3 months working on brake lines

It's hard to believe but I've been working on my brake lines for 3 months. I have all the bits I need and the tools too. The big problem is that I've been doing other things and usually when the weather for working on the brake lines is good but when the weather is bad I'm not doing anything.

Anyway, the lines at the front are almost completed. There's one line that has to be put on, going from the chassis to the blended line from the brake booster. Getting the original brake line off is somewhat of a challenge as there's so little room in which to work.  I did get an air cut-off tool to cut the old brake line but an air chisel would probably have been a better choice. It's definitely getting to the stage where I have enough air tools that it'll be worth putting an air tank on the bus with a 12v pump that can be powered from solar panels to inflate it.

It was impossible to remove the old front cross chassis brake line because it had been put on in one piece before the radiator and turbo intercooler had been installed. Thus I had no line to work from as an example. The new line has had to be made in 4 pieces as opposed to one. One piece I'm not happy with. I'm glad I bought a lot of brake line because I'll definitely use a lot. I am not shy of remaking lines when I'm not 110% happy with what I've done. I have a thing about brakes - they have to work. The work mechanic will testify to my fussiness over brakes, steering, air tanks, lights, tyres etc.

On a fairly cold and miserable day I switched out the old semi-circular Busboy mirrors for some circular convex mirrors. These are about half the size, unfortunately but they're more the kind of mirror I like because I can see the roofline. That's important to me because I can see how close I am to overhanging branches etc. The tubular mounts that the mirrors are attached to had no end cap so I ended up filling the end with Bondo. Probably about the only worthwhile use for Bondo!

The lighting problem continues. I tried one of the LED spotlight bulbs in the bathroom light but because of where I mounted the bathroom light, it'll have to be moved. In order to get better light I've put a white paper reflector above it. That worked really well.

Replacing the existing lights is something that's definitely going to happen. I bought some bulb holders for standard E26/E27 bulbs but they have yet to arrive. According to the tracking I bought them on November 30th. They arrived in the USA on December 12th and they're supposed to arrive on February 18th. This is why I dislike ordering from China. Fortunately there is no rush. I do have some bulb holders for standard car turn signal bulbs and converters to use my existing G4 bulbs. If the bulb holders I've ordered arrive, I can put just about any adapter in them. I'm thus holding off on building new light fixtures until they arrive. Only then can I decide which way I'm going with the bulbs.

A few days ago I found the lights were out in the bus. It seems that there just hasn't been enough light to recharge the battery. In the end I had to put a 15W panel on the ground to collect extra light. It took about 3 days but with the power off, the battery did get to 100%.  That had me thinking of alternative ways of powering the battery. 

On YouTube there are several videos by people that have taken standard nitro glow-plug model aircraft engines and used them to turn 150W 12v motors with a 1:1 conversion ratio. One even had theirs set up with an electric start. That's the kind of thing that would be invaluable. Not only are they very small - the whole thing would fit in the space taken up by a can of baked beans - but they're going to produce enough power to fill - from flat - a 30AH battery in about 2 1/2 hours. Very handy as a get-you-out-of-trouble device. With an electric start and a decent muffler those could be mounted under the bus as emergency generators.

Meanwhile there was another YouTube video that showed how the horn button on my bus works. I was baffled as to how to access it. It seems that the plastic on the steering wheel unscrews from the back. That means I now know more about the horn button. Apparently pressing the button fires a relay. I have heard a relay clicking when I have pressed the horn button. I have no idea where that relay is, however. One of my tasks will be to trace the horn wire back to the relay and from the relay to the horn. I would much rather the horn worked from its original button than the hillbilly wire connected to my momentary action switch. I bet the actual problem with the horn will be pretty simple when I find it.

Some LED sidelights arrived. I know some of my clearance lights are out so I'll go up there to check if the new lights will fit. If they do then I shall be very happy. Though the whole unit will need replacing as opposed to just a bulb, I gather they last reasonably well and are much more visible. For the turn signals etc I might replace the bulbs with LED bulbs as they might be brighter.

