Oliver Gets a Cat (Part 2)

This is still not a children's story. Instead, today we finish integrating a catalytic converter into the Bell header-through exhaust system I installed onto our 1978 MGB, Oliver. Since my last post, I have learned that our Summer Solstice music festival, 4Peaks, is cancelled this year. While not surprised, this summer will be our first in years without a trip in Hapy to see some music. Yes, that is a total first-world problem and others have far bigger issues to contend with than some music festival. Gotcha. It is still disappointing for me, my fellow patrons, the vendors, the hosts, and the musicians. Anyway, where was I?

Pipes Arrive
I mentioned last time that I got a replacement section of pipe shipped from Britain. I measured, re-measured, etc that pipe and cut it into 3 pieces, 2 to keep, one to toss. After test-fitting those 2 pieces, I shipped them off to the ceramic coating company I used 2 years ago. The owner got the job done and the pipes shipped back fairly quickly. I had read that CoVid-19 can reside as an active virus on cardboard for up to 24 hours (and steel and plastic for up to 72 hours), so I set the box on the floor of my garage and let it sit for a few days. Once out of quarantine, they were ready to install.

Heat Shield

One of my biggest concerns about this whole project was how to keep the heat (up to 800*F) from cooking my legs on long drives. The MGB originally delivered with a heat deflector that was integrated into the floor, but mine was cut up as part of the floor replacement I did the summer after I got him. I looked into commercial heat shields, but they are awfully expensive and they are generic enough you need to trim them with snips, etc to get them to fit. Next, I looked into fabricating one with a few rectangular sheets of aluminum and a thin sheet of high-heat insulation. I constructed a fairly good model with cereal-box cardboard (one of my favorite modeling mediums), and was just about ready to take that leap when I found the HeatShield family of products. I decided that a known solution was a better choice than my experiment, especially when it came to temperatures that high. Their solution would cover 90% of the catalytic converter. This does not eliminate my concern about accidentally setting tall grass on fire if/when I parked on the side of the road or at a more rustic setting otherwise. Since the ride height of this sled is around 6 inches anyway, the honest truth is this car will not be going anywhere near tall grass. If I park off tarmac, it will still be where I can see the lifts and valleys of the ground.

Shield Assembly

cat hanging by one end

Once the heat shield kit had sat through a multiple-day quarantine, I unpacked everything and started putting things together. I wrapped the catalytic converter with the heat shield pad. These pads are a thick white fibrous material on the inside with a thick aluminum outer shell. At 10" by 12", it was just about the perfect size for the application. The catalytic converter is 11" long, so by wrapping the 12" side around the cat, I was left about a 1/2" of access to the ends of the cat for attaching to pipes. That orientation also left a gap about an inch wide running the length of the cat, which, based on the instructions, was about right. The heat needs to go somewhere, so a gap is needed (usually on the bottom) for the reflected heat to exit. The kit delivered with 3 stainless steel bands to hold the cover on. I installed one in the center to hold it in place while I installed into the car.

Into the Car

center resonator mated to cat

Once the cat heat shield was on enough for handling, I took the front pipe and fit it into the rear end of the header, checking the depth against the originally installed full-length pipe. Similar to the test fits, the cat easily slid over the rear end of that short pipe. I cinched down both pipe clamps, noting that the rear one did compress the edge of the cat around the pipe, and the cat was held firm (absolutely no wiggle). With the shield in place, the cat is now very close to the underside of the car. In fact, it may act as a vibration dampener, it is so close. I continued by adding the shorter pipe into the end of the cat. I did not clamp it down, however. Instead, I maneuvered the center resonator into place, sliding the front opening around the short pipe. I raised the tail pipe onto a short stand (an old car battery), and got the center mount aligned and bolted tight. With the center mount set, I could wiggle and twist the short pipe and the cat to exactly where I wanted them. Then, I clamped everything down snug.

Center Support

basic exhaust hanger added

I wanted an additional support for the exhaust. The Bell system does not have any mounts between the front of the headers where they bolt to the head and the support behind the center resonator. This is a long stretch of unsupported pipe already and one that I wasn't thrilled with when I installed it 2 years ago. Once you add a 5 pound catalytic converter, there is a real threat of the system sagging, and potentially failing, given enough time. So, directly behind the cat, I added a $4US exhaust hanger. This will take the weight of the catalytic converter plus any hang from the front of the center resonator. I tightened the hanger just enough to take up the weight and be snug, but not enough to pinch the pipe.

Finish Up
Once supported, I re-tightened all of the clamps and completed the attachment of the system at the tail pipe. Last, I returned to the heat shield around the catalytic converter, applying the other 2 stainless steel bands at the front and rear angled sections of the cat. Once snug, I snipped the ends of the bands. I hadn't expected it, but the final overall install is closer to the underside of the car than the no-cat header-back system was. I'm not sure what is really different, but the front of the center resonator is higher off the ground. Not complaining. Quite the contrary; just surprised when I expected the opposite.

Test Drive
I now have until the end of May to find a day that is both sunny and when Oregon DEQ is open. Because of CoVid-19, this might be more difficult than your typical late-spring in the soggy Pacific Northwest. That didn't stop me from grabbing Boo, dropping the top and taking a drive to bake-in the heat shield. April is what I call our "donut hole" month where we get nice clear days between the winter wet and the soggy spring. So, we got some gas (masks on!), picked up go food from our favorite Thai restaurant (Rama Thai) and drove home. Oliver drove like a champ. I think he's quieter with the cat than he was before I installed it. Of course, it has been a while. I have greatly missed driving the convertible around, having parked him since we discovered last Fall that there is a leak under the windshield on the passenger side when it rains. For a car living in the Pacific Northwest, where it kinda rains a lot, that's not a good situation. So, once this Summer turns to Fall and the CoVid-19 economic impacts have resolved, I know what I'll be doing on this car: pulling the dashboard and windshield to replace the seal. Knowing me, I'll probably want to do a bunch of other stuff while I'm there, like replace the scratched-up windshield glass and the dried out original surrounding rubber. Maybe I'll replace the foam/vinyl dash pad that's all cracked and gouged up. I don't know. Let's see where we're at when that time comes.

If you haven't talked to the elders in your world lately, consider they have lived a life of relative isolation in the US before CoVid-19. So, they could use a friendly phone call now more than ever. As always, thanks for following along. Be safe, be patient and please be kind--

MGB now in service

Just in time for the snowy winter months, Oliver, the convertible MGB, is now ready to be pressed into service. Today's post highlights the final touches: tires, brake bleeding, preparing the windshield for rain and the dash lights. oh, Hapy New Year.

