Last time, I was disappointed by being unable to get my brakes fixed. I'm still in that situation but a bit further forward. From International I got two brake lines but one needs the bottom line as that broke off when I was trying to unhitch the flexible hose from the rigid pipe.
After quite a lot of faffing about I discovered that the rigid brake line is not 1/4 inch as I'd thought but 6mm and metric. That seems very strange for an American made bus with an American made engine. As somebody said - you don't get much more American than Detroit Diesel. The connector from the rigid hose into the flexible hose is rusted solid and the corners on the nut on the smaller connector have worn down at some point so it can't be undone even with a flare wrench. The next task will be to check on the new connector since it doesn't seem to want to screw into the hydromax. The old connector measures a very strange 13.8mm or 35/64".
In order to help me understand it all better I've ordered a thread gauge. That should arrive soon. There's no such thing as too much information when you're trying to solve a problem.
Meanwhile I also got on with my battery installation. The battery holder insert I made last time fits nicely inside the existing battery holder. Today I welded a piece of 3 inch steel plate to two pieces of steel angle. That brings it to approximately 5 inches width and will fit nicely between the battery holder rails where they attach to the underside of the bus. For a little fun I did some of those stack-of-dimes welds.
The next stage having welded the steel together was to clean it all up and paint it. On went a coat of undercoat and a coat of topcoat. There are a few holes left to mark and drill before this can be attached to the bus. When that's done, this will become the flame shield above my new lithium battery. The other battery holder being constructed differently will need a shield without side rails. That's fine. I have some flat bar that can be used. I can do all of this without actually having to buy any more steel.
Having done the heat shield (or rather while waiting for the paint to dry) I got on with a new connector. The old connectors worked but the holes were gigantic because they were designed for beefier battery terminals. These are a little on the big side but if they're too big I can always fill the holes with hard solder and then drill a new hole through the solder. That should work quite well.
I made the mistake of trying to use the grey connectors instead of the red connectors. They are not compatible with each other. This time I'm not trying to seal the back of the connector. Last time I did that, it made it very hard to separate them.
And finally, a picture of the back of my lithium battery. The text is very much Chenglish. Having used the battery consistently for about a week, it has maintained 100% every time I have looked at it. The voltage seems to be stable at 13.4V. This battery seems to be pretty good. As I have two battery hangers, I will be installing a second at some point. So far I'm impressed by lithium batteries. I hear they do not work well in cold weather though. I shall just have to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment