loosening the bolts, and trying the action until I was able to get the accelerator to go to the floor for full throttle and 3-4 inches off the floor for at-rest. The range of motion for the bus pedal will now be less than it used to be, but there is no standing resistance / pressure on the rheostat until a foot is placed on the pedal. The picture to the left, here, shows the pedal after it has been completely installed. It is important to note that this section of the underside is covered with a belly pan. I will be putting in a seal to keep water out, so this should be a safe location for it. If you are thinking of doing this, consider whether you like to ford streams before jumping in. If this resistor gets wet repeatedly, it will fail, and you'll have to replace it.

That's it for today. I'm working again today (waiting on a job to complete now, actually), so I probably won't be getting into the bus much today. The weather is perfect for working outside, so it really pains me to say that. I am growing increasingly concerned about my time line. If this work level keeps up, I won't hit my dates, and I won't be camping in the bus this Summer.

Pictures:
top left - my awful welding of the accelerator housing to the steel bar.
top right - the bracket from the other side
middle - mounting holes in the floor. note the base of the accelerator pedal barely visible
bottom - accelerator pedal control switch (rheostat) in place