Hapy Test Flights

After a fall/winter/spring of making modifications to Hapy, we took him for a test spin. Today's post covers that, the discoveries made and resolved and then another test drive.

The Changes

First, off, let's recap some of the changes since we last drove Hapy. Recall, that last run was a drive to Cornelius after resolving the stammer by cleaning up the vacuum lines and appliances. That was our last drive (except for the decibel tests) in those loaned-by-GratefulEd seats. We now have Sprinter seats. The old flooring was removed, CLD, jute insulation and MLV was laid in it's place. Of course, we have sound deadener all over and the stereo is operational (it was before, it's just better). On the mechanical side, the engine has a "cold" air intake now and there is a rear sway bar for handling. It is a different feel. More different, I think, is my familiarity with driving him. I have been driving GoRo (the Audi A4) and ToyoTruck, which are much more modern. So, my frame of reference is a little off and the Sprinter seats sit much higher, so I have to lean over to reach the stick now, especially when pulling away from a stop sign. I find myself hunched, and twisted to look left for oncoming traffic. Regardless, I think it will take a few drives to re-acclimate to driving the old bus. Looks like there will be more bus driving ahead. Sweet. One thing worth noting, I think: again, for the entire drive (albeit a short one), we didn't have the stereo on. Funny how much effort I put in and how little it gets used on the road. There is just something about riding in the bus that lends itself to no radio, and carrying on a conversation instead.

The Drive

On to the drive! Hapy started right up like he had been driven the day before. The throttle is super responsive, and the engine drove like a champ. He still doesn't like 2nd gear, but I haven't done anything to address that (it might be my install of the Scat short-throw shifter). The overall low-end drone is MUCH quieter, but some rattles remain, especially the screens in the jealous windows. I probably have them installed incorrectly (this video shows correct). Hapy still stops well, and he takes corners WAY better. There was almost no sway around street corners; of course, we did not drive very far nor very fast. We simply drove to a nearby park, played with the dog and returned home by way of the local c-store for some ice cream on a stick. The combo oil pressure / temp gauge still works great, and we did not throw any codes. While we didn't get above 35mph, the sound inside the bus never grew so loud that we couldn't talk at a conversational level. We could not hear the hum of the tires at all, and we really did not notice the sound of the engine. We could hear it, sure, but it was not as ever-present as it used to be. Recall, I used to describe the noise while driving the bus like sitting in an old metal shed next to a running a diesel generator, in a wind-storm. It is definitely not like that around town. I will execute a full decibel test lap to test the noise at highway speeds, but first, there are some things to fix.

The Issues

First, the exterior lights continue to produce phantoms. The brake pedal causes a bunch of the exterior lights (like the front running lights?) to light up, but not both brake lights. Also, the turn signal doesn't work when the brake pedal is pressed. No pedal and no running lights on... and the blinkers work. I remembered that I had the exact same experience when I took Hapy on that decibel test drive (buried in the Hapy Noises - Part 2 post). So, nothing I did over the winter caused it, but nothing fixed it either.

Probably equally important, the fan switch no longer triggered the fans to fire up. After we returned home, I found that one of my wiring bits had become disconnected. While repairing, I noticed how hot the wires would get during testing, and decided that I had gone too thin a gauge in some areas. So, I replaced the merged fan ground wires with individual 14ga grounds, and improved the supply-side to 14ga as well. The fans now both work, and the wires are air temperature.

The speedometer didn't work. I must have disconnected the speedo to get into the dash at some point over the winter that I don't remember and failed to reconnect it. This took no brainpower, just lots of patience opening up the dashboard, and trying not to upset any of the wiring back there.

We dropped into that awful 1200RPM limp mode right before we shoved off, but it only happened that one time. Believing I had fixed that before, this was especially frustrating. I must have bumped the wiring connection at the pedal while installing the jute and MLV. I checked those connections (pressing the joint-points firmly between my fingers), but nothing felt off. After multiple drives since, Hapy has not dropped into that 1200RPM limp mode again. 

Last, Hapy had not yet received his annual Spring cleaning (after-photo is at the top). So, he had a blanket of pollen on his pop top, moss on his window seals / windshield wipers, dull looking paint and dirty windows. The spring wash is the biggest of the year, taking a couple of hours, but it is so worth it.

Exterior Lighting Diagnosing

I have tried so many times to figure this out, and so many ways, but I had not been successful. I won't list them, but between resistance and voltage testing everywhere, running test wires the length of the bus, and replacing things, I thought I had tried everything. This weird brake light thing had been a recurring phantom for years, practically since I first did the engine swap. One of the frequent causes for the issue to return after being gone for a while was a remove/install of the battery. This always seemed strange. Sure, the battery is part of the electrical system, but why would it re-conjure an electrical ghost? It occurred to me this time around that the old 20-pin diagnosis plug is back by the battery. Perhaps my incomplete removal of that plug and related wires is a contributing factor?

Unable to determine this through my prior methods, I did something completely different. I removed the tail light assemblies from the bus, letting them loosely hang in the body holes. I took a different 12V auto battery, and ran a test wire from its ground post to the body ground point next to the main on-board battery. Using a fused wire, I touched various light circuits to see which ones worked as expected and which did not. All of this time, I had believed the issue was in the passenger tail-light: it is the light fixture closest to the battery, so I thought I was bumping something while installing the battery. Nope. The tail-light circuits would fire the correct lights. When I ran the same test on the passenger light fixture, lights were batty like I described above.

I checked the wiring diagram related to the driver tail light, and noticed that there was a tie-in between it and the battery location: the old test plug circuit. The yellow circled 9, 10 and 12 which tie into the driver tail light all correspond to the pin numbers in the plug. I knew that the running light was the one that was lighting up in-error, so I figured that red wire was the compromised one. I cut it off at the tail light, and the phantom behavior ended. Both brake lights illuminate when I step on the brake pedal, and all the running lights light up correctly (and only when I turn on the lights, not when I step on the brake).