New Shoes

I had lamented the body roll during the last test drive when I did the alignment (See MGB Alignment). I knew the tires were old, and wanted to remove that variable first. So, on a day when I had to miss work for a routine dental cleaning, I bopped past the local Les Schwab Tire Center and got Oliver some all-season tires. I haven't forgiven the other Schwab for not tightening down the boots on the steering of Flash (Jetta TDI), but I thought a different Schwab might be okay. I hit the Schwab on Lower Boones Ferry, which was under construction. For a mid-week, mid-morning, the place was buzzing. They were able to serve the need though, and had a new set of 195/65R15 tires on within an hour. I asked them to give the brakes a bleed while they had it on the rack, but they didn't. They checked the brakes and indicated that they might need a bleed, but didn't do anything about it. Les Schwab, you are just not the same tire shop that you were 10 years ago. This may be the last of our business together.

The tires are nice, though a little louder than I expected. Perhaps that will shift as they age, though I've found tires usually get louder, not quieter. The drive from Beavo to the dentist, then the tire shop and then back home was a great test. Morning rush hour meant lots of rubber-band driving, so lots of clutch, brake, low gear driving. Oliver did that in stride. On the way home, the morning rush was over, so the highway was fairly clear. So, I could get Oliver up to a much higher speed. That was super fun, but the brakes still were a little softer than I'd like. I made a plan to bleed the brakes the following weekend.

Brake Bleed
I have tried to get the last air bubble out of the brake system a few times. I bled the master cylinder (see MGB Sponge Brakes) and thought I had the air out of the system then. I was wrong. And, after having that belief confirmed by the Les Schwab folks, I knew I needed to get it right this time. I started on the rear wheel furthest from the master brake cylinder. I put the rear end up in the air, removed the rim and got out the MityVac. The bleed screw is a 5/16", and I think my prior challenges before came from a combination of little errors that I corrected this time:

First, rather than use the box-end of the spanner, I used the open end this time. I found this did not encourage the vacuum line to lift off the bleed screw.
Second, never let the vacuum drop below a few pounds of vacuum in the line. In fact, I made sure I had no less than 5 pounds of vacuum in the line when I closed the bleed screw.
Third, I started with brake fluid in the vacuum bleeder canister, and made sure it always had some. I think this prevented air from working it's way back up the bleed line.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, I never let the master cylinder reservoir fall below half-full. By doing all these things, no air was introduced into the system.

So, I was able to follow all the other good practices: monitor the fluid coming out of the bleeder for bubbles, minding that tiny and/or large bubbles mean the seal of the vacuum bleeder is not perfect. You are looking for a small bubble. Also, bleed far more than you think you really need to. There is nothing wrong with completely replacing the fluid in the line from the reservoir to the bleed screw.

Windscreen and Wipers
While driving Oliver late last Summer, I found that seeing through the windshield was virtually impossible when I turned into the sunset. This is a fairly common problem in Oregon because so many of the roads run due east-west, and the low-hanging sun finds its way directly in your face in the weeks nearest to the equinox. I think this is why the US-26 west of Portland is called the Sunset Highway. To remedy, I used the Rain-X Xtreme Clean. I'm sure there are other and arguably better products out there, but I had it in the garage. Like the directions said, I cleaned the windshield with glass cleaner, then applied a small amount of the RainX stuff onto a damp clean cloth. I rubbed it a bunch in a circular motion and then wiped it clean. Except for a few deeper gouges from bad wiper scratches, the windshield looks considerably better. I failed to take a picture before I started. Honestly, I just jumped in and did it before thinking about taking pictures. To complete the rain-readiness, I replaced the 2 nasty stiff crumbly old wipers with a pair of new ones I got in one of my other orders from Victoria British.

Dash Lights

I had one last thing that I needed to solve before Oliver was road-ready: his dash lights didn't really work. I tested them in a dark garage and found that the tach and the cigar lighter were the only things that lit up when I turned on the headlights. That won't do. The rheostat that controls the brightness of the dash lights is a common failure part, and finding a replacement for the late-model (read: rubber-bumper) MGB is pretty difficult. Many of the usual part places don't carry it. Many owners simply wire around the switch so the dash lights are full-bright when the running or headlights are on. I did this on Oliver (leveraging a 10amp fuse from the feed line to a wire-splitter which I then wrapped with electrical tape), but I may still replace the switch.. Getting the old switch out was a real bear, since the nuts had frozen in place and the set-screw for the knob had as well. I effectively destroyed both, so I'll need new for both if I decide to install a dimmer. Still, with the hack in place, all of the lights come on so no bulbs needed to be replaced. Winner! I had been thinking about adding some fog lights, so if I don't replace the dimmer, that hole in the dash would be perfect for a fog light switch. Hmm..

So, now with the number of cars available meaningfully reduced (See Herd Thinning), Oliver will be seeing some road time. We really only have one regular-driver car: Flash. Flash will continue to see 95% of the drives through winter, but when we have those rare needs to be in two places at once, and mass-transit can't abide, we can safely drive Oliver. I intend to slowly work through the interior replacement work, but won't be officially taking Oliver off the road to do it. This will make for an interesting few months.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

Sunshade to Shelf

All bus content today, covering a little experiment I've been working on over the last few months, around my various travels.

How it started
Last Spring/Summer, I stripped the interior of the bus, pulled the glass, etc for painting. The result was pretty fantastic, with a mellow gray interior and bright white upper 1/3 exterior. The main 2/3 lower body is still primer, but that's another story. Part of the tear-down for paint included removing the sun-shades from the front ceiling of the cab. As it was, they weren't stock bus visors; they were from a beetle. One of them was broken, half of the fasteners weren't stock... they simply looked junky. But they worked, mostly. With an intention to buy replacements, I junked them. I never bought the replacements, and then lost the few fasteners which were stock. So, I've been driving around without sun shade/visors. In the winter, when the sun hangs low, that's kind of a problem, but mostly, it created a much brighter view.

Basic Idea

view of top before shelf liner

I started shopping for visors. They are not inexpensive. While I was trolling the various sites (BusDepot, Cip1, etc), I would see these "parcel shelves" that were designed to fit under the dashboard around knee level. I've never traveled with a set of those, but it prompted thinking. First, I wondered if your legs ever bumped into them, and whether things would fall off them onto your feet. Neither thought was very appealing. They weren't inexpensive either. But, the idea of more storage in the cab was appealing. Looking at my cab, I had installed a double accessory plug near the right edge of the passenger (right) front ceiling. This was to power a Garmin and allow my passenger to charge her phone. I thought: could I put a shelf above the rear-view mirror?

