1.6L TD in a Dodge Caravan

[arb]

Here are the photos from Wednesday and one from last night..

Here's the alternator arm. It needs to be more to the front for travel.

Here is the bracket after I cut it twice and TIG welded both sides.

Here is the battery on the now installed battery support. Notice the temporary wiring.

FIRST START !!  Me hot wiring the starter...

These wires need to be cleaned up.

It doesn't look so bad from here.

OK, last night I only had a few minutes... I was looking for the wire harness from the Dodge start. I remember cutting it off the starter when I scrapped the starter in the summer before the crash of the scrap metal market. I found the harness for the alternator, so this is good, but I still need to other too. Most of the wires on these 2 harnesses will be removed.

[arb]

We had another snow storm yesterday I was lazy from it... so I had some small increment of progress. Saturday was nice, but I had to service the V4 engine on my boat before the water raises up  to its rear and I don't have a yard of beach to stand on while doing the engine work... Sunday I started by clearing the 6" deep pile of tools and parts on my work bench. Now to real progress. Wow, my photos didn't upload to Photobucket...

Anyway, I removed the covering from the wire harness to the alternator and engine. I could not determine which connector fit the radiator fan while it was in the car. None of the connectors would snap on the fan motor. So, I removed the fan again. It was easy to see which one was needed now. The remaining question is where is the sensor for the fan relay? The shop manual only shows "Typical" wiring diagrams.

[arb]

I just found out the operation of my radiator fan... From http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl437g.htm#

Fan control is accomplished in two ways. The fan always runs when the air conditioning compressor clutch is engaged. In addition to this control, the fan is turned on by the temperature of the coolant which is sensed by the coolant temperature sensor which sends the message to the on-board computer. The computer turns on the fan through the fan relay.

Switching through the on-board computer provides fan control for the following conditions.

The fan will not run during cranking until the engine starts no matter what the coolant temperature is.
Fan will always run when the air conditioning clutch is engaged.
On non-air conditioned vehicles or with air conditioning off the fan will run at vehicle speeds above about 40 mph only if coolant temperature reaches 230°F and will turn off when the temperature drops to 220°F. At speeds below 40 mph the fan switches on at 210°F and off at 200°F.
There also is included a method to help prevent "steaming" (water vapor evaporated by hot water circulating through the radiator evaporating moisture on the outside of the radiator and when there is no ram air to blow it under the vehicle) the fan will run only below 60°F ambient, from 100°F 195°F coolant temperature only at idle, and zero vehicle speed and then only for three minutes.  

Here's the sensor I need to buy today:
 

So, the only question will be how happy my ECM will be to run the car w/o the engine :-) For $48 I can put a separate system on to run the fan from Mr. Gasket.
 

[dieselweasel]

If it were me, I'd want to do away with the Chrysler ECM.  You could rig up a fan control system without that kit.  Just get a N/O coolant temp switch and wire it up to the control side of a relay that turns the fan on. Might have to get creative with the install of the temp switch...

[arb]

If it were me, I'd want to do away with the Chrysler ECM.  You could rig up a fan control system without that kit.  Just get a N/O coolant temp switch and wire it up to the control side of a relay that turns the fan on. Might have to get creative with the install of the temp switch...

Looks like that is what I will do. The switch from Chrysler is a bit long...
Since it was to go into the radiator, and there is no hole in the radiator for it to go in, I looked at the spare sensor in my head. I measured the resistance of it - 3.8K ohms. The Chrysler was 2.3K ohms. I heated the Chrysler and it went to 4 ohms. I suspect the VW will do the same. I traced the wires back from the fan to the fan relay. So I know which one I need to tap into for the VW sensor.

I also reinstalled the fan last night just before it started to rain. Then I made the bracket to hold the throttle cable. I started with a piece of steel stock.


Then I built up the end with TIG welding.

I then drilled 2 holes. One for the cable end, the other for the stock VW throttle linkage. This will be welded on the bracket. Next I cut 2 wide slits - one parallel to the cable for after it is installed, the other at 90 degrees so it can be slid in from the side.

Here it is painted. Next I need to extend the cable housing bracket a few inches.

[arb]

Last night I finished making the linkage for the throttle cable. The end I made with the stock ball had a single nut to secure it to the throttle arm on the IP. I wanted a jam nut, so I tapped a 6-32 nut with the 6mm tap.

Here is a shot of the anti-torq engine mount from last weekend: You can see I need to secure the brake line and I need to make a strain relief for the turbo supply line.

I needed 50mm added to the cable housing. I cut the stock bracket and added the material from 1" angle steel.

Next I resolved my fan motor supply issue. I removed the filter and TC lines to get access to the wire harness as the Chilton's wire diagrams were completely useless. It had only 2 that apply to the fan. The one for my year shows the fan getting power only through a switch in the radiator... no relay. I have no switch in the radiator. The diagram for the year after mine used a 2 speed fan and complex relay using the ECM and other logic to control it... not what I have. Mine is simply a relay that is supplied power from the ignition circuit for the relay coil. The ground is routed to the sensor in the head. I connected this to the stock VW sensor. We will see if it works before I swap it for the stock Chrysler switch I just bought.

Here's the connection:

[arb]

More detail work was done in the engine bay. I put new ends on the alternator ground and positive wires. Here is the ground.

