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Jun 11, 2017 13:32:42 GMT
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There actually is a relais for the fan. But the fuse is in the power line and is still the weakest link... The fuse meltet because there's a switch in the dashboard to activate the fan on high speed. I used it since the viscous fan wasn't working, so the electric fan was working beyond it's designed runing time This is usually not an issue, but it does happen from time to time that one of those fuses melts it's way into the factory fuse holder. Mostly when they are corroded and have a high transition resistance. And I guess the cheap blade fuse holder also had a bad resistance due to it's "cut throug mantling" nature (I only know the german word; "stromdieb"). I'll see. But you are right, maybe this could be re-wired and improved. I also plan on switching the headlights with relais at some point. Also the seat heater isn't switched with relais, neither are the electric windows.
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Here's my newest aquisition... A 4 liter Jeep Comanche. The last Pick-Up they sold...
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Yes, cars with cruise control use a two-piece cable with a sensor in the middle... I'd just like to have a set of spare tail oughts, since they are impossible to get over here. Yesterday. Installed universal rubber extension to the wheel arches, to make it at least borderline legal. This is actually what it says in the paperwork, rubber arch extensions.Wheels & tyres are legal, with this rubber extension at least. Tyres are 255/60s on 8x15" ET-20 steels. Then I found a muddy ditch and drove it in... To take a couple of proper pictures. It's ugly side in the sunshine; looks better in the pictures. Someone's had a go at fixing it, but some spots are high, some still low. This requires some more work. Good thing I work as a panel beater... Drove it home, parked it on the street. Bit later wanted to drive it back into the garage - again no starting. This time - not at all. Bypassed the Neutral Safety Switch, bypassed this & that, switched relais, traced wires, jumped things - nothing. Starter worked by jumping the terminals, but the key did not make the starter motor run. So... Maybe NSS still? Pulled it, cleaned it and reinstalled it. Having no clue about those cars - maybe the dreaded C101 plug?? Cleaned it as good as possible (what the f, what were they thinking??) - but as expected no luck, still no starter motor... In the end I finally traced it down to the big silver relais; opened it up, cleaned everything inside, cleaned the connectors. And after I put it back in, she seems to start every time now. Maybe I finally fixed it, I guess I'll find out. At least I know how to start the engine; just put the green wire on the center of the relais on the positive terminal of the battery...
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So, another issue adressed, finally... As I mentioned, the aux fan had melted the fuse holder. This was an aftermarket holder for a bladed fuse that was just stuck under the lid of the fuse box. The fuse holder in the factory fuse box had a meltdown before. So, I never liked this thing just dangling around the fuse box. Now that it was broken anyway, it was time to adress it. I took a bracket & aux fuse holder which originally is used to hold the fuses for the tow bar and seat heater. Since the car is equiped with tow bar & seat heater, the other aux fuse box was full. If this one melts as well, I have a couple of them as spares... That fan draws a lot of amps. Also installed a new engine fan shroud, which was like 30€ on the counter. Pretty cheap! That's all, odometer now at 1.003.000. Cheers, Jan
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Thanks for the offer!! Though I just found out that apparently a cable from a YJ Wrangler should fit as well. This is still available for relatively low money. If it doesn't fit... I'll let you know! And should you happend to find a Comanche with intact tail lights - I'll take them! Cheers, Jan
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Hi! Yes, they seem to have a strong fan base. And I'm getting a feeling why. But first, let the wrenching commence. Drove it into the garage. And... Nice colour match, huh? I wanted to fix two things; the broken speedo and the loose tilting steering column. So off came the steering wheel. Had to use a puller to unseat it. Next I had to remove a circlip, that holds the turn lock, which is tensioned by a STRONG spring which preloads the upper column bearing, a ball bearing. Had to improvise, but it worked very good! To get to the speedo, I had to remove the fascia surrounding the gauges & switches and what not. To remove it without breaking it, I had to drop the whole steering column. To get to the steering column, I had to remove the lower dash panel. So basically; I had to tear apart everything... Turned out it was the speedo, not the cable. It had jammed going from 99.999 to 100.000 mls. I oiled it, and the more oil & grease I put on all the little shafts & gears, the better it moved. Unfortunately, it looks like the square at the end of the cable rounded off when the speedo jammed. The speedo cable is not snapped, like I assumed, but damaged. And of course the speedo cable is a discontinued part and not available anywhere. Sigh. Worst case is that I need to find a speed sensor and make use of the later model two-piece speedo cable. Or find something else with the correct length. So far the speedo seems to work again, though. But the odometer is still not turning and the light stopped working after I put the gauge cluster back in. Sigh. Anyway, next task: fix the engine vacuum kraken... The seller had included a replacement part. Didn't cure the bad starting, but it seems to idle a lot better now. And speaking of bad starting; after I cleaned the starter relais connectors, the starter turns over every time now. So far my "no crank"-issue has not re-appeared. Next up; the dreaded upper column wobble... So I dismantled the steering column further. I cut a torx socket apart and welded it to a bit of flat bar, which I then ground down and bent untill I could reach two of the torx bolts that come loose (on every car apparently). It worked, the wobble is mostly gone. I didn't realy fancy to take the upper column & tilt mechanism apart, it looks terribly complicated. The whole steering column thing it just incredible, so complicated for such an agricultural car... Anyway, speedo works, wobbly column fixed 99%, engine runs better - all in all a productive day. Also found Jugoslavian money under the dash... Cheers, Jan
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I'm not telling, but it was a lot more. They are incredibly rare in germany (never officially sold) - the other 2 currently for sale are advertised for 9 and 16k€. I payed a lot less than that, though. It's a 4.0 liter with automatic trans, rear wheel drive, column shift and 3-seater bench. And today the odometer stopped working at 100k miles. And the fuel gauge moves almost as fast as the speedo used to move. It's surprisingly fast. I'm neither used to a car with a bit of grunt, nor to one that drinks a lot of fuel.