Starting Simple

finished. view from bottom

The short answer is "yes, you can put a shelf above the rear-view mirror".
When I stripped out the interior, I decided to junk the old wood floor, and leaned it against my shop bench. I decided to use it to try to fabricate a shelf. It is 3/8" thick plywood. Working in an Agile manner, I tested the idea first with newspaper, cutting and taping a mock shelf until I had a rough shape for the front (nearest the windscreen). I transferred the line onto cardboard for a more firm example which I taped into place so I could observe it from lots of angles. This model included a cut-out for the rear view mirror mount so it could slide into place as a single piece. Last, I transferred the cardboard line to plywood and started cutting. With each iteration, from paper to cardboard to wood the front line shifted a little bit. i shaped the rear edge of the shelf to taper at the ends, running straight lines from the tapered end to about 3/8 of the way towards the middle. This left a section in the center that was straight across, parallel to the dashboard.

Mounts

cutting and shaping

Once I had the shelf cut, I started thinking about how I could best mount this shelf to the bus, and concluded that re-using existing holes is better than drilling new ones, if possible. Similar to the evolution of the shelf, the mounts evolved as well. I started with 1x3" wood scrap. This proved to be too hard to work with, since the angles needed to be precise (where the bus angels aren't), and wood isn't flexible in such a small size, so the body roll during driving could cause problems. I resolved to using sheet metal cut with tin snips and then shaped to fit the lines of the bus. The result was a more forgiving mount that could leverage the original holes and fasteners.

Get Stiff
I wanted the front edge of the shelf to have a finished look, and for there to be a lip to prevent things from flopping off the shelf into either my or my passenger's face. I went looking for simple 1/4-round at the home supply store, but their offerings of millwork has really dropped off. I found 90* angle aluminum in 4' sections, though. After a quick cleaning of sticker residue with peanut butter, I cut the angle aluminum to length, drilled holes every 3 inches and bottom-mounted the lip to the shelf. This stiffened the shelf considerably, making the concept seem much more plausible.

Front or Back

installed.
Ignore the mess in the background :)

After I had the front lip, I test fit and confirmed my thinking that I needed something on the "back" of the shelf to stop things from falling out the back/front and either into the windshield or onto the dashboard. Staying with the make-it-cheap mantra, I pulled some roofing paper out of a supply heap, and cut 2 curved sections, one for each side of the rear view mirror. Using a staple gun, I attached these two sections. I added a third much shorter piece to go into the rear-view mirror cut-out. I test fit again. This time, no daylight appeared over or around the shelf. Sweet.

Testing
Before I mounted the finished work, I shot the topside with spray epoxy and applied a rubber shelf liner. Just one more level of protection against parcel shelf contents going flying. The install now was more involved. First, the mounts are installed to the bus body. Then, the shelf is lifted into place, leading with the front (windscreen) edge. I press the roofing paper against the bus body while rotating the shelf flat and aligning the mounts to the holes in the shelf. The mounts are bolted to the mounts from below, using washers both above and below the shelf. Just as I finished this initial install, I got a call that one of the kids needed to be picked up from a couple miles away. "Perfect test," I thought. "That run has lots of turns and speed bumps". So, I placed my cell phone on the shelf and did a 4 mile loop of kid collection, hitting turns and speed bumps with abandon. The phone didn't move.

Reflections

installed

The shelf is a complete success. Out of curiosity, I put an old car stereo on there, and it didn't waver. I still need to really stress test it, but for now, I'm going to drive around with my prototype. OVer time, I could improve the design with thicker mounts or something, but I think for now, in this form, I could install a small car stereo, like the one I put in Flash (See: Flash Gets Sounds) or some down-lighting for reading a map. As it is, Boo and I can put our phones up there when we're travelling and have them on the charger without wires hanging everywhere. Very nice.

Thanks for following along. Lots of personal stuff happening over the next couple of weeks, so you know what that means: few to no new posts, but lots of content getting created in the form of adventures.

Daily Driving

At some point after my trip to Boston, the clunking noise coming from the front end of my 2001 TDI Jetta (Flash) started to really get to me. I don't know if it was the weather changing or the car's growing desire to turn right, but I knew something was going sideways. Today's post covers that saga.

Rebuild Parts

from MetalMan Parts

I trolled around the internet and found some good pub on this rebuilding kit from MetalMan Parts. So, I hit the site, and made some decisions. First, I got the fuller kit with the TT rear bushings. While that cost a little more, I figured this was a replacement I probably wouldn't be doing again. I also got new front struts (COFAP for comfort, recognizing the TT rear bushings will stiffen the ride) and new strut mounts. I had read good things about a 1" lift kit from Evolution Import, and I got that too. A few days later both shipments had arrived.
Upon inspection, the MetalMan kit was pretty fantastic. Every fastener that needed to be removed had a replacement. They sent both sway-bar bushing sizes and replacement clamps. It looked great.
The Evolution Import kit wasn't as impressive, but it looked like what I expected from the instructions online. It was shiny and relatively simple. I ended up not putting the rear lift in, and the Jetta sits flat with out it.

Destroyed My Arms on My Arms
I set aside the weekend to install everything, with the recognition that I would need to take the strut assemblies somewhere to get the springs moved from the old set to the new set. I'd also need to get the alignment done somewhere. Otherwise, I felt I could do everything else. 9:AM Saturday morning, I pulled Hapy out of the garage bay where he'd been resting since our active Summer and put Flash in his place. By 11:AM, his was on stands, the Panzer plate was off and I had my plan of attack. I'd start with removing the control arms. Once the old ones were off, I could easily get at the sway bar bushings as well as get the struts out.  The sway bar links came out with little trouble, but the 2 18mm bolts with point towards the rear were a little tight. I had to work them pretty hard, and I found my arms started to get sore. But that was nothing compared to the 2 bolts which fed up from below. I tried PB Blaster. I tried a propane torch. I tried this stuff from Amsoil called "toolbox helper". I went back to the torch. By late-afternoon, it was clear I wasn't going to get either of them off so I soaked them with the Amsoil stuff and let it sit overnight.

Sunday morning, I ate well, enjoyed coffee with Boo and then went back to the bolts. Within 30 minutes, I'd concluded that the soaking hadn't helped and I was stuck. My arms were really aching from the day before, so I started looking for options. Since the front end was in pieces, I couldn't easily take the car to someone to get the bolts off, so I hit craigslist for someone willing and able to do the work in my garage. I found a father-son team, and they were happy for the work.

MobilePDX

now that's a breaker bar

MobilePDX is a father and son team who have worked on cars for years. Courtney is around my age (dirt is older, the internet is not) and has been wrenching on cars since he was a kid. They were organized, clean and left my garage in better shape than they found it. I'd originally intended to have them just get the 2 bolts off and swap the struts, but once they got going, it was just easier / faster to have them finish the job. They were able to get the passenger side bolt off with a breaker bar and youthful strength. The driver-side had to get ground down with an angle grinder. I'm not exactly sure how they got the bolt out after that. They followed my original plan from there, verifying my thinking... which is always nice.