The immediate goal is to complete replacing the brake lines. Reading around, the torque specifications very from 23psi to 30psi. I don't think there is a standard. Some say as tight as you can or until it won't tighten any more. 

When the new lines are installed I'll have to test them. That's just going to be a case of putting cotton wool around each joint, filling the lines with brake fluid, evacuating air from the lines and then pressing the brake pedal hard with the brake booster turned on. That should bring the pressure up to 1200psi. Any leakage should show fairly readily. I thank my lucky stars that the brake line failed when stationary and on level ground. Then it'll be a case of using the brakes and driving the bus to see if the fluid level goes down.

The paint on the bus seems to be peeling off the outside, I will have to go over it with a grit blaster and go over it in sections, repainting. Though I do like my grey paint I might just paint it all white. This time I'll bring it back to bare metal and paint a primer then a topcoat. At least with it all white, it should be cooler inside. Finally I'll redo the roof coating with something better than the Rustoleum elastometric paint. That seems to do nothing but peel. In fact that's something I find about every can of Rustoleum - it does nothing but peel. Time to use a different brand. I have had plenty cans of Rustoleum spray just go lumpy then clog on me. I've tried different nozzles but the clog has been inside. I've given up counting how many refund checks I've had from Rustoleum for their lousy paint. They need to start giving their product away - that's about all it's worth!

An interesting problem working with the front brake line.

The other day I went underneath the front of the bus and loosened the front brake line. That is a very long, very complex line covered with armor. Having several bends, it goes from one side of the chassis to the other, fastened to the radiator/intercooler rail. Having had a good look at it a few days before, it looked like it just dropped down and pulled forward. Sadly, that was not the case. It seems to have been installed when the bus was just a chassis and that to remove it involves pulling the radiator and intercooler. Well that's a big nope! 

The lines run inside of the C section chassis members but in one place on each side the chassis had been boxed - there are opposing C sections attached to the chassis so the only way to pull the brake lines is forward. To remove and replace will involve cutting the existing brake line into three pieces. That is an awkward maneuver that cannot be achieved with a tube cutter because of the armor. The angle grinder is too big and the hacksaw is also too big. Thus I concluded I needed an air-cut-off tool.

Going online to order the tool, the immediate thought since it was daylight was - a quick run to Walmart. One showed up on their website and the store I'd set as my local store was indeed not 10 miles away. The price was a bit high at $20 whereas Harbor Freight had one for $10. I duly ordered and paid online for the cutter and was astounded to discover that it had been ordered from a store 20 miles away. Needless to say, if I was going any further than 10 miles, I might as well go 30 and visit Harbor Freight, giving up on daylight for the day.

The journey to Harbor Freight was made. The cut-off drill was located, the cut-off-drill disks located, some disks for my angle-grinder were located. The only thing missing was the disk for my 6" Harbor Freight chop saw. I bought that many moons ago and have never found blades for it.

From there, as I would need to join brake lines and wasn't sure how many flare nuts I had, it made sense to find some flare nuts. That took me to the next stop, Napa. That was a disappointment. The fellow pulled out a bunch of 3/16 flare nuts, looked up on the computer and told me my brake lines were 3/16th. Somebody clearly needs to update Napa's computer system. Then they denied knowledge of 1/4inch flare nuts. 

Moving on from Napa, the next call was O'Reilly's. That was much more welcoming. The salesman took me behind the counter and showed me a set of plastic drawers to find my flare nuts. Though looking without my glasses was definitely a fuzzy experience though not of the warm and fuzzy kind, it was possible to see there was just an empty drawer where there should have been 1/4 inch flare nuts.

Moving on, the next stop was Autozone. There, amazingly, I did find flare nuts. I already knew I had couplings. It was on! Sadly, not so fast... With half a dozen flare nuts in my sweaty little palm I got home to pitch blackness. The sun had escaped!

