Author Topic: 1.6L TD in a Dodge Caravan (Read 144889 times)

arb · « **Reply #135 on:** December 23, 2008, 10:00:52 am »

Quote from: "libbybapa"

If you felt like it, you could use body filler and then sand it down to get rid of any imperfections.

Yeah, I certainly thought about it... but I want to start driving it more than I want the temporary part to look great. It does not look too bad now, just rugged ;-)

madmedix · « **Reply #136 on:** December 23, 2008, 02:18:49 pm »

Your wife truly is one in a million...I'd have been served with papers if I tried that

Looks good so far!

ldeikis · « **Reply #137 on:** December 24, 2008, 10:31:31 pm »

arb--

Just stumbled across this thread and wanted to chime in--you're NUTS. It's great to watch you work through the thing, though. Can't wait to see it finished.

Luke

arb · « **Reply #138 on:** December 25, 2008, 11:42:20 am »

Thanks Luke !! Lots of people say I'm crazy ;-) After Chrstmas is over, I'll be able to finish it. I had to take a break last weekend and Monday / Tuesday to get all of my assignments in for the end of the college semester. I fully expect to be text driving it next week some time.

-dave

PS - Merry Christmas !

Turbinepowered · « **Reply #139 on:** December 25, 2008, 01:00:09 pm »

Going to take your welded axles to be rebalanced at some point?

Cool design, I've liked watching your process.

Merry Christmas to you too, you nut. :p

arb · « **Reply #140 on:** December 26, 2008, 04:24:23 pm »

Quote from: "Turbinepowered"

Going to take your welded axles to be rebalanced at some point?

Cool design, I've liked watching your process.

Merry Christmas to you too, you nut. :p

I wasn't planning on removing them for balancing unless they have a viboration. I will invest in balanced shafts whem I wear these out as they are all used and I don't know how much time is left on them.

Thanks for the support !! Merry Christmas and Happy New year !!

arb · « **Reply #141 on:** January 01, 2009, 08:36:32 pm »

Happy New Year !!

Parties are over, time to make smoke... I worked on the instrument pod some the past few days. I tried finger nail polish remover to dissolve the Styrofoam. Its main ingredient was acetone, but there must have been too much other crap in it was it did not dissolve it quickly. As you can see, part of it started to slowly dissolve, the the other part did not.

So I tried Goof Off - main ingredient - Xylene. Works quickly and efficiently. I then wiped the styrene goo out with paper towels and used the finger nail polish remover to remove the sticky residue from the styrene goo. Worked great at this level.

So, I was ready to drill the holes for the instruments, status lights for the GP, aux fuel pump - for priming if needed after filter change, etc. and the various toggle switches.

But I suffered a catastrophic set back today. My handy Craftsman 18v drill/driver I use for punching holes fell from the bench onto the chuck, breaking off one of the three flutes. I removed the screw holding the key-less chuck on, but worked for 2 hours to remove it from the 1/2" HD drill. No luck. I got out my 1/2" hammer drill (works in drill only mode) to finish tonight, but wanted to post this for now... Man was I pissed. I have used and abused the 18v tool for almost 10 years !!! :-D Might just be time for a new one - too bad they keep changing the battery connections.

arb · « **Reply #142 on:** January 03, 2009, 01:35:39 am »

Did some wiring and plumbing for the instruments. Here's what I did tonight.
The blank 2" hole is for the EGT from aircraft spruce. The blue toggle is for the boost fuel pump. The green light next to it is for the IP fuel solenoid. The black toggle on the other side is a momentary contact for the GP. The red light next to it is to show direct GP power feeding back from them. The red toggle next to it (lighted) sends power to the momentary contact toggle. Paranoid, yes about GPs.

Smokey Eddy · « **Reply #143 on:** January 03, 2009, 05:29:47 am »

Wow nice work!

We're all paranoid about GPs man.
I broke the threaded part (that the little nut goes on) off of a basically new GP today. I was piiiisssedd

dillenger1 · « **Reply #144 on:** January 03, 2009, 06:13:34 pm »

Is the van running yet?I cant wait.

arb · « **Reply #145 on:** January 05, 2009, 11:10:21 am »

We're back to work now... for now... The ups and downs of the Big Three.

This past weekend I finished the wiring harness and instrument sensing lines. This photo shows the bundle ready to snake through the dash into the engine bay.

Here is the GP relay and feed fuses. They will connect to the battery directly. I have not decided if the relay it self will be in the engine bay or under the dash. I have wired each GP separately and tested each one. They will connect to the factory relay - manually controlled. I only wanted the amp rating of this relay.

Next will be to install them on the van !

arb · « **Reply #146 on:** January 07, 2009, 10:09:18 am »

I needed to cut a couple of 3/4" x 3/4" x 4" blocks of pine so I would have a vibration proof mounting point for the pod to screw to the dash. I used epoxy jell to bond it to the inside of the pod. It I had simply screwed through the sides without the blocks, it would have worn larger holes from the road vibration.

arb · « **Reply #147 on:** January 12, 2009, 08:50:30 am »

Slow weekend. My 94 year old Grandma died, so we were busy with funeral stuff.

Here are the blocks I wood I spoke of for mounting to the dash.

Other side was not as good, but the epoxy Gel worked great.

Next I needed my coreless drill / driver to punch the hole in the fire wall and the dash, but I dropped it on the garage floor. Luck would have it one of the three jaws of the chuck broke off. I thought I would take the 3/8" chuck off another lower powered driver I can't find the charger for after our move... but as you can see, its a different size. More work to follow tonight. Maybe I used the old corded monster.

arb · « **Reply #148 on:** January 13, 2009, 09:36:28 am »

Last night after work, after clearing more snow from the car, I installed the instruments !! Now all the final work will be under the hood !!

First, using my 25 year old corded drill, I punched through the firewall.

From inside

Snaking the cable and hose bundle through dash at night required my wife to help by pulling gently from the engine side. The down side of these old school mechanical instruments is the capillary line for the temp can easily be damaged. In high school, a friend had a 67' Camaro RS. He was not a careful mechanic and at one point we were driving and coolant started to come back through this line into the car. Exciting.

Here's the final look.

arb · « **Reply #149 on:** January 14, 2009, 09:22:55 am »

So much for Global Warming - It was 5 degrees last night ( -15 C) when I tried to connect the insturments to the engine. But, any progress is good progress.

If you would like to see another side of the Al Gore "An Inconvenient Truth" there was an interesting "Story" about it on the Russian news site Pravda. (My lovely new wife speaks Russian) It was interesting for me to learn "Pravda" in Russian means "Truth" - LOL !!! I thought it meant Propaganda. http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106922-earth_ice_age-0