Aw Nuts
After MobilePDX got everything back together, they discovered that the front caliper bolts were not grabbing into the hubs. Upon inspection, the threaded holes weren't threaded anymore. Neat. The proper repair is to over-drill the holes and thread in a helicoil (or something similar). That is what Courtney said and the chat-rooms agree with him. Others have used an oversized bolt that is so widely available both on the internet and the FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store), I'm inclined to think it is becoming a widely endorsed solution as well. While I sort this out, Flash sits on jack-stands and I am driving Hapy every day.

Hapy Hapy Joy Joy
I'm sure if I look back into this blog, I have many references of going back to driving the bus after a period of not driving him and expressing the pure joy of driving the bus. It really is awesome. The smiles, waves and conversations happen as much in the wind and rain as they do in warm summer. That's pretty neat.
I have continued my experimenting with the shift-point, shifting now around 3400RPM. This allows for the engine speed (when dropped into gear) to still have some turbo influence. So, he's got even more zip than the old 1700 had from the bottom to the top.
I just put 10 gallons into the tank, and I got over 28mpg since the last fill. Since there's a lot of city driving in there, I think I could have a viable city/highway mix guess: 27 city / 33 highway. Pretty fantastic. It hasn't been all smooth sailing though.

Fix-It List
On an exceptionally cold morning, I discovered that the dash vents weren't quite aligned properly. When I went to fix it, I accidentally pulled the wiper electricals out of the switch. Turns out, that bundle of wires needs to go through the hitch in the center of the plastic "Y", not around it.
After fixing that in the parking lot at work, the heat is suitable for clearing the windscreen from mist or fog, but it smells like diesel exhaust. I need to locate a source for fresh air before I drive Hapy into real cold weather.
The fuel gauge needs to be replaced. I still don't know the actual capacity of the tank and guessing based on the mileage when I last filled isn't a reliable measure. Cold wet weather isn't the time to guess if you need fuel.
I didn't re-install the door seals after I painted the top 1/3 of the bus. This creates a pretty good breeze when travelling over 35mph. I need to install them. Of course, the old ones were pretty beat up, so I need to order another set.
The bus still has some rattles, and I think one of the door skins is the main culprit for most of it. Also, the other jalousie window is now making the noise the rebuilt one used to make. Perfect. Time to rebuild the other window.
Last, the brake warning light flickers at me. This usually happens when I remove or do something around the battery. Since I had to charge the battery before moving him out of the garage, this was self-inflicted. I think there's a fluid leak near the master cylinder, though, so I may have to do a fuller brake overhaul soon. Either way, I'd like so much for the flicker to go away, or just never happen.

That's it for today. Like usual, if I'm not posting, its because I'm working on one of the cars.... or traveling. Once the front brakes / hubs are solved, Flash will be driving again and I'll start knocking down the list above for Hapy. The good times never end. As always, thanks for following along, and please pray for snow. I'd really like to get some gravity testing in this winter and our farmers need the snow-pack for summer irrigation-

Fare Thee Okay

Independence Day was observed here in the States a little over a week ago. For Dead-heads, it was the celebration of the Grateful Dead turning 50, so there was a little extra celebrating. Today's post hits that. Beware: limited bus content.

Not Exactly Chicago

Mayhem's Further 2012 shirt

Similar to the pair of shows performed in Santa Clara, 70k people who could come up with the scratch to fly, hotel and see the "Core Four" (Phil, Bobby, Billy and Mickey) in Chicago jammed the city for the 3 day weekend. Like the weekend before, I connected with my friends Mayhem and GratefulEd for a camp-in viewing of the simulcast. Rather than haul out to Wheeler, this time we were in the swanky confines of Lake Oswego: a much shorter drive. GratefulEd, however, had set up The Wall of Sound - the home edition on his back deck. We had a projector beaming the visuals and a much larger crowd than had been in Wheeler tuning in. There were no arrests, no staff pro's or GDP uncover agents. Instead, we had meat snax, liquor and no-wait restrooms. Kidding aside, GratefulEd and his family were wonderful hosts.

Similar to the Wheeler shows, I arrived early, set up Hapy for the lot scene / camping and cracked a beer. After all the festivals and events, I've gotten it down to less than 30 minutes from pull-in to fully set up, complete with awning, middle row pulled out as a lot-couch, bed set up with curtains, etc. Mayhem joined me for some classic lot-style pre-func'ing and then we headed around back for the main event. Boo arrived late, missing part of the first set.

... but Not Exactly the Grateful Dead either

lot ready, 2-bus style

Once we got everything set up, it was up to the Core-Four-plus to provide the evening entertainment. Like the Wheeler review (see: Santa Clara by way of Wheeler), I won't bore you with set lists or a review. The fine folks at JamBase have a more than sufficient rose-colored-glasses review to read. All three shows were better than Santa Clara, but that's really not saying much. None of the three shows were on-balance better than the Furthur shows I'd seen. The last show was probably their best, giving reason to believe that if they kept at it, they could probably sound pretty good. Trey just wasn't as connected as he should have been, and the band wasn't as cohesive.

I trolled around JamBase between the Santa Clara shows and Chicago. I noticed that only Phil from the Core Four had tour dates. Billy and Mickey haven't been playing much in a while so, to me, this just further supports my belief that Bobby has a health issue that he hasn't disclosed, and that's why Futhur stopped touring. JohnK and Jeff are touring under the Golden Gate Wingmen, additionally supporting that Bobby isn't playing anymore (Jeff was his long-time keyboardist). That's really too bad. Love you Bob.

Chong

left-side rear-window blind

No Grateful Dead related music venture is complete without some side adventure. With a venue like Lake Oswego, I didn't expect much in this arena. I actually brought a book so I wouldn't get too bored. Luck smiled on me, though. For those not in Oregon nor a part of any marijuana legalization effort, you may not know that pot became legal for individual use on July 1st. Since we were celebrating "the 4th", weed had been officially legal for 3 days. 3 days, man. 3 days. As I turned Hapy off the freeway on my way into town, I saw a sign announcing a visit from Tommy Chong at the functional glassware shop just outside Lake Oswego. And just like that, we found our adventure: let's meet Tommy Chong.