 

I ultimately cut off all of the wires going into that old diagnosis plug at the plug, and cut the diagnosis wire from the passenger-side rear turn signal. I will probably have to go back into the driver side and cut off the remaining diagnosis wires to make sure I have really exorcised the electrical demons.

Victory Lap

With the brake lights working, the speedo showing speed, the fans firing and the body looking clean, Hapy and I were ready for a test. I figured that I had numbers for the test lap around the neighborhood from last Fall (documented here), so combining a test lap with a decibel collection made sense. Other than all of the changes I made for sound containment, there were no only other variables. Well... I took one lap, but it started just pouring rain, so I took another one. After that one, I realized that I did not know which "filter" to use on the reader because I didn't document that. I know I made a choice last time, though. Still, I think the test was valid enough for my not-terribly-scientific method. This time, I just used the default "A" filter. I did one last lap, but discovered at the end that I had failed to start the dB recording. Sigh...

Fall 2021 (pre-sound absorb) test:

Sitting at idle (900 RPM): 60dB

Around town (less than 40mph): 65dB +/- 5dB. 75dB peak

On the byways (above 40 but under 55): 65dB +/- 10dB

Spring 2022 (post-sound absorb) test:

Sitting at idle (900 RPM): between 55db and 60dB

Around town (less than 40mph):  60dB - 65dB. 70dB peak during highest-rev

On the byways (above 40 but under 55): 65dB - 70dB

Looking at those numbers, I am not impressed, nor do I expect you to be. That was a LOT of work for not much gain. I hit my original goal of dropping the overall sound and the peaks by 5dB, but after the initial drive-about experience, I was expecting more. Again, I need to remind myself that 5dB is actually a large span. Consider, 60dB is normal conversation and 70dB is a running vacuum cleaner. That is a huge difference for an increment of 10. Also, consider that in the link I used for sound level references, it includes "passenger car" at 70dB. So, if my drive around the smaller test loop only peaked (and even then only twice) at 70dB, then Hapy is quieter than a typical passenger car inside. Okay, maybe I'm feeling a little better about it. One last thing to consider.... if I used a different filter last time, then the numbers collected last time should have been much higher, or my efforts were a complete waste of time and money. Since the perceived noise is so much better, I am inclined to believe that I used filter A last time too, since that is the default. Here's an interesting link about filters.

 

At this point, Hapy is ready for summer, and it really could not have happened any later. While I intend to circle back on parts of this project, I do not expect to have to take Hapy off the road to do so. Yes, the furnace needs a re-do, the fridge cabinet is still in pieces, neither the headliner nor the carpet is in... he is still ready for camping. So, for the next few months, we are going to enjoy that, and I will be returning my attention to Zed. Last Summer ended with Zed still in primer. I would like to end this Summer with him painted, and ready for interior work over the Fall/Winter/Spring.

Well, 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-

Ceiling Wiring Rough In

With the interior of Hapy (1972 VW camperbus) pulled apart for noise control, it was a perfect opportunity to improve some of my earlier wiring decisions. Today's post covers the changes for the wiring that runs in the ceiling. There will be more posts on other parts of the electrical system later.

AWG

I think the first thing to consider when it comes to wiring, is what gauge wire to use. Most of my runs will be less than 5 meters, and very few, if any, of them will require even 10 amps. With this in mind, we consult the chart, and see that 14 gauge AWG (American Wiring Gauge) wiring would meet the need. I rounded up to 12ga and I bought a bundle. This bundle was 12 separate colored wires, each 25 feet long. Most of the wires will be feeding lamps, which draw, like, 1 amp. So, even if one run actually runs the full 25 feet, I am not terribly concerned about the wire health. In fact, I could add more lighting sources or an additional appliance (USB charger, eg) without really jeopardizing the wire health. Similar to car wiring, I set a color so I would know from looking at each end what it was for. The prior wiring had some joint bits in the middle so it might have started one color (most of the wires were red because I had a lot of it), but may have changed in the middle somewhere. That is an impossible state to trace, and I would have deserved a "DPO" label had I left things that way. With the new color scheme, I can be sure I have the right wire in hand. When combined with a fuse chart, following, fixing and effectively owning the wiring will be much easier.

 

I call out "AWG" because there are many vendors on the interwebs who will say their wire is "12 gauge", but not all gauges are alike. Their 12 gauge might be the AWG equivalent of 14 or even 16 AWG. One other consideration: copper coated aluminum wire is not the same thing as solely copper wire. Use aluminum, and/or a too-thin gauge and your vehicle will have a serious fire hazard. I encourage buying the right gauge or thicker and only use pure copper. It costs more, but the peace of mind is worth it.

What Where

I have added electrical stuff all over the place over the years in a thoroughly hap-hazard way. I considered each of them, plus I want to add some things. I have been wanting to improve the lighting for quite a while. We had the original dome light between the seat-backs, but it really doesn't provide enough light into the cab to be useful. So, it really doesn't get used. The light in the pop-top is great, and we use it fairly often when we are set up to camp. We also have the 1979 Westy 2-way light, but when I installed it, I put it where the old 1972 interior light was because it covered the hole in the wood headliner. This placed it off-center of the window which is really only an issue aesthetically. Similar to the pop-top light, it gets regular use when camping. There is no light further back into the sleeping area, and there is no light near the sliding door. With the re-wire, I intend to address all of these things.

