A second battery

Since my new lithium battery seems not to be lasting too well on dark days I decided to up the ante a little with a second lithium battery. It could be that my first lithium battery is failing. That is under the Ecoworthy brand. Since I bought it in October for $150 that is a really poor show. It cannot be abused because it has a built-in battery management system. All I have running on it is a door lock controller and occasionally, lights when I go in the bus. 

So, a few days ago I ordered another, similarly priced battery of the same capacity. I bet that there's some guy in a grass hut in the middle of Communist China making these between puffs on his opium pipe. The dealers in the USA probably just slap their own labels on them. "Ecoworthy" definitely sounds like a Chinese attempt at a "Western-Sounding" name. This one seems to have an even less spectacular attempt at a "Western-sounding" name. "To Battery" just sounds about as daft as "Idgy squidgy battery.

Having got a new battery I had to make a cradle for it and then a battery clamp. The battery clamp I made to hold down a U1 lead-acid battery because that's what I have on both of my battery hangers. The other hanger has a better-designed battery clamp because I didn't skimp on materials. On the one I'm replacing I'd used what I had rather than buying more. It worked for lead-acid batteries but not for lithium. The new clamp will take both.

Having welded the cradle and the clamp, it was time to clean them up for painting. On this occasion I used my sandblaster head with the air tank. That worked really well though the Harbor Freight sandblaster trigger jammed on me. Eventually I found wiggling it got it free. 

Speaking of Harbor Freight I bought one of their sandblasting hoods. That worked a treat and kept the sand out of my hair. I kept my welding jacket on while sandblasting and wore my welding gloves. I had zero problems with sand. That was most welcome and a very pleasant change from my previous attempts at sandblasting. 

Having sandblasted the metal, it was bright and shiny. That gave me a very clean base to spray primer. I have to say this Harbor Freight stuff is pretty good. It seems trendy to roll one's eyes at Harbor Freight and decry the tools for being cheap. The fact is, even professional mechanics have Harbor Freight tools. 

So, having sand blasted, I sprayed one side with primer. When that has cured - probably overnight since the temperature is the kind of balmy 45F (6.7C) weather that would have bikini clad ladies definitely not heading to the beach, I'll spray the other side. Then I'll have to see if I need to trim the ends of the battery cradle and I'll have to drill the holes for the stays in the battery clamp. That will involve another round of priming.

Finally, it'll all get a good coat of topcoat and when that's dried, it'll be installed with the new battery in place. 

As far as the other battery is concerned, I might have to undo the screws in the top of the battery, take it apart and see whether I have dead cells. It might even be worth doing a battery capacity test by letting it charge fully then running a 50W lamp together with a relay to a clock so that when the battery management system turns the battery off, the clock will stop at that time, allowing me to estimate pretty accurately the actual battery capacity.

The two short pieces of brake line under the hood are on hold for right now. I really want a warmer day though having said that I did all this on a particularly cold day. Come back summer, all is foregiven!

Taking a break from brakes

I've been working on brake lines for so long due to only being able to do smidgens at a time that I've become a bit depressed about it all. Today I continued with one of my other projects though - one that I could complete in a day.

For a long time I've been unimpressed by the longevity of the 12v LED light bulbs. I have quite a stock of them so I'll use them all up before I go over entirely to incandescent bulbs. There are plenty naysayers out there that decry incandescent bulbs because they produce heat and aren't as "efficient" or as "bright" as LED bulbs but to be honest all those claims are utterly bogus.

LED bulbs cost a lot more money than any other form of bulb. I bought a pack of two pin halogen bulbs containing 10 bulbs for $5. For $5 in Wally-World I would get just two LED bulbs and I can guarantee they won't last more than a few days in use. It's always the same - they become hard to switch on and need the switch to be flipped several times. Eventually they blow the fuse. They just are not worth the money. Halogens being cheaper and longer lasting are just plain better value.

As far as the claims of brightness and efficiency are concerned, they might appear to be more efficient but if they keep blowing then they're wasting my money and that is not efficiency. They do appear brighter but it's a dazzling, glaring, harsh brightness that actually makes using them very unpleasant. I did have a go at toning down some nasty LED lanterns by using a frosting spray. It didn't really work as while it did cut down on all the glare, the light was just dreadfully harsh - as if it was a light being shone in the eyes during a brutal interrogation. No thanks. Don't want that nightmare.

The lighting fixture I ended up with was a Dorman vehicle interior light and takes a standard turn signal bulb. That, in combination with a two-pin converter allows the use of turn signal bulbs, two pin halogen bulbs, two pin LED bulbs (to use up my stock) and even LED turn signal bulbs.

The new light fixture currently has an LED two pin bulb in it but that will be replaced by two pin halogen when I run out of LED bulbs and can find my halogen bulbs. As the fixture has a built-in push-button power switch I was able to remove my power switch and the old lighting bracket.