Mr. Chong has been on tour himself, in a way, doing personal appearances at head shops in support of some personal-use products with his name on them. Neat. On the 5th, he was scheduled to appear at Mary Jane's House of Glass, and he did. The scene was, in a word: weird. The parking lot was roped off for pedestrian traffic, so many people were parking at the Taco Bell next door. In the center of the lot was a circus tent where beverages could be purchased and consumed, and a band was tuning up to play. Between the tent and the front door of Mary Jane's, there was a queue forming for pictures with Tommy Chong. Curious, we passed the queue and entered Mary Jane's. If you've never been in a functional glassware shop, it's hard to explain. Picture a 50' by 50' square commerce-space with glass cases pointing in various directions, all filled with glass pipes. No objects d'art, no brass, no wood, nothing else. Just pipes. Oh, and some incense in the corner. In the corner along the front wall, but opposite from the front door was a table behind which sat Tommy Chong. "$40 a picture," a young woman exclaimed as we entered. Yeah, I'm not paying $40 for a picture with Tommy Chong. No offense, Mr. Chong. We just stopped by to say "hi", so we did.

Mayhem took it one step further. Concluding that Mr. Chong probably didn't have a place to watch the final show featuring the "core four", Mayhem tried to engage is a simple conversation with Mr. Chong. Apparently, that was outside of what the Mary Jane's folks knew how to handle: so, you don't want a picture with him, so you must need to be in the autograph line. No, we don't want an autograph. "Would you take a picture with him if it was free?" Sure, so long as we get to ask him a question. Well, that proved quite difficult, but Mayhem got Mr. Chong invited to our streaming picnic thing.. and found himself in a rather awkward picture with Mr. Chong. Neither of them looked like they wanted to be in a picture. Afterwards, I noticed the look on Tommy Chong's face was the same in every picture. He was a perfect look of "really? this is where I ended up? how did this happen, man? can you help me outta here?". Sorry, Mr. Chong. We tried to spring you for a few hours.

Bid You Goodnight
The final show was just that. For those who were there, I'm sure it felt like closure. For those of us watching from home, we got an extra special post-show interview with Bobby. In answer to the question of will we never hear you guys again, he responded without hesitation that we'll see it again, or something very similar some time real soon. Thanks for stringing us along, Bob. We hope you're serious and we'll see you and Phil on stage together again. We'll have the bus ready to go whenever you declare the next Furthur show... please make it on the west coast :)

Bus Content: I adjusted the windshield washers with a push-pin in the tiny washer nozzle. Now, it streams into the upper half of the windshield dead-center of the wiper path. Perfect.

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

Calling "glass"

It has been a very busy week or so. I have lots to cover, but today is just about getting the glass back in. My VW camperbus (like many) has 4 solid-pane windows: the windshield, the rear hatch and the 2 rear-most side windows. Some buses have a flip-out window on one side or the other in their rear-most side window spot. I used to too, on the left side, but found that it was the cause of a pretty bad leak. In fact, that leak caused some of the rust-through I was solving earlier. Anyway, on to the installs.

Seal to Glass

it's actually better if you put
pressure where the blade and
handle meet

If you troll around the internet, there are many articles explaining how to install a solid-pane window, but they usually miss something. The first thing you need to do is get the seal onto the glass. While this sounds obvious, it's not easy. You will be tempted to try water or glass cleaner to lubricate the edge. Don't do it. Use the glass cleaner to get the glass clean, especially along the edge, but both the seal and the glass should be dry. If it is lubricated to get on, it will be lubricated to slip off.

Next, take note of where the natural corners are in your seal and align them with the corners of your glass. Again, it seems obvious, but if you don't lay it out, you'll probably get partway along and realize the seal needs to rotate 90*. Ask me how I know :) Also note which side of the seal is the inside. The outer edge will have multiple lip/edges and the inner side will have a second slot in it.

I found that if I placed a putty knife blade against the glass, but at an angle towards the seal (which wasn't yet on the glass), I could part the seal enough to get it to sit on the glass. Then, I used various pressures with fingers or my knee to press the seal all the way on. Place pressure near the spot where the knife meets the handle, so the seal has the whole length of the blade to run to get parted and just seated on the glass (not where the picture over there shows). I found I was able to run 8-12" sections in one pop after a few experiments with pressure and angles. It is important to get the seal to seat all the way down. If you don't, it won't fit in the window hole and you'll be clowning with the seal again.

Rope Method

opens paint cans, threads rope
and opens a beer bottle when you're done

This is where most of the internet advice comes in: use a rope to seat the glass. Yep, that's the magic. Find 3/8" rope that is at least 1.5x longer than the circumference of the window. Thinner rope might work too, but not much thinner. Some advise against nylon rope and encourage only cotton. I used nylon and had no ill-effects, but the MS Glass folks (see below) used cotton. I have not seen much good advice for how to get the rope into the slot. I found the best tool was a paint-can opener. I slid it in and rotated it, and the seam opened right up. I set the rope in and slid the tool along while feeding rope in. Once I got a foot or so in, I doubled back and pressed the rope in with the same tool. I watched the MS Glass guys, and they used a plastic jump-rope handle (or a carefully trimmed caulk-tube tip) through which the rope was threaded. They simply slide the jump-rope handle along the seam, pressing the rope in as they went. Very clever! And very fast.

While setting the rope into the seam, make sure you create a loop outside of the seam on every side. This doesn't seem obvious when you're doing it, but on each side, somewhere near the middle, let some rope out of the slot, create a 6" loop and then re-start from the spot where you left, making a small overlap (less than an inch will do). This is very useful for later. Once you've made it all the way around, overlap the starting point by an inch or so. Now, with painters tape, tape the loops to the inside of the glass window. With the rope out of the way, you're ready to set the window in the hole.

Lubricants

note the four loops of rope:
one per side

Simple put: don't use them. If you can get the window to seat without lubricants, you're probably doing it wrong. I tried KY Jelly, water, soap... All they did was make a mess and make it all the easier for one side of the window to pop out of the hole while exerting pressure elsewhere. Like the Band says, "Don't Do It". All four of my solid-pane windows went in without lubricants. I was setting the windows into somewhat freshly painted holes, so they were effectively the most sticky possible, and they still went in.

Seating
This area also gets a light brushing on the interweb. Most advice is somewhat simple: set the window squarely in the hole. Honestly, that's about right. Don't set the top, bottom or any side any deeper than any other side at first. Since the upper half of the bus (where the window is going) is tilting away from you, the window also needs to be tilting away from you. If you set it upright, the bottom will be too deep. Once the window is set evenly around the entire edge, you can start working the sealed glass into the hole.

Pressure

hatch and rear-most left
windows in

The key here is to use little pressure at first, and work the inner edge of the seal by knuckling it towards the center of the glass while lightly pressing inward. Focusing on keeping the window square (no side too much deeper than any other), slowly work the window deeper into the hole. You will need to increase the amount of pressure force, but don't try banging on it. That will just create an opportunity for the sealed glass to pop out at the other end. If it isn't going in with medium pressure (maybe 50 pounds of force or so), pull it out and re-try seating. If you've tried this cycle a couple of times, go back to seal-to-glass and start all over again. Yes, I had to do this with the hatch window. For the left-side rearmost window, I had to seat and re-seat a few times.