To replace/improve the cab lighting, I will install a new dome light closer to the front of the cab. To create some lighting in the sleeping area, I will install a switchable light fixture on the rear ceiling. This light will also double as a light-source for the engine bay. Last, the 1979 Westy 2-way light will move a little further forward for aesthetics. In it's old location, it cast a shadow in front of the fridge cabinet. In the new location, the floor in front of that cabinet will be well-lit, without losing lighting into the fridge cabinet.

Last, the original dome light is getting moved to the ceiling near the front of the sliding door. So, when you open the slider, there is a low-intensity light we can flip on. This will help us getting in/out of the bus when it's super dark out. This switch has 2 positions (I'm calling them switch 1 and 2) originally designed so you could switch it from door operated to off to manually operated and back. In my implementation, switch 1 will turn on the original dome light as well as the dome lights I have mounted in the cab and in the sleeping area. No, the switch was not originally designed to do this, so I am modifying it. I'll post on that later. Switch 2 will only turn on the light by the slider. I thought there would be times when lighting up the entire bus from one switch might be useful.

The circuits, or should I say 12V consumers, I am considering from front to rear. I'm using letters so I don't pre-dispose myself on fuse numbering:

wire hole from above

a -* (grey) cab 12V accessory plug

b -* (purple) new cab dome light

c -  stereo <- will probably leave as-is or run under the floor

d -  amplifier for stereo - not wired yet, would probably follow stereo wire

e -* (white) original dome light switch 1

f -* (pink) original dome light switch 2<- will share pop-top light wire

g -* (pink) pop-top light

h -* (blue) 2-stage westy light

i -  furnace

j -  12V accessory plug by slider door

k -* (green) sleeping area dome light

l -* (orange) sleeping area USB charger ports - to be figured out

*: ceiling wired (wire color)

 

In the past, I had 3 wires running through the ceiling, but it was a total hack. I sent the wire bundle inside the Baltic Birch drop ceiling to the rear driver corner where it basically just dropped down along the inner wall, behind the rear-most window to the floor. From there, it ran forward to the fuse box under the rock-n-roll bed. This worked, but it looked pretty bad and the wires ran probably 5 meters longer than a direct path would take. And, I would catch the wires when loading/unloading gear. With the drop ceiling removed, I could see where the original VW/Westfalia wiring had been run along the top edge where the side wall meets the ceiling and it led me to my improved solution.

Implementing

original dome-light mount

The rear side of the B-pillar (directly behind the front doors) is hollow. In the top edge where stock wiring runs, there is a factory hole from the edge into the B-pillar. This is probably intended to route a sunroof drain or something. I used it to route the wires from the ceiling down along the front edge of the middle window and into the dead space under the window usually hidden by a door/body card. From there, the wire bundle runs rearward and around the old fridge cabinet to the fuse-box under the rock-n-roll bed. This path is considerably shorter, which reduces the opportunity for a wire to short as well as reduces the drop in amperage between the battery and the appliance simply because a shorter wire experiences less loss. I ran the wires one at a time, from below upward. I threaded the first wire by chasing bailing wire down from above first. To that wire, I duct-taped my first wire. Once it passed through the hole, I duct-taped the next wire to the first, and sent it up and through. I repeated versions of this until all 7 wires had passed through. I am not sure there is still room for another wire, if I need to send another, like, for the ambient temperature sensor for the furnace thermostat.

One point worth highlighting: all of the wires are intended to serve a single consumer except the dome lights. The pink wire will support the pop-top light and the original dome light when only that light is turned on, which has moved above the slider. I moved it because the most frequent need for light is when we enter that door, so having a switched light right there will be very useful. Why share? Neither light will draw much, and even if they are both on at the same time, the draw will be well below the limit for the size wire. The same goes for the other position (white wire), since those dome lights draw so little. Besides, that B-pillar pass-thru hole was getting crowded and the number of isolated wires is probably already overkill. When I think of how many fuses there are for the entire electrical system for Oliver (1978 MGB), this plan really feels like over kill.

At this point, I have not yet tied the wiring into the fuse box. Since I will be addressing the fuse box, luxury battery and, maybe, the old fridge circuitry later on, simply having the wires snaked from their termination points was sufficient. Let's call this the "electrical rough-in".

Well, that's it for today. This took me an entire weekend day just to get this far, though I also removed all of the old luxury wiring and that takes a little time too. I accept that I move slow and quality... well, snaking wires... takes time. Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Ignition Complete

My last couple of posts have spanned 3 weeks, and, honestly, most of the work has as well. Today's post ends with a running car, and covers the final step in the ignition journey.

 

Best Laid Plans

I thought my plan was so simple. I would just pull out a box of bolt-in ignition parts and I would go from a running-crummy car to a magical sled. As you have witnessed from the last couple of posts, it was not that simple. First, the battery was dead, then the fuel pump was bad. Now, we are finally ready to set the timing, but there doesn't appear to be any spark coming from this new ignition. Why?

Lucas, Lord of Darkness

First, that's not my joke; I borrowed it from Hal. Thanks, Hal. Years later, its still funny, and in so many cases, its still true.

Lucas CEI ignition wiring diagram

I figured that the red and black wires for the ignition signal in the new distributor could just re-use the red and black wires that had been feeding the old distributor. That was my mistake, because I did not recognize this was not your standard distributor. No... this was a Lucas CEI ignition system. While I imagine these were great in their day, this set up was a little more complicated. The 2-wire signal going to/from the distributor does not go directly to the coil. It routes through an amplifier box. This amplifier box appears to only work with the Lucas stuff, though. I believe that either the replacement hi-power coil, the new distributor or both are not compatible with the amplifier box.