Here is the positive end. Notice the white factory connector. I am considering cutting it off and replacing with a new copper lug.

Sealed the copper / solder with liquid tape.

I completed the throttle linkage installation. It works well and all bolts have loc-tite red. I also re-installed the two injector line clamps. I rapped the IP fuel supply line with hose and secured it to a line so it does not vibrate against the throttle cable.

I cut the starter supply line to the correct size.

Here is a new lug. I sealed both ends with fresh liquid tape.

[jtanguay]

thank god for liquid tape    makes it easy to splice into factory wiring and not wreck it all  :lol:

looks like everything is moving well Arb!  does your van have dual rad fans or just a single?  (i think our '94 had dual but can't remember)

if the fan is a three prong you could probably swap in a vw relay unit to control it, and use the head temp switch.

[arb]

thank god for liquid tape    makes it easy to splice into factory wiring and not wreck it all  :lol:

looks like everything is moving well Arb!  does your van have dual rad fans or just a single?  (i think our '94 had dual but can't remember)

if the fan is a three prong you could probably swap in a vw relay unit to control it, and use the head temp switch.

One nice thing about this van is how wide it is.. the rad only takes up half the grill and has its own high volume fan. The a/c condenser has its own fan on the passenger side. Both have a simple 2 wire connector. I'm going to try the VW sensor before I return the Chrysler switch. The relay is a simple 4 wire - 2 are the coil and the other 2 are the source power and feed to the fan.

Thanks !!

[arb]

YIKES !! I uploaded my photos last night in Mega size !!! I just resaved them to a nornal size so the page is readable again...

Last night I worked on cleaning up the wiring under the hood. First, I put a lug on the end of a main cable.

Next I consider replacing the Dodge connector with copper lugs.
-1
So I cut them off

And put lugs w/ liquid tape to seal the cable.

Last, I completed the GP wires. I had to drill out the lugs.

Here they are secured to the wiper motor.

I bolted them all together with a stainless streel nut/bolt with copper washers between each lug, and then sealed it with liquid tape.

[Smokey Eddy]

Wow what a project!!! I like the liquid tape. Real clean. Nice work.

[arb]

Wow what a project!!! I like the liquid tape. Real clean. Nice work.

Thanks, its been real fun and I am almost ready to drive.

One thing I should have mentioned about soldering connections. Although they give the best electrical connection and they are sealed against corrosion, there is one risk that needs to be blocked. The point where the solder wicked into the cable is a stress raiser. The copper will crack there and the cable will fail if you do not secure the cable from movement (vibration) Crimping the cable ends allows more movement of the copper with vibration, but I don't want the connections to slowly corrode. So, I'll secure all of them.

[vixentd]

leave the eyes, and you can then drop the glowplugs in or remove by just loosing the nut on the end a bit to allow the glowplug to sping on the terminal. I can change all of my glowplus in about 10 mins this way.
Step 1.  Loosen the small not on glow plug but do not remove.
step 2   Loosen glow plugs as the glow plug will sping with on the terminal that is now lose.
Step 3. Use the wire with the glowplug still installed to lift up and remove glowplug.

[arb]

Holiday 3 days weekend !!  Wow, I had great expectations... one problem, my Jeep on the way to work blew an O2 sensor and went into limp mode. $130.00 and 3 days later, it was happy again but this limited my work on the diesel.

My son and I were about to start the diesel with the ignition key !!  He is only 12, so it was fun for him to sit in the drivers seat and turn the key. WAIT !! NASA, we have a problem:

I've never seen a temp gauge that high !! What's going on? Check the head - its stone cold. Back to the cabin. I notice my son is sitting in a car that is filling with electrical smoke !!!  GET OUT NOW !!!  Who says teenagers don't listen to their old parents ?  LOL !!!. I popped the battery connection and removed the restraining screws for my instrument pod. The blue toggle switch used to power the aux fuel pump would no longer toggle. Not good. It was warm too. Under the shell, the ground wires to the switch and some of the other instrument lights was toasted. This would imply that some of the power was feeding back through the temp sending capillary causing it to heat.

The switch had a clearly burned inside. At the auto store, we opened it and clearly the Chinaman who assembled it slipped with the wire for the illumination bulb and almost burned down my car !!

OK, back to wires under the hood. I recoated the connections with liquid tape.

There was a second power feed line I needed to splice to the source.

New end.

Recoating the main lines.

I connected the alternator main line also.

[arb]

More rain here, so small work in the garage. I made the final heavy duty power cable. This connects that last positive cable to the wire harness to the battery. I checked it against the other positive cable and they are connected someplace, so I'm not sure why Chrysler used 2 of them to the wire harness.

So, this wire

And this wire

Will be connected to this junction:

Cutting 9 inches off the too long starter positive cable to make this connection:

Now that the ends are done, I cut a bolt to the minimum length for this connection:

Now that the liquid tape is drying its second layer, I decided to make a TC pipe crimping tool (or what ever you call it) - it was hard to modify a genuine ViseGrip made in USA that I had for 31 year. But, here goes.

I built up both sides of the jaws so there would be a good die set. (automotive stamping experience)
Here's what the pipes look like. I was more than happy with the results.