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Soo, finally got a bit time to do a proper write up. I had been on the look for an oldschool SUV or 4x4 for a long time now. I really fancied a Toyota Landcruiser HJ61, but prices went up faster than I could save up my moneys. So, I also looked for alternatives. This thing poped up every now and then, but I never looked at it closer. A Jeep. Meh. But at one point... I somehow looked at it differently. And a couple of weeks later, I arranged a test drive. I went alon, without money or a second driver. Actually, I had no intention to buy it. The seller was a nice chap, we talked a lot, I took it for a testdrive. Afterthis test drive, I parked it behind the Taxi. we went inside, talked some more, talked about money. I asked for a week to think about. Went outside, to drive home. It was on this drive home that the Taxi zeroed the odometer, btw. And then I had this view: I had to smile. It would be totaly stupid to buy a knackered, dented, bashed and 30 years old american car I knew nothing about. This was 3 weeks ago. This was yesterday: I took mr 3liter with me, after I had finished work. It was about a 1h drive away, so not far away. Again a lot of petrol head chat - and we bled the sellers W210 clutch, sadly without any success. After a bit more talking, we zip-tied my temporary plates to the Jeep and headed off. It was at this point that I knew I had done something incredibly stupid. I bought my most expensive ever car, my worst looking and most beat up car ever. We drove both car to my place, had a coffee and then went for a little dirt road drive to watch the sunset. Today I took it to get to work. and when I wanted to head home after finishing time, it didn't start. No turning of the starter motor. I fiddled with the neutral safety switch, fiddled with every fuse & relay I could find - and after an 3/4h the starter eventually turned and the engine started. Sigh. Already least reliable car ever. I headed to 3liter - when I wanted to head home in the evening - same thing. No starter motor turning. Eventually we figured out it was a rotten connector on a relais. So I headed home - when the speedo cable snapped. Awesome. No speedo, no cars to follow... Wipers only work when you push the screen wash button, the glas roof doesn't close properly, engine doesn't like starting... In all honesty; it's the worst car I ever bought so far. And I love it! It's a got a bit of a "Roadkill" vibe to it
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I'm knackered, details tomorrow...
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I like that a lot!! And I've added this to my list of "things I want to do some day"!
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Na, they were fine actually - going by visual inspection anyway. The problem was the release-valve bolt thingy. It runs through a hex nut (last picture above). The shaft is sealed with an o-ring inside the hole in the hex nut. The o-ring effectively seals the entire oil reservoir to the outside. Below the o-ring is an inside thread. Er - let me draw a picture... Yellow is the bolt running through the nut (blue), releasing/tigthening a ball bearing to release the oil from the pressurised side of the hydraulic ram. The issue was the fitment of the bolt through the nut. The thread for the bolt is either off center or kinked. This was troublesome. So it took me a couple of approaches to have a really snug fitting bolt the o-ring can actually seal against... I guess the chinese lathe this was turned on was a bit worn Cheers, Jan PS: yeah, drawing with MS Paint is not one of my talants
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Ooooh yeah, I blöödy love my new windscreen!! Not. At least it all drops on the rubber floor mat since I removed the A-pillar trims. Anyway, sensible replacement should arrive tomorrow... Cheers, Jan
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Yeah, it's safety-by-user... But what the heck, it was free, I'm not complaining. And even better; not a single drop of oil on the ground this evening. Could it finally be holding it's fluids? So far I always had to fill it up, bleed it and then use it. And put an array of trays under it to catch the oil... At least I always used recycled oil from my trolley jack collection - or waste ATF or other oils, whatever was in reach So if it holds proper hydraulic oil now - a very welcome change Cheers, Jan
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Saftey? Mostly user related, isn't it? If something drops on that handle, the release will just tighten up. If I bump it - well, my fault. Same if I cut my finger with an angle grinder. It's not the grinder that's unsafe, it's me not paying enough attention whilst handling a dangerous machine. Anyway - I discarded the "handle" - since it was leaking all over the place again. I chucked yet another bolt in the lathe and turned it down to the biggest diameter that would go into the hole... About 9.05mm, instead of 8.99something. And used the thickest O-ring that I could persuade into the groove (which was - well, I cursed a lot fitting that o-ring). If this holds tight, it may even receive a knob or handle... But before that - nope. I think in the end I will have to re-manufacture that nut through which the bolt goes. It holds the o-ring & M8 thread for the rod, and also keeps the ball bearing which is the valve from dropping out. With the tighter fitting bolt I could see that the thread isn't cut perfectly straight. My bolt is, verified on the lathe. It's turning into quite a mission to fix that old barstuart of engine hoist... Cheers, Jan