The amplifier does not make things much more complicated: it only adds 2 wires to the coil, but the wiring around the coil is already a little confusing. Add in some extras and some grease shmears and trying to figure out what wire is for what starts to get more difficult, especially when the wires are not in the standard diagram. The image above is correct, but it is not in the standard "advance autowire" wiring diagrams, nor can I find references to the Lucas CEI in the MGB shop manual that I have. Still, this research did tell me that there is no ballast in the circuit from the coil to the distributor. There is a ballast between the coil and the fusebox (and that remained), but I figured I should be able to direct-wire the red/black wires to the +/- on the coil directly. The picture below should help show what a "ballast" coil set up looks like. See that "distributor resistor" in the drawing below? It is not in the drawing above so I don't have that. So, we start over. Kinda.

 

Final Install

standard 1978 ignition wiring diagram

I started by removing the distributor again. I had moved the 2-pin plug from the Lucas distributor onto the AccuSpark so I undid those solder joints and soldered on 2 1-foot lengths of 16ga wire (black and red for negative and positive, respectively). I heat-shrink'd the solder points. To the ends of these wires, I added female wire disconnects and heat-shrink'd those as well.

Next, I disconnected the wires going to and from the amplifier box and then removed the box itself. I re-installed the coil and the 2 things that shared the mount-points with 2 shorter bolts. Then, I slid the distributor back in, and re-set the mounting bolt to hold it firm. I had found TDC earlier, as noted in my previous post, so I oriented the distributor visually into the same place (took a picture before removing). In theory, everything should be fairly well set, at least well enough to start, albeit roughly. I optimistically pulled out my timing light just in case.

On an aside, the MGB battery is behind the passenger seat. This makes use of a timing light challenging. To remedy, I sat an old battery on the floor by the front bumper on the passenger side and clipped my positive and negative leads for the timing light onto it. 

It's Alive!

tidied up

I double-checked my under-hood connections, turned off the KBOO and then returned to the driver seat. I turned the key to run and heard the click-then-hum of the fuel pump as well as a click from the engine compartment. Thinking that was the coil leaping to life, I turned the key to start and Oliver started immediately. I mean immediately. No ba-ba-ba beforehand, no choke needed. He just started, and then dropped into a lope-y idle.

Setting Timing

Thrilled, I clipped my timing light sensor on spark lead #1 and pointed it at the main pulley. It flashed on the timing mark, indicating I was around 10* before top dead center (BTDC), which was in the ballpark (suggested 6-14 degrees advanced from TDC by AccuSpark). I tried rotating the distributor housing a little bit to advance or retard the timing, and found that Oliver was most content around 12* BTDC. My light is a cheapy, and does not have a knob to check full advance. So, instead, I used my ears, revving the engine up and down and then revving it up and quick-pulling my foot off the pedal. This last test was when Oliver used to backfire. There was none of that now. Of course, he is not under load right now either. Undeterred, I went back up front and checked his timing again: he was still settled at 12*.

I turned off Oliver's engine and tightened down the timing adjust set bolt (5/16") so the distributor would not rotate on it's own, and his timing would be locked in. I was done. Wow. I hadn't expected that. So, I spent a few minutes cleaning up some of the wiring that I had earlier cut loose from the taped loom by encasing it in some basic wire wrap.

leads now

I included the before picture of my ignition below (blue leads) and a picture of the ignition now on the right here (red/orange leads), taken from about the same spot. If you look closely, you will notice that the newly installed distributor is oriented at least 45* anti-clockwise compared to how it was before. So, either I had moved the dizzy a little before taking that before picture or the engine was running so incredibly off it is kind of a miracle it was running at all. Perhaps the backfires on deceleration could be attributed to the timing being so far off that the dizzy could not get back to a fire-at-the-right-time state when I took my foot off the pedal.

At this point, I'm not sure it was ever firing at the right time. Based on how quickly he started, and how well he ran after I revved him a few times, I am confident the mark I used for TDC and his timing are correct. The lesson here, I think, is to give your new-to-you car a tune-up as soon after you get it home as you can. I have been given this lesson before (See Bay City Blues), but I guess I need multiple examples before I learn sometimes. Bare minimum, I will start looking at my spark plugs during oil changes so I have a regular insight into the combustion. Might be worth a quick validation of the timing when I do that.

Next?

Oliver is pretty much ready to go again. He hard-started a few days after I did the timing I mentioned above. So, I still need some carb adjustment time, and he needs to go through DEQ, of course. An oil change is overdue as well. Otherwise, he is practically ready for Summer. As am I. Just thinking about a top-down drive with Boo for a picnic at a park sounds just about perfect. I'll post on the carb tuning when I get to it.

leads before

I'm not sure what I will be working on next, but nice weather is right around the corner so returning to the paint on Zed is inevitable. Some of him sat outside all winter, so I imagine there is quite a bit of rework coming before I can think about laying paint. Meanwhile, T is due back in the Pacific NorthWest to fight forest fires somewhat soon, and he will probably want/need Nemo on his off days. So, maybe I need to get that rear end sorted. Of course, Nemo won't start now or even put a signal to the OBD2 plug, so he is going from bad to worse fast.

Regardless, there's always something to do at ShadeTree, like helping a local kid swap out his muffler. Oops, I guess I forgot to post on that. We had fun and he learned something: a fart can muffler on an otherwise stock exhaust doesn't really do anything. For a meaningful change in tone and performance, he will need to remove at least one of the other resonators. He is saving up for a cat-back; that will be fun.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB - Electronic Ignition

It was an unseasonably cold weekend recently. Since Oliver is in a nice warm-ish garage and Spring is supposed to be here now, I decided that I would start getting Oliver (1978 MGB) convertible-top-down, road-ready. Today's post starts us off with replacing the ignition. Like so many things with these old cars, nothing is as simple as it seems on it's surface, so this post ends without a running car. Maybe I'll get it next time. 