In the mail, however, was a set of BA15s to G4 adaptors. The plan is to replace my current lighting fixtures. I have G4 fixtures throughout but as they're too close to the woodwork for a halogen lamp I shall have to remodel. The aim is to replace the lighting fixtures with BA15s which are the same as my turn signal bulb mounts. That gives the opportunity to share bulbs that can also work in the bus in the same manner that the house fuse box uses the same kind of fuses the bus uses. The BA15s are still in the post however. Those should arrive next week. Meanwhile the E26 sockets ordered from China are still somewhere in China though the E26 to G4 adaptors are on my desk.

A few days ago, thinking of the lighting issue and wanting to use halogen bulbs, I'd thought a candle lantern would be ideal because I already have one and use it for a tea-light candle. Thus I had a good browse around Hobby Lobby and came up with precisely nothing. They ranged from about $4 to an astounding $30 - even more astounding considering how badly made they were. Clearly the produce of some Chinese forced labor prison camp!

Having drawn a blank on lanterns I did some thinking. Taking the plastic garden lantern cover off one of my LED lights and replacing it with a much more powerful but directional LED light I noticed the light was not phenomenal. Pulling out a sheet of paper I placed that over the bulb as a reflector to angle the light back into the room rather than straight up to the ceiling. The difference was stunning!

Following on the reflector line of thought, it's probably going to be cheaper than buying lanterns and easier than making them if I put two white reflectors. One to reflect light into the room and one to shield me from the direct light of the bulb but to concentrate that light on the secondary reflector. That would allow me to use both halogen and to avoid buying lanterns.

Today, being the 13th got off to an odd start. I woke feeling a bit off color and that only got worse the more interaction with people and animals that I had. In the end I went outside but didn't want to do brakes because those have to be right that probably wouldn't have happened today.

As it was a straightforward task, I pulled out some predrilled, soft steel strip and commenced to make brackets for the new crossview mirrors. The old crossview mirrors though bigger had been used to death. The reflective backing was gone in many places and as they were BusBoy mirrors and not Eclipse they showed the ground only but not the entire front of the bus - which is my preference.

The brackets were relatively easy to make. it was just a vase of bending the steel around a socket of the same diameter as the mirror tubing on the bus. The fun bit came when it was time to paint the brackets. 

Some time ago I'd found both my cans of Rustoleum rust reforming primer were refusing to spray paint. Rustoleum offered a refund and suggested that the problem could be clogged nozzles. Well, I tried a nozzle off an old paint can and it quickly clogged, proving that the problem was inside the can. The paint must have large lumps in it. This is something Rustoleum admits can happen but denies ever happening with their paint.

Having removed the two cross-view mirrors, the bus looks a bit weird. Some nincompoops remove the cross-view mirrors thinking it clever to do so. The actual fact is those mirrors are more used in regular driving than one would imagine. Even articulated trucks are now beginning to add front cross view mirrors.

As the tubing under the mirrors was open and I had some Bondo to hand, I donned rubber gloves and mixed hardener into the Bondo, kneeding by hand. Then I pressed the mixture thickly into both mirror stems in the hope it will stick and seal the hole. If need be I could always fill those holes using my welder.

After working slowly but diligently, both mirrors were eventually installed. They're 8 inch diameter as opposed to the 14 inches width of the BusBoy mirrors but that's not a problem. I should not be having to scrutinize these mirrors for stray children. 

Looking at the mirror, it's clearly quite small but the image is very clear indeed. I had to buy several mirrors like this on eBay before I found a pair that was just right. The other two that weren't right ended up on the back steps of a mobile home so that it's possible to see whether the dogs are at the door.

Though I did not get anything done with the brakes this weekend, perhaps I will next weekend. I just need a good session under the hood to get the front brake lines finished. The back brake lines - aside from one curve should be straight all the way to the differential. That should be lightning fast. Well, perhaps not quite lightening fast because the brake line under the front gave me another as yet unmentioned issue. Try as I might I could not get one bracket loose that held the line. I had to squirt it with PB Blaster and wait an hour. Then it came free easily.