Big Finish

windscreen installed

Once the seal is up against the lip, you're ready to pull the inner edge of the seal over the lip with the rope. From the inside, you should see one rope loop along each straight edge, each taped to the inside of the glass. Perfect. There is varying advice on where to start pulling, but, since most folks don't think to advise putting multiple loops (one per side), their further advice is limited. We have multiples, so we have options. For bowed windows, like the windshield, start with the sides. A little on each end, until both verticals have the seal over the lip. Then, do the upper corners and finally the lower corners. Why? We are doing the shortest distances first, and the distance between the upper corners is shorter, allowing the glass to flex and bow while we set the window. Next, work the ropes from the corners towards the center, moving a little at a time from each of the corners. You may need a helper friend to push on the glass from the outside.

MS Glass
Some of the advice above I discovered on my own. Some, I learned after I did my hatch and left-side rearmost window. While trying to get the seal on my windshield, it cracked, so I had to get a new one. Enter MS Glass. Since they do onsite installs, I had them do it, and that was where I got some of the rest of the advice. They do the one-loop-per-side, and did the steps in the "Big Finish" above. We both did the no lubricants, rope trick and seal-to-glass. They didn't use anything to part the seal as they got it onto the glass, but they do this stuff every day so they have Superman hands easily capable of forcing the seal on without tools. They were pretty amazing, and I'd totally use them again.

That's it for today. The bus has all of his window glass back in now, with new seals. Thanks for following along. More posts coming on all the other work that's been done. Onward!

Windscreen Removal

Well, the prep for painting has really gotten underway now. Today's brief post is about removing the windscreen and what lies beneath. Depending on your windscreen, you may be removing it to replace it. If that's the case, you may not need to take as much care as I did. My glass was perfect, but I needed to get a look at the metal surrounding it as well as get the paint underneath it. One more seal is worth the rust containment.

Cut

multiple passes

For tools, you only really need a box-cutter / X-Acto. Extend the blade halfway. Approach the bus from the front and go to the top corner of the passenger side first. Slide the side of the knife blade against the windscreen with the sharp side pointing down. Cut the rubber seal from top to bottom by sliding the side of the blade against the windscreen. It will resist, so that's why we're only using half of the blade edge. Don't press too hard; let the knife to the work. The harder you fight it, the more likely you will scratch your windscreen. Extend the blade to 3/4 length and run the same seal edge top to bottom. Extend the blade to full length and repeat. This time, you should hear that satisfying noise of the knife against the A-pillar. The rubber should separate from the glass and just hang there. If not, gently run the knife along the A-pillar being careful not to disturb the paint. It is possible a previous owner painted the seal on, ran caulk to try to stop a leak or glued it in. Glue is not necessary for this seal. Nor is caulk, but I've seen some crazy road-side repairs go untouched for years, and caulk is definitely one of them.

Repeat
Repeat the cuts for the driver side and then the top. By now, there should be rubber hanging off the bus, or sitting in strips by your feet. Nicely done. If its an old seal, some of those cuts were very difficult. If it was anything like my first seal replacement on my bus, there were a few spots where I was able to cut right through very easily. I discovered that those spots also aligned with rust. When I cut off the seal the other day, it was only a few years old, and held very well. I'll be getting another Bus-Depot seal for the re-install later.

Bottom Cut Last

Pulled away a little bit

The best is saved for last. When I did my first seal, I had to be careful while I cut the last section. It wasn't holding very well, so I had to keep one hand holding the windscreen while I finished the cut. The newer seal, though, held strong even after I cut off the bottom. The windscreen held to the bus. It held very firm, actually. Your experience may differ, and you may want a buddy around when you make your last cut (as I did a few years ago).

Pop It Out
Old seals don't hold well, so the windscreen may just fall out once you've made your last cut. In my case, I reached one hand through the front door and pushed towards the front while catching the edge out front. This freed the sides, but the center still held. I had to grip the windscreen from the bottom near first the driver side then the passenger side and gently pull forward. Slowly, the seal gave in and handed me my windscreen. I carefully set it where it wouldn't get scratched and pulled out the remains of the seal. If yours was glued in, this could take some time. You want to get back down to smooth metal.

Now What?

glass out. rust inspection

I looked at the rust treatment I did years ago with some POR15. I was impressed. From my memory, the rust had not meaningfully advanced. Still, I needed to sand the whole opening to make sure. It looked pretty good, so I decided I would just expose the rust (read: sand and Dremel) and re-treat it. Then, I'll just handle it like any other metal panel: prime and paint with lots of sanding mixed in. Since it lives under a seal, there's no point in adding Bondo to the rust pits except as practice for visible spots I need to do later. Still, I'm going to skip Bondo'ing here.

As always seems to happen, this small painting effort has grown into a pretty big deal. Next up, removing the dash-top, more rust inspecting and sanding. Apart from deciding how far to go with paint on the interior, I think I'm almost done with the initial prep work. I still have lots of sanding and such to do, though. Unfortunately, that doesn't lend itself to print very well, so it might be a little while before my next few posts appear after this. Thanks for following along.

Early Bay Windshield Washer mod (part 3)

Continuing from the last 2 posts, this part of the washer modification focuses on the electrical. Sorry it took so long to get this out. I ran into challenges getting the switch installed, as you'll see. It does work, and I've already moved on to the next big thing... which I'll get to posting about soon, I hope :)

Pump Wiring
The pump has 2 pins. I can't speak for the vanagon pump, but the more modern pump I used doesn't appear to be polarity sensitive. Meaning, you can apply 12V to either pin, with the other to negative/ground, and the pump will run the same way. Neat. I wired the pin closer to the rounded end of the plug to ground. For a ground, I used the headlamp ground, and an insulated ring connector on the end of a brown wire (brown for standard ground color consistency).
The signal or 12V pin was wired to the wiper switch with a green wire. The other pin on the switch was red-wired to the number 30 terminal on the wiper switch. I mentally debated this point. I could have used another circuit in the fuse box, but finally concluded that having a single fuse/circuit dedicated to the wiper and washer should be fine load-wise and easier to diagnose later.
I tested every connection with a multi-meter, verifying that continuity existed before moving on to the next section. I also applied 12V at the terminal 30 and demonstrated that the pump would fire when the button was pushed before considering the electrical done. I still had the switch to install into the dash, but the system was otherwise complete... but, of course, getting the button into the dash is what started this multi-post topic.