AccuSpark

Most folks think of "Pertronix" when they think of an electronic ignition upgrade. PerTronix makes great electronic ignition systems, for sure. I ran one on the old bus engine for a little while. I decided I would try the AccuSpark system because it was less expensive and appeared to be UK-based. The UK-based nature had me thinking that maybe it was better suited to an English motor. So, back in the Fall 2019 when I was thinking that I would be spending the winter finishing Oliver, I bought one of their kits, and put it on a shelf. Things happened, CoViD-19 blew up, the wiring in Hapy got complicated and I forgot about it... until I was cleaning my garage and found the box with the international shipping labels still attached. Jeez.

For around 70 pounds plus postage, you can order a drop-in ignition. When I did it, it ran me about $150US including shipping to the States. So, what's in the box?

- a pre-fitted electronic ignition in a 45D distributor (correct dizzy for a rubber-bumper / later model MGB)

- a distributor cap

- 4 Champion AC9C 3-prong spark plugs

- a blue ballast coil (though you can upgrade to a "Viper Dry" coil)

- a set of spark plug leads ("wires" to US folks) with a di-electric grease pouch

- you can optionally include a timing light

Preparation

It is recommended that you set your engine to top dead center (TDC) or firing position for the #1 cylinder. For most cars, the distributor could go in multiple ways, so making sure it is oriented correctly requires that you know which cylinder is ready to fire. The MGB engine is unusual in that it has a one-way-only key in the distributor drive and corresponding gear in the engine. If you try to put it in any other way it will not seat and not turn. Still, I wanted to make sure I had clear timing marks so I got a 1-15/16" socket for my 1/2" ratchet, removed the air-directing tin between the front of the engine and the rear of the radiator and turned the engine (clock-wise) until I could see the little nick on the rear of the main pulley. I aligned it with the top-most saw-tooth on the timing meter and then marked both with a dot of yellow paint. I also marked the tooth representing 15* advanced, since that is the stock amount of advance desired at idle (per the Bentley manual). This mark later turned out to be incorrect.

 

To find true TDC, I had to pull the valve cover and watch the valves move while I rotated the engine with the 1/2" ratchet. The mark that I believed was TDC was about 90* off. I found a different mark on the front (front is front) of the main pulley that was around midway between the points where the intake/exhaust valves opened. Accepting that this was the true TDC, I marked the nick with a dot of yellow.

With the replacement kit and tools on a nearby table, and the radio playing the Saturday morning KBOO shows, I was now ready for some ignition fun.

Spark Plug Remove and Inspect

My old ignition basically had not been looked at since I bought this car. Since Oliver has not had more than a couple hundred miles on him, clearly I did not drive his old system into it's current state. Frankly, it sat for a few years before I bought him, and without any servicing since, my expectation was that it needed, well... a lot. His performance had not been all that great when I bought him, and the new exhaust did not create the pick-me-up I had hoped for. So, away we go.

I started with removing the old spark plugs with a 13/16" socket. Spark plugs are a great gauge for how well your combustion has been performing: too rich, too lean, oily, too hot, etc. My findings were mixed, and odd. From firewall to fan, Plugs 4 and 3 were black, but dry, indicating that they had been burning inefficiently. Plug number 2 was black as well, but had some soot on it. Plug number 1 had a little bit of soot around the edge, but the prong was grey. So, I look at my plugs and compared them to the AutoLite Plug diagram (image posted here) to try to figure out what's going on.

Based on the mapping document here, numbers 3 and 4 are "carbon fouled", with lots of possible causes, ranging from "wrong plug" to weak ignition to mis-tuned carb, too-gentle driving or a bad choke. Neat, but at least they look like twins. I am more concerned about plugs from 1 and 2. These are fed by the same intake runner, yet they look very different. Plug 2 looks like a worse version of plugs 3 & 4, and plug 1 has a clean or normal looking ground electrode with some carbon around the edge.

L-to-R: plugs 4 to 1

These plugs may have been wrong for the engine. Spark plugs are a religion, and I have followed a relatively simple rule (that will probably frustrate / anger / enflame some people): I align the plug manufacturer country with the engine/car manufacturer country. So, I'll find NGK's for our Subaru, Bosch for Audi/VW's and Champions for US/English cars. The plugs I pulled out are single-prong NGK's; to be fair, NGK may make a perfect plug for the MG. I don't know. I can say that the AccuSpark folks (from the UK) sent me 4 Champion AC9C 3-prong plugs. MAybe they subscribe to the same flavor of spark plug religion that I do. I don't expect the plugs were the problem, but they may have been a contributor. Regardless, I gapped (0.035" per the Bentley manual) the three prongs on each plug and then installed the delivered-with-the-kit spark plugs.

Dizzy Swap

With the plugs done, I pulled the distributor cap and the lead from the coil. This created some access to the distributor mounting bolts. The prior owner installed a remote inverted oil filter unit, so the access to the front mount bolt was still a little challenging, but not impossible. Still, a little fun with an old-skool 7/16" spanner got the bolts out. Once the bolts were removed, the dizzy popped right out. I immediately settled it back in, and made a mark in the dust on the starter cover which direction the rotor was pointing. As I said above, the dizzy can only go in one way, so whichever way the rotor is pointing when you pull the cap is the only way it could be pointing. In the images I have seen on the internet, the number 1 plug is usually in the 1 o'clock position, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the dizzy gear is put in upside down so your #1 plug position is actually on the bottom. When I rotated the engine, the cap was on, and the leads had not been touched. I noted at this point, though, that the distributor rotor was pointing down and slightly to the left. When I removed the cap, the #1 lead was in that area, so I figured I would put it back together the same way. If things were 180* off, it will run, but poorly. Re-setting the leads 180* the other way would be easy to test later. I took the picture below so I could run the replacement leads the same way as they were.

old leads

With the old dizzy off, I loosened the clamp on the new one so it would move a little bit. The timing of the old set up might have been off, based on the "carboned" color of the plugs. Regardless, I want to be able to change it from the shipped-to-me state. I will clamp it tight (5/16" wrench) once the timing is verified. Satisfied that the dizzy would turn in the clamp, but only with some effort, I popped the new dizzy into place. The new mounting plate only had a single bolt hole for mounting, above and to the left, but otherwise, install was trivial. The lower bolt was the hard one to get to, so I was not going to complain. I put the now-extra bolt into the lower right hole anyway and snugged them both down tight.