When a garage says they need to keep your car another day, they just found a nut they couldn't shift and had to spray it with PB Blaster and wait a few hours for the stuff to do its work. That's an aside though - the picture is of the roof. There was grey paint on top of the yellow paint then white paint on top of the grey paint. Finally I put elastometric paint on top of the whole lot. The elastometric paint was Rustoleum and doesn't seem to have been worth a hoot. It seems to be pulling the Rustoleum white paint off though not the Rustoleum grey paint. Wonder what's up with that?

Why I am going away from LEDs

Since time immemorial, before dinosaurs roamed the earth my bus has been lit by 12v LED lighting. It was understood from the propaganda that the green mob put out that LED lighting was in some way better than incandescent lighting.  Apparently it uses less energy and puts less greenhouse gasses into the environment due to less fossil fuels being needed to power them. Well, since my entire lighting system is solar powered, that is nonsense.

So, what about LEDs using less power? Sure - they do use less power than the halogen lamps I am going over to. By my calculation, a 10W halogen will use 10W of power or a bit less than an amp. I can run one halogen lamp for at least 12 hours from my 30ah battery. That's all fine and dandy but I'm not likely to want to use electric lighting for 12 hours non stop. My LED light will use quarter of the power for allegedly the same light.

Why allegedly? Well, LED lighting is a massive fail. In fact I'd say it's one of the greatest frauds of all time. It doesn't save all that much electricity nor does it save on pollution. In fact quite the opposite - it's a great source of pollution.

Let's look at LED technology - it's a great big chunk of plastic with phosphorous and goodness knows what else. They're pollution intensive to make and will not be recycled - even if they can be. They'll just get chucked into a trash can and go into landfill. Compare that with incandescent bulbs. Those were around way before the dawn of plastic. The average T3 halogen bulb is made of glass, halogen gas and metal (usually tungsten). None of that is toxic. The glass will break down by mechanical action and the metals and gasses will absorb without pollution. 

The light fixtures in the bus are very simple - a G4 base glued to a steel bracket. Those would work well for the halogen bulbs save for the fact they're too close to woodwork and paintwork. Halogen bulbs give off heat. Thus in order to replace the LED bulbs with halogen it's necessary to adjust the bulb sockets. This is not a major issue - it's really straightforward.

But why, you may ask, am I changing over from LED? Three reasons:

1. LED bulbs do not last anywhere near as long as claimed. In the bus I have two currently that are exhibiting signs of future failure. The claims on the packet are for thousands of hours of usage. The actual usage time is somewhere around 12 hours. Failure starts with having to flick the light switch on and off several times before the bulb lights. Eventually this gets quite tiresome then finally the bulb starts blowing fuses. Then, it's dead. 
2. LED bulbs to not have a wide enough spectrum. The other day, trying to distinguish between the silver and gold screws on an electrical socket I was wiring elsewhere was impossible by the light of an LED lamp. I had to take it outside to daylight to see. If colors cannot be distinguished under LED light then LED light is worthless.
3. Cost - for the price of a pair of LED bulbs (around $5) I can buy ten halogen bulbs. 

I've experimented with different LED bulbs - not just one variety. They're universally dreadfully expensive. The cone shaped LED bulb above is heavy and unidirectional. In fact most LED bulbs are unidirectional as opposed to the unidirectional light of halogen bulbs.

The new game plan is to install E26/E27 screw light bulb sockets (like those in most American homes) but then to use an adapter to convert that to G4 sockets. Using the ordinary household bulb socket with its wide variety of available adapters gives rise to a wide range of 12v bulbs that can be used. 

One of my ideas had been to use candle lanterns to house the halogen bulb. Frosted with a Valspar frosting spray the light is softer and much less glaring. That, however, is an idea that might or might not come to fruition. 

LED lighting has many brainwashed supporters but my personal experience has been extremely poor. LED flashlights that dazzle but do not produce much worthwhile light, LED household bulbs that fail rapidly, LED 12v bulbs that fail rapidly and LED stop light/turn signal on vehicles that cease to function and need whole unit replacement rather than just a simple, cheap bulb. The way LEDs come over is as a half-baked idea that sounds good on paper but which in reality is an unmitigated disaster as well as horrendously expensive.