Prepare the Switch

roughed-in mount
(pre-trimmed)

Arguably, this is getting into what you have most likely been waiting for. The old switch/valve needs to be taken apart. The valve is held on with 2 long brass rivets. Drill them out with a 9/64 drill bit. A slightly larger one might work too. Once the rivets are gone, the valve pops off. Grab the small rubber disk that sits between the button-rod and the valve; you'll need that disk later. In my case, when I separated the valve from the switch, the rubber disk didn't just sit there, it jumped and ran. Chase it, you'll need it. Push the long brass rivet remains out of the switch.

Fab a Mount
With a pair of tin snips, cut a 3/4" wide strip from some grade 24 ducting. Step-drill a 1/4" hole in the center. Bend the strip into the shape in the picture here, and then drill 7/64" holes center-aligned with the larger 1/4" hole. To prevent the strip from grounding against the tabs on the switch, it needs to be trimmed down with the tin snips. This takes a few rounds of test fit, trim, etc. File the sharp edges. Your fingers and wiring behind the dash will thank you. 

Put it Together

switch during testing

Once the mount is formed, slip the McMaster-Carr switch through the hole, include the washer and tighten the nut. With 2 #8 Phillips-head screws (not bolts) each at least a 1/2" long, mate the mount with the switch. Test the fit with the knob and button (with long pin) in place. I found that the button on the McMaster-Carr switch and the end of the long pin didn't exactly meet, so some fiddling with the mount was necessary before it could be fully torqued down. We now have a working switch. But when bench tested, the pin without the rubber disk doesn't hit the McMaster-Carr button cleanly 100% of the time. So, the rubber disk needs to be part of the final equation. You can see the disk in the "testing" picture. This is where it gets interesting.

Dash Install
The old wiper switch fits into the dash by being fed through from the front (front-is-front!). The new switch with the added washer activator does too, but there's a complication. In order to fit through, the knob and button with the long pin need to be removed from the switch. If the long pin needs to have the rubber disk set onto it to properly activate the McMaster-Carr button, then how do we assemble all the pieces? It's not easy. I tried spot-gluing the rubber disk to the end of the McMaster-Carr switch. No good. I tried removing the mount, installing the switch into the dash and then re-assembling in situ. Nope. I tried a few other permutations too. I was able to get the whole thing installed and functional by barely threading the McMaster-Carr switch into the mount, and installing the dash-switch into the dash hole like that.... with the dashpod removed so I could get my hands in there. Then, install the turny-knob (beware: technical wibble-ly wobble-ly terms ahead) onto the dash-switch. Next, hold the rubber disk against the dash-switch while feeding the button with the long pin through the turny-knob and press it into the tiny hole in the rubber disk. This is hard with thicker fingers. Now, tighten the nut around the McMaster-Carr switch to set it tight. Test the action with a multi-meter to make sure the switch activates properly. If necessary, the mount can be pressed tighter towards the dash for a reliable action. After all the fiddling, mine needs a slight adjustment.

Button It Up
Once in-place, test the washer system first without water. If the pump fires up when you push the button on the dash, you can then test with water in the bottle. It will take a little time for the pump to prime, and for the washer lines to fill. Once the water makes it to the nozzles, adjust them so the stream lands in the center of each wiper path. Once adjusted, verify the tightness of the various mechanical connections (pump to body, switch to dash, etc), put your kick panels back on, and you're done! Hazah!

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along. I hope you found this useful. More next time...

Early Bay Windshield Washer mod (part 2)

Continuing from the last post, I'm assuming you have the parts in hand.  Looking at the project, we have some larger logistics to figure out, and then some smaller detail construction. Again, all bus content this time, like last time. I'm going to just focus on the water part of the washer in this posting. Next time, I'll tackle the switch fabrication stuff.

Pump Location

pump mount strap

RAtwell suggests placing the pump below the tank so it doesn't run dry. I totally agree, though finding a spot you can get to for maintenance can be tricky. I placed my pump below the driver's side "floor" heat duct. To mount it, I got plastic pipe support strapping from Home Depot for about $3. The geniuses at the HomeDepot website don't list it, so I've linked it at a different supplier here. I pop-riveted a loop around the pump leaving a 3" tail. In the lip along the floor, there are pre-existing holes. I simply slipped a Phillips head screw through the hole and tightened it into the plastic tail. Easy peasy.

Running Lines
I don't have the benefit of having the old rubber hoses to show me where the replacements go (or even how long they are). For everyone else, since we placed the pump where we did, the rubber lines will move a little bit. I ran my line from the pump behind the air vent and then behind the radio slot. Since one of the benefits of this modification is to remove the risk of washer juice spraying into the electricals behind the dash, moving the pump-line-to-the-2-nozzle-lines junction ("Y") as far away as possible seemed prudent.

Old Nozzles Out
Pop out the nozzles and pop the new ones in. After wrestling with the passenger-side one, I found that you can rotate the nozzles from the outside 90* and it could pop right out. The driver-side one popped that way. Good thing too; accessing the nozzle from the cab-side is blocked by the dashboard and then the wiper mechanics. The passenger-side nozzle can be reached from behind the glovebox. I squeezed the tabs with a pair of needle-nose pliers and got it to slide out that way.
The new nozzles pop right in, but don't do it yet.

New Lines In

RAtwell, you're still amazing

Cut equal lengths of rubber hose for each nozzle-line, press them into the arms of the "Y" junction. I think mine were about 2 feet long. Run the nozzle lines through the retaining clips near the nozzle mounts and then feed the lines out through the holes the nozzles set into. Now you can press the nozzle hoses into the nozzles, and then pop the nozzles into the holes. You'll have to adjust the direction of the jets, but that needs to wait until later.
The last line to fit together is the pump output line. It simply presses into the base of the "Y" junction. Now, you should have the water system completed. It consists of an air line from the tank up behind the glove box, the water bottle, a hose (less than a foot) from the tank to the pump, the pump, a hose from the pump to the junction, the "Y" junction, 2 nozzle-hoses that run from the junction to the nozzles and finally 2 nozzles.

That's it for today. Next time, I'll get after the modifications to the early bay wiper switch to power the pump.

Early Bay Windshield Washer mod (part 1)

All bus content today. I'm going to go over how to modify the early bay-window bus windshield washer system from the original air-pressure system to one using a more modern pump. Well, this got really long, so I'm splitting it up into multiple posts instead.

Original Set-Up
For starters, we'll reference the picture on the RAtwell site (re-posted here). Although the system in the picture is for a later bay, most of this is the same for the early bus. The biggest difference is in the valve in the lower left corner. The late-bay windshield wipers and washer controls are on a stalk attached to the steering column. The early-bay controls are a switch contraption on the dashboard next to the hazard light switch. It is round, and the user twists the knob to turn on the wipers... and pushes a button in the center of the switch to activate the valve.

thx RAtwell. you're amazing

The valve allows pressurized water, air, soap through the lines from the bottle out to the nozzles on the front of the bus. The bottle on the far right sits just in front of the front passenger's foot-well. The long hose runs out the bottom of the tank and ties into the valve I just described. The short hose that looks like its coming out of the top of the bottle is, again, a little different from the early-bus, but the purpose is the same: connect a bicycle pump to that so you can pressurize the tank, and, accordingly, the system.  In the early bus, the air hose attaches to the tank like the other hose does on the bottom of the tank: press onto a nipple and them cinch it down with a plastic threaded nut.

So, with that orientation, you can probably imagine how well the system works or doesn't work after 40 years of recurring owner neglect. On my bus, the rubber lines had been cut out or at least cut up so pumping the tank just sprayed its contents all over the electrical a behind the dash. Fun. The tank doesn't usually fail, but the valves can. Or so I've been told. There are a few changes to modernize the system.

Scope of Mod

McMaster switch

First and most important is how to incorporate an electrical switch without disrupting the original dash or spirit of operation? The original button should remain with magic behind it so it at least looks the same. To work, you need a SPST (single pole, single throw) NO (normal-open) biased (push-on, release-off) switch. The switch in the door is kind of like this except it's NC (normal-closed) and creates a circuit when the button pops out. I spent quite a bit of time researching this, and what kinds of switches were readily available. You can get a cheap one, or even a set of 2 or 4 from RadioShack.

They will eventually fail, and "eventually" may not be that far off based on how much current they can handle. I was concerned with how hardy these switches are, especially with how hard the switch will be to get to once installed. Instead, I paid as much for one McMaster-Carr switch as 4 RadioShack ones. This is why I didn't solder wires and instead used insulated connectors: I didn't want to fry the switch with a soldering iron.

washer pump 1J5 955 651

Second, if we want the VW to remain totally a VW, we should use a VW pump. That's actually pretty easy, and yes, I know I have already angered the purists with my bus, but this modification shouldn't be verboten by them, IMHO. Anyway, I got a pump that fits a modern VW (part #1J5 955 651). The vanagon pump has larger more common pins for the electrical side, so it might be a better, easier bit for electrical. I had the modern pump on-hand, so there ya go. The rest of the system remains the same. The rubber hoses are replaced, the nozzles replaced. This includes the air-pressure hose; replace it with a basic hose and point the open end up behind the glove box for an air source.

Parts List

So, before we start doing, we need some parts. The pump, the switch and the nozzles may need to be ordered. Its possible that the pump and nozzles are available locally, but at the very least the switch will need to be ordered. I got my nozzles at the local VW parts shop (DIP). Part numbers (in parenthesis)

Washer pump (1J5-955-651) or you could use one from a vanagon (431-955-651)

2-pin plug (1J0 973 702 should work) if you used the same pump as I did

McMaster-Carr SPST/NO 12V switch (7397K25) link here

3 Phillips-head screws. not bolts.

6' rubber washer hose
3/4" x 10' polypropylene strap. you'll only use about a foot of it

2 washer nozzles (211-955-993)

Some insulated electrical connectors (1 ring for ground, 2 tiny female for the switch and 2 standard female for the pump if you used a vanagon pump)

That's it for today.  Doing the whole job in one post was just too much.  I hope everyone had a hapy, healthy and restful holiday season. Have a safe and wonderful new year.

Electrical. How (not) fun

I know its been a few weeks. Like so many folks, time disappears around Thanksgiving and it doesn't really re-appear until after New Years Eve. I've been in that time warp, but I have been thinking bus-y thoughts.

Well, that's Interesting

I've spent a few hours in front of televised football, Bentley wiring diagram in hand, trying to figure out the electrical system. I have this very odd electrical behavior I'm trying to chase down.  It all started again when I put the replacement battery in. I shook something loose, and now, when the running light is on, I can't shut off the engine with the key. Turn the key back to run, shut off the lights and then turn the key? Shuts off. The last time this happened, I removed the ground wire for the rear light from the tab and re-attached it. Problem went away. This time? No such luck. The brake warning system light is also illuminated when the running lights are on, so I figured it had something to do with the rear bulb again. I've removed and replaced the bulb, but no luck. The symptom persists. This brings me to my football, Bentley and head-scratching.

Wiring Mess
In looking at the Bentley, the wiring diagram for the brake warning light is pretty simple, but it connects to a few things I wouldn't have expected, like the generator warning system. I concluded that the brake warning light would be on all the time if it wasn't semi-controlled by the generator, so after some thought, that makes sense. Still, I don't have that generator hooked up, so maybe one end of that wire got itself grounded or something. Knowing the holiday break was coming, I concluded that it was finally time, after 10 years of ownership, to pull the face off the dashboard and clean up the wiring. It's actually very easy, like so many things, to take the dashboard apart. 4 Phillips-head screws (2 on each end) hold it on. Before you start removing them, though, detach the speedometer cable. On the old bus, its a right-hand thread-in type. Vanagons have a different set up.

My bus doesn't have the little plastic tips on the "climate" control levers anymore, so I didn't have to remove those. If you have these little tips, be careful; they break easily. Once the screws are out, the face lifts off. Tilt it towards you, so the top slips under the steering wheel. You can do quite a bit of wiring without having to remove the steering wheel, but first, marvel at the dusty, dirty electrical mess behind that dash. Wow.

Enter Winter Break
My employer likes to shut the offices down for the last 2 weeks of the calendar year. They have concluded that many folks take that time off anyway, so why heat a building that only has a handful of people in it? Makes sense. So, I'm lining up work for the break. I'm starting with the wiring. I've spent a few hours figuring out which wires I don't need anymore because of my different engine. I still haven't figured out the weird short in the tail light, and now I have new electrical demons to chase (see picture). The wiring behind the dash is long overdue for some love, and the fuse-box hasn't been attached to the bus frame since I bought it. Yikes. Add in the tail light, and I've got a bit of work ahead.

Plus, I've been wanting a windshield washer, and I haven't had one since I bought the bus. RAtwell lightly describes a way of installing a more modern washer (from the air-pressure model of the bus), but he has a '79. The washer valve is completely different in a '79, so this becomes a greater engineering challenge. Bring it!

Last, I found some headliner material for cheap. The ceiling of the bus is Baltic Birch that was painted white, and looks awful. I thought the foam/felt could absorb a little ambient noise and make the interior a little nicer looking. We'll see if I have the time.

That's it for today. I have already started some of the engineering work around the washer. I'll post on that progress, as well as all the other things I started sine my last post as we enter the new year. Have a great holiday season, and as always, thanks for following along-