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Today... I let it run for 2h on low power, no water came out. So... Let's try a little bit more. Unfortunately, I ran out of gas pretty quick (the bottle was pretty much drained before I started the burner build). So that's how far I got I think this could qualify as "melted" Probably good I ran out of gas, since water started oozing out again when I turned the burner up. I think I'm going to remove the middle section of the drum and add some braces instead. A steel drum with a couple of holes just isn't able to "breathe" well enough. And now for something completely different... The old engine crane I was given a couple of years. It developed a habit of leaking BADLY, drenching the floor with oil. Something had to be done. I replaced all O-rings I could. And found out, that my improvised release knob was made from an incorrectly sized bolt. The thread is M8, the o-ring in the nut requires a 9mm shaft to seal, though. So I chucked a 9mm bolt in the lathe, turned it down to 8mm, cut an M8 thread. Put everything back together and gave it a fill with oil. Looks like it's still working after my repair. And instead of a washer - I welded a bit of flat bar to the release. Which makes cracking it open under load a lot easyer and more controllable. I nevr liked the release on engine cranes, it's too easy to smash something when the engine drops suddenly because you just cracked open the release and accidentaly dropped it too much by over-turning the release valve. If you understand what I mean This handle does a far better job. So far there seem to be no leaks. Maybe I was finally succesfull, after the - I don't know - fifth or sixth attempt of fixing this But hey, it was free, so why throw it away? And that's the latest news from TurboDieselWeaselWerks Cheers, Jan
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A truck... Nah, that's beyond silly. --------- Had a problem with the engine overheating when standing still the last couple of days. So I turned up the heater (like it's not hot enough allready), took detours to avoid known traffic jams etc. - and ordered a new water pump and fan clutch. Since the fan was not angaging. The only thing that saved the engine from boiling was the aux fan and interior heater. Untill the aux fan melted the fuse holder... D'oh. Today... I opened the bonnet. To check oil & water. And then I thought about why I didn't think about opening the bonnet and having a look. FFS. Cause the fan was just jammed in the fan shroud... Removed the remains of shredded plastic - engine cool again, all good. The fan clutch even survived being jammed for a couple of hundred kilometers D'oh... xD I think I need to replace the engine & gearbox mounts, it looks like the fan can crash into the fan shroud under hard braking. There's not a lot of clearance to begin with, so that might be the issue. Cheers, Jan
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I thought it was drop & wheels If you have the space and need for a jack this size - why not? Doesn't look like it'll be expensive. Cheers, Jan
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May 30, 2017 20:49:44 GMT
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I wrote this earlyer, but some internet-hick up swallowed it... So, here's the follow-up from last week. I welded some little bits of left over pipe to my helium bottle crucible. And made a retrieval tool, since I guess welding gloves are not up to the job of handling a glowing red metal tube... ^Looks weak, but that wire is sturdy as fcuk! I was barely able to bend it by hand. No idea what it is, but it's stiff as a wedding pr!ck And well, I allowed myself a little full-throttle run. Let's just say that this helium bottle was glowing red within about half a minute. I have a distinct feeling that it will not survive for very long. And there was me thinking that a 2" burner might be a little asthmatic. Turns out I was a little wrong. I'm actually curious how much power it has, I think I will weigh the propane bottle during a run and maybe I can estimate a power figure form the propane consumption. But I quickly turned it down again, since there's still so much moisture in the concrete, i feared it may explode if I heat it up too quick. I drilled some holes through the barrel to aid drying. Seemed to work. It'll be a while until I can run it on full chat. It makes a nice roar at full power! Can't wait... Cheers, Jan
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May 30, 2017 19:19:24 GMT
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May 26, 2017 16:22:00 GMT
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Also made a start on a crucible... And then... Fired the furnace up for the very first time! Even on the lowest setting I got temperatzure readings of 380-420°C. Turning the burner down is difficult, the less air & fuel it burns, the more likely the flame is to "backfire" and get into an oscillation. Think of a pulse jet. Probably not good. So I turned it off when I noticed water oozing out along the burner tube... Tells you just how much water is still in there, after over 3 weeks of drying. Incredible. I don't want it to crack too soon. Tthough I'm sure it will crack at one point, since I didn't use the correct material (I'm cheap, you know?). But for my first steps in casting - this will do. I think the next furnace I'm building will have steam vents in the sidewall. I guess concrete also draws water, depending on atmospheric conditions. So - allready learned a LOT Cheers, Jan
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