Coil

The kit delivered with a new coil that corresponds to whether there is a ballast in your system. The electronics require the more powerful coil. Swapping a coil is easier than swapping a distributor, usually. In this case, because so many things leverage the mounting bolts for a ground, it is more of a juggling act than the coil swap in the old bus. I unmounted the original, and set it upright on the starter, leaving the wires attached to the various tabs. This gave me room to install the new coil and remain focused on the grounds and such. Once in place, I moved the female wire-disconnect-tipped wires from old coil to new coil.

Cap and Leads

The hard part, if you want to call it that, was over. Now, it was a simple matter of installing the leads. The prior set-up had the #1 lead around 7 o'clock. From there, they run the same way on all MG's: 1-3-4-2 anti-clockwise. The set of leads delivered with a clear dielectric grease, which is recommended on the electric connection to prevent corrosion and encourage a better current delivery. I smeared some on each end of all connections and plugged things in nice and snug. The electric connector floated around in the spark plug boot end a little bit so I made extra-sure the encased metal spark-plug end was definitely snapped on.

At this point, I would have started the engine and set the timing. Unfortunately, the turn of the key resulted in nothing. No noises, no clicks and definitely not starting. A quick glance at the voltmeter told me all I needed to know: flat battery. Awesome. So, this post got kinda long, and the resulting diagnostic did as well. So, I'll get back to Oliver next time. Thanks, as always, for following along--

Cosa sta succedendo in Italia?

A few months ago, the hit-rate on this blog really took off. I thought it was because we had started working on a project that was of wider interest than the usual fare of Volkswagon bay window bus and the MGB. To be fair, we have documented our work on a few other cars: the Jetta, a couple A4's, a subbie and, of course, Jaws the Jeep. We have done little things to help out friends along the way too, and we haven't really documented those, but that's not really important.

Back to a few months ago, I thought there was a new interest because of the 280ZX project. This theory was fueled by a considerable uptick in overall blog interest, but more from the hit-rate those particular postings were getting. That behavior is not holding, however, and I'm seeing higher hits on all postings. Am I getting more interesting? No. Are my posts really appealing to that much broader an audience? I doubt it. So, with the assumption that my posts are no more interesting nor widely appealing, I started looking into the numbers a little bit more.

This all brings me to the title of the post: Cosa sta succedendo in Italia? or "what's going on in Italy?"

The numbers indicate that I am getting a very unusual spike in traffic from Italy. Based on the sharp peak (it looks like a tack sitting on it's head), I'm inclined to believe that it is a bot of some kind spider'ing the blog with 50 or so post views in a span of a few minutes. With all the craziness stemming from the Russian influence on elections and the use of Facebook in that effort, I think everyone is a little more on edge. So, when I saw that usage spike I figured it was a troll-farm thing, but it's not from Russia and frankly this blog doesn't really hit their target content-wise.

The stats collected about where the views come from or what browser is being used are quite literally of no interest to me. I don't look at that. I am interested to know what posts hold interest over time, but just from a curiosity perspective. I don't think it meaningfully influences what I write about. My life drives what I write. If a car breaks, I fix it and then write about it. If my kid buys a car or the family moves or we take a trip somewhere, I write about it. If you were to bring your car over and we work on it, I'll write about it or maybe I won't. I don't know. Yes, that's an open invitation to bring your car over if you need to do something on it, even if it's just a simple oil change.

Anyway, weird post for today, but after months of wondering what's going on this post will serve as the salve to get it out of my system. I love cars. I love talking to people about cars. But mostly, I love working on them, and even better is working on them with someone else. If the Italian Blog Bot feels the same way, then I absolutely welcome its spidering behaviors. Spread the love, Iron Man. But, if you're trolling for political leanings or how to learn how to best influence an election, you're definitely in the wrong place. We talk cars, not politics here.

Happy May Day-

MGB Emissions Update:
I didn't change the oil because it was clean as honey when I checked it. I guess I changed it before I started all the work on it.
I replaced the spark plugs (they were Champions) with NGK's, and gapped them to .03. The old ones had really wide gaps, but the tips were light-ish colored telling me that the fuel mixture was lean if anything out of normal. I replaced the plug wires, distributor cap and rotor as well.
I routed the oil breather into the top of the air cleaner by drilling a hole in the chrome-top and threading a 1/2" hose joiner into the hole. For hose I used a junk garden hose, which I'll replace with something more suitable later. I was aiming for minimum spend in case MG failed smog miserably. I did a few other little things, that I'll post on later, but that was it for the smog stuff except for getting and hooking up the charcoal fumes thing I mentioned last post.

T and C took a joy ride in MG while I was at work, starting with a trip to the DEQ. MG passed! It passed way better than I could have imagined, actually. For posterity:
hydro-carbons (HC) need to be at or below 220 parts per million (ppm). MG scored a 6ppm.
CO needed to be at or below 1%. MG scored .0201%
With this happy news, I'll be dancing into the DMV to renew my tags. Regular driving of this little British sports-car is just around the corner.

MGB - floor pans (Part 3)

Continuing the effort of replacing the floor pans. In Part 1, I talked through decisions about parts and methods. In Part 2, we removed the old pans. Today, we focus on prepping the new pans and getting them welded in.

