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Monday, December 17, 2012

Exhaust System


 NEW?  CLICK HERE FOR DAY ONE!

Not much to report this week other than a I drove the car to Walt's Radiator and Muffler in down town Puyallup to have the exhaust system built.  Ron has been in the business for 20 years and I pick up my  car after work today!
Other than that, I've been tweaking the wiring and removed a big Honda relay box because I was only using 1 out of the 5 relays in it.  I'll wire up a small stand alone relay and create more room behind the dash.

Car dropped off and ready for exhaust system installation.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Mini Wires

 NEW?  CLICK HERE FOR DAY ONE!

This week I was able to drive the car a bit down the street again, fun stuff!

I finally grounded my coolant temp gauge so that now works.  That allowed me to run the engine at a high idle and build some heat, too much heat really.  I kept it running till the gauge was almost to the red zone and shut it down, I wanted to see if the fan would kick on but no-go.  I need to revisit that system before I can take the car on the road.
Other wiring issues I've been dealing with are the wires that send power from the old voltage regulator to the old fuse box.  The problem is the regulator isn’t used anymore, so I needed to tap into another source of power for the fuse box.  Simple in concept really, just took some work.  I have that done so now I have brake lights, parking lights etc.  Something is still mis-wired behind the instrument cluster because my fuel gauge only works when the high beams are on.   I had those wires all labeled, but evidently not well enough, only half of the labels are still legible.  Oh well, it’s almost done.
Next I’ll need to track down a problem with the brakes, they are firm in the garage but with the engine running they take a pump of the pedal before they work.  Something isn’t right, maybe the brakes are backing off somehow with the vibration of the engine. 

Dash apart again.




My new jumper wire.  THIS TIME I'm using a fuse inline.  No more smoke in the car with a wire glowing bright orange...

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Hydrolastic Suspension Pump

 NEW?  CLICK HERE FOR DAY ONE!


This week I made a device that was able to push the hydrolastic fluid (50/50 antifreeze and water) into the system at 300 PSI.  What I did was I took a 1 ½ inch pipe I had kicking around then added a few fittings and filled it ¾ full of antifreeze.  Next I hooked up my CO2 tank from my MIG welder and cracked the valve.  A liquid CO2 tank has a pressure of around 800 PSI so I only opened it a bit at a time while filling the hydro system on the car.  Now that it isn’t sitting on the bump stops any more, I can actually turn left and right without hitting the fenders.
I drove the car a bit down my local street and got the temperature up and didn’t have any leaks.  My temp gauge wasn’t working however and I figured out the sending unit isn’t grounded.  I made a tube with a bung to hold the sender but it’s clamped to two rubber hoses.  I’ll attach a grounding wire and try that again.  Once I have a working temp gauge I’ll be able to get the engine up to full temp and verify the fan kicks on.  Then it’s time for a real trip, keeping local of course.  The engine runs strong and smooth without any sign of smoke or problems.  This next month will be fun!

Here you can see the driver's side is pumped up, right side to follow.

Here is the device, a simple piece of pipe.