Context

paint from below, p-side

Remember that the original pans were spot-welded to the rails. This was done at the factory where very long spot-welder arms are available and things like the doors, dashboard, etc aren't yet installed, so there are fewer obstacles. Even with some crazy-long spot welder extension arms, you will not be able to avoid another solution for some of the mounting locations. Your options: seam weld from below or plug weld from above. At least on the right side, the wires, tubes and cable make a seam-weld from below option very difficult. Most do-at-home folks go the plug-weld route. The folks at British Auto Works in North Plains run seam welds around the outer edge from above, but plug weld the inner frame rails. If you're going to do this, they recommend running beads that are about an inch long and space them every couple of inches to prevent warping. It will hold at least as well, if not better, than plug welding the whole thing.

Fitment

p-side pan prep

The passenger floor fit like it was supposed to fit. It literally dropped right into place. It wouldn't shift too much side to side or front to back, but my hammer/chisel work bent some of the edge along the transmission tunnel, so I had to work the metal back into shape. Once the floor was stable (no wobble or weird clunks from my stepping on it), it was ready to go. The driver (left) side, however, did not fit right. The front right corner on the pan assumed the floor had a squared-off point to it, but my floor had a rounded edge. I had to bend the corner of the pan to test fit and then cut it off with my grinder for welding it in. It would not naturally sit flat either, so I had to be extra careful as I did my first few welds to get the floor to hold flat. You may experience a similar situation, even with the OEM pans. We know the aftermarket ones don't fit without cutting, so be advised.

What's a "Plug Weld"?
A plug weld is performed by drilling a hole through one material, setting that on top of a second piece of material and welding the two pieces together through the hole. In our case, we are making 1/4" holes in the new flooring. The weld is formed by setting the MIG wire into the center of the plug hole, pulling the trigger to start forming a puddle and then extending the puddle into the floor after the puddle has started to grab into the frame rail. Before we can weld, we need to poke holes in the floor, but where? I tried 2 methods. I'll explain them next.

Option 1 - Paint and Measure
Once the frame rails are clean, you just can't help yourself. You just have to drop the new floor on there and admire how nice it looks. It looks so pretty. Looking at the passenger-side pan sitting there, I wanted an easy way to spot the holes. I fiddled with the pan to make sure it was exactly where I wanted it and then set some tool boxes on top so it held still and firm on the rails. Then, I grabbed a can of white spray paint, slid underneath and spray-painted the edges of the frame rails where they met the underside of the new pan. When I lifted the pan off the rails, there were clear white lines showing where the frame rails were. I ran blue tape along those edges and marked drill holes every inch or so with a sharpie. The p-side prep picture on the right shows what the prepared pan looked like.

Option 2 - Use Old Flooring

using old floor, d-side

When I removed the driver (left) side floor pan edges, I didn't crumple them up as I went. Instead, I would separate a section and then cut it free with tin-snips when the trim started getting in the way. Once all of them were free, I arranged them on the ground with the larger sections I had cut out earlier. With the puzzle so completed, I could see where the old spot welds were. So, I arranged the puzzle onto the bottom of the new pan, and shot spray-paint through the taped-on floor-pan edges. When I removed the old edges, I had dots showing me where to drill the plug-weld holes.

Drill Baby Drill
Regardless of which method you choose, drilling the plug holes is a two-step process. First you drill a pilot hole and then you drill out to 1/4". I suppose a step-bit would work so that would be only one drill effort. Similar to cutting out the spot welds, this is time consuming. I understand why British Auto Works (and probably most other shops) reduce costs by seam welding the outer edges. For that reason, I drilled plug welds into the floor to correspond to the inner frame rails, and only a few around the outer edge of the p-side pan. My paint-from-below method worked pretty well, though my alignment slipped a little bit and I had a few holes that didn't align with the rail.

On the driver (left) side, I chose to plug weld the whole thing, so that meant more drilling on that pan. The holes I produced with Option 2 were an exact match. They aligned on the rails perfectly. Unfortunately, the holes that cut all the way through the frame rail were now completely exposed as well. The drilling out of a single pan took me 2-3 hours and overall there really wasn't that much of a difference in time between the two sides, even though there were far fewer holes on the p-side. That doesn't math-out logically, but that's what happened. The all-in time at this point is over 14 hours and no pans are welded in yet.

Plug Welding

If the grinding was the best part of Part 2, then the welding was the best part of Part 3. I borrowed a 110V Lincoln MIG welder from my wife's sister's boyfriend, and bought a small 20# tank of "steel mix" gas for the project (cost me $100 for the tank plus gas-fill on craigslist). I've heard these small tanks have 6-8 hours of gas in them, so that should be enough for multiple pan replacement projects. Once I had the passenger side ready to weld, I hosted my wife's sister and her boyfriend for a welding party. The plan was simple: he shows us how to weld, and I keep a fresh beer in his hand. It worked out well for everyone. While he got the welder set up, he taught us with welding scraps from the old torn-out floor. This gave us opportunity to work on pieces that didn't matter, but were the right thickness and material. We ran the temp / voltage as high as it would go (D) and the feed set pretty fast too (just below 9). Because if the thickness of the rails, the high-voltage setting makes sense. For other work, like repairing the rear bulkhead the previous owner cut a big hole in, I'll need to bring the temp way down. Before we were done for the evening, the passenger pan was in, and 3 of us learned how to MIG weld, including my wife's sister. Very fun.

During the actual weld-in, we had setbacks, of course, like some burn-through of the pan when we novices tried to run a bead, or small fires from grease or paint catching fire from the welding. Not to worry, though, they were small enough to blow out. Still, the decision to weld on the driveway rather than the standard low-ceiling garage turned out to be a good idea. We tested a few of the welds just for curiosity sake by banging on them with a hammer and trying to separate the panel with pressure from below. No dice.

I've gone back and forth about grinding down the plug-weld humps. I know the floor is going to be covered with sound reducer, a carpet pad and then carpeting, so no one would ever really see them. At this point, though, I'm trying to get the car on the road before the weather turns, so maybe I'll grind the humps down under a canopy once the weather changes this fall. Or I may just leave them alone, and focus energy on value-adding efforts, which grinding down weld-humps in an area no one will ever see... frankly isn't.

That's it for today. My final steps are seam-sealing the floor edges, and getting some paint or undercoating on the steel pans. That work may not be interesting enough to warrant a post. After that's done, I am going to focus on getting the fuel system and master cylinders re-installed. Expect posts on those efforts soon. As always, thanks for following along.

Oh SNAP

A couple of weeks ago, I had the $500 Jetta suddenly stall in the driveway. Today's post covers the root cause investigation.

P0341: cam position sensor
P0422: o2 sensor

Stall

So, Boo is standing in the driveway next to her idling 2001 VW Jetta (named 2dot0) when it suddenly stopped running. There was no special noise, nor did it gasp on it's way down. It was just running one second and not running the next. My mind ran through a few scenarios, but I landed on electrical because of how quickly it shut off.

What You Should Do

Since a gas engine runs with the correct combination of fuel, air, compression and spark, These are the things that should be checked, and checked in that order, before you start swapping parts... even if you think you're sure you know what's wrong. If you have a more modern car, get a code reader and pull the codes from the computer. Sometimes, the computer won't give you a code for a while. I didn't get these codes here until after I'd figured out what was wrong through the steps below. The P0341 code confirmed my findings.

Fuel

fuel pressure regulators
(new on right)

Simply put, verify that you have fuel at the injector. To radically simplify things, I verified that I had fuel at the fuel pressure regulator by removing the regulator and letting the fuel pump cycle. I had fuel bubbling over. Pulling an injector can be difficult, so for me, this demonstrated that I had fuel at the rail. The probability of all 4 injectors clogging so badly that the fuel wasn't making it to the chamber was so low, I ruled out fuel, but replaced the fuel pressure regulator anyway since the old one fell apart on extraction (see picture).

Air

Check the air filter. It is completely clogged? It's probably not the issue. Check the "snow snorkel" that runs from the air box to the outside. Sometimes something can get jammed in there (like snow), preventing the engine from getting air. Remove some intake piping between the air box and the metal bits so you can see the little gate on the air intake. When the foot pedal is moved, does the flap move? You're probably getting air. This would be a good time to check the air sensor. This usually would throw a code, but to verify it isn't that sensor, unplug it and try to start the car. If it starts, that sensor is bad. The car will run without the sensor, but badly. Sometimes this sensor can prevent a start, but that wasn't the case with me. I ruled out air, and put everything back together again.

This is where I should have checked compression, but I was convinced it was an electrical thing, so I skipped ahead to Spark. Don't. Checking your compression is easy, and it reveals some very interesting info about your upper end, the mechanical timing and, possibly, a lower end issue.

Compression

2.0 ignition coil

Grab your compression tester (they are pretty cheap, if you don't have one) and test your cylinders one at a time. It's best to remove all four plugs, and test each cylinder multiple times. Take care how you manage your plugs and wires so you don't set yourself or your car on fire nor do you lose track of which wire goes where. Unplugging the coil is the simple solution. Anyway, if you get any reading under 100psi, try squirting a little oil into the cylinder and retest. If the reading is better, your rings are going and you'll need a bottom end rebuild soon. Start saving. If the reading doesn't change, its a valve-train issue. Assuming all of your reading are within 15% of each other and they are all above 100psi, move on to fuel.

Had I done this step before Spark, I would have found all 4 cylinders at 0 PSI, indicating a broken timing belt. This was verified by removing the timing belt cover and not seeing the belt. Yikes.

Spark

Remove the spark plug that's easiest to get to. In the 2.0 engine, that's #4. Take care how you remove the plug wire. Now, with a partner turning the key, hold the plug against the engine block (forming a ground) and watch for the spark. No spark? Could be your issue. I was way overdue for a tune up, and the plug socket fell off the plug wire when I touched it, so I concluded replacing plugs and wires was a good idea. 2dot0 still didn't start. I should already have checked compression, but still, I should have stopped here and gone back to it. I continued down the electrical gremlin path instead.

The new plugs and wires didn't do it. So, I got a new coil. And then a new battery. And finally a new crank position sensor. Still no start.

Realizations

no, I'm not a Packer fan

It wasn't until I got to this point that I reverted to the compression tests and learned that I had just thrown over $100 of new parts plus a battery into a large boat anchor. The timing belt broke, throwing off the timing and causing the valves to hit the piston tops. The engine was effectively blown. Tiny fragments of valve and piston will work their way into the deeper recesses of the engine while the breaking belt could have damaged rollers or the coolant pump. I sold the car for scrap and its gone.

Watching 2dot0 get towed away, I ran a quick accounting. I bought the car for $500, and had it running for another $30. Since then, I only bought tires and oil, so that's probably another $600 or so. Rounding up, I was probably into that car for $1200 before it broke and then threw another $300 into it. That's $1500 for a car including maintenance for 18 months minus the salvage I was paid, means it cost me less than $70/mo. Since you can barely rent a car for a weekend at that rate, I think we did extremely well. I just wish I had performed the timing belt maintenance.

That's all for today. After 2dot0 broke, I served my penance for not doing the timing belt by riding mass transit for a few weeks. Today was my first day back driving to work. It is such a luxury, though I do kind of miss the light rail. Thanks for following along-