With the power off, it looks quite snazzy. When I bought it, the fixture was bare steel so I primed and painted with the inside being white. I did try frosting spray on the lens but as the temperature is quite low, it had no effect. That stuff likes temperatures in the 80s.

With the power on, it produces a less than acceptable amount of light given that the bulb used is an LED. The quality of the light is poor but as I've said, I'll use up those LEDs and will never buy any more.

I was going to try LED turn signal bulbs and even bought a pair. Where they are hiding, I don't know so I can't yet try them. It's getting to the point where I'm going to have to sort out my tools again. It gets like that from time to time despite the best intentions.

It usually starts with my tidying the bus and swearing never to let it get untidy again. I then put things away and keep doing that for a while until I get tired one day and say "I'll just put these here for now". Then it just builds up and before long, the driver's seat has vanished under a huge pile of supplies and tools.

Looking at the bus, the magic Rustoleum elastometric roof paint seems to be peeling badly. The white Rustoleum underneath it seems to be coming up with the elastometric paint. My original grey paint that I just happily slapped down on top of the yellow roof paint seems to be holding though.

Looking elsewhere, the grey Rustoleum seems to be flaking badly in places. It seems to do this fairly sporadically. It doesn't matter how well cleaned the surface is, Rustoleum likes to do two things - fade and peel. 

Some say I shouldn't paint on top of clear coat. Well, why not? It has stayed on for 5 years in the majority of cases. 

Some of the peeling is getting a shade ridiculous. A while ago I bought a big bag of coal slag dust. The aim is to use it to sandblast the paint lightly enough to bring it down to primer with occasional bare metal then to spray with Rustoleum primer for rusty metal - in case there is any rust. Then I'll have a colour change. I'll spray the bus white. That should reflect an awful lot more heat.

One of my top marker lights at the back has gone out so I bought some more marker lights. These are LED fixtures and I thought I'd try them. The only LED fixtures that regularly fail on the work bus are the brake lights and turn signals. Maybe I'll get lucky?

I've been having a problem with the battery running out of charge on dull days. Whether the battery has lost capacity, I don't know. I hope not. In any case I bought a second battery with a different maker's label on it - same kind of battery - 30AH lithium. Now I should theoretically have 60AH which should not run out of juice. That should arrive in a few days and then I'll have all the fun of installing it.

The short list of things that need doing on the outside of the bus...

Finish replacing brake lines and make sure the brake pistons work freely

Replace the top back-up camera and include a power socket so that it will be possible at a later time to install roof-mounted flexible-glued on panels.

Replace the right windscreen wiper mount with one that isn't cock-eyed.

Install a flame shield above the second battery holder and build a carrier for the smaller lithium battery as I did for the other lithium battery. I'll also have to build a new battery clamp since the old one is suitable solely for lead-acid batteries.

The paint problems will have to be addressed. I have a sand blaster head for the air tank and a couple of lots of media. I found Tractor Supply coal slag media is far cheaper than Harbor Freight glass bead media. One day I might even try sand.

If the paint on the roof is stable - I'll have to blast, wipe down with thinner, prime and paint then I should be able to continue with my plan to put two flexible solar panels up there, giving me an extra 20 watts of power. I'm not sure how many watts those panels are but they're certainly not what was claimed when I bought them.

Finally I want to sheet over the unused windows and put bars over all the other windows. Aside from making it look even more like a prison bus (hence nobody will mess with it), it'll also be more secure.

Inside the bus there's some wiring, a fuse box to install, light fixtures to replace etc. 

Eventually I'll have to replace tyres since those on the bus are pretty dry and old.

Abysmal failures

Looking at the brake lines remaining to be connected under the hood, one is short enough to be slightly too tight. Rather than remaking it, I'll cut it shorter and add an extension. The other is a very difficult shape to achieve. I tried a couple of times and didn't get anywhere near what I wanted. Thus I bought a pair of 90 degree bends from O'Reilleys.

So, today I had a go at flaring a new end on a piece of discarded line that would work well for a two-piece line. The flare didn't go quite as planned and the whole thing looked off as I was doing it. Well, looking at the tool it seems the tool has committed suicide! The center pin has bent itself. That will never produce a good bubble flare.

Not too discouraged I pulled out another flaring tool that I'd bought from eBay some while back that was supposed to do metric flares, back when I thought the line was 6mm not 1/4 inch.  I tightened the flaring clamp down as tightly as it would go that seemed to go well so I began to make the bubble. That seemed as if it went pretty well so I flared it and that was a curiously short process.

Looking at the line after releasing it from the clamp, it seems the clamp from the eBay kit is no good whatsoever. Fully clamped down the line just slides. In the end I took the good parts from both kits and made a working good flare set.

Having made one line that would work I looked at the 90 degree bends with the thought of seeing how much line I need to cut off in order to use one. That's when I found that the 1/4 inch bends which I had thought looked a little large were in fact mislabeled. They are more like 5/16 or even 1/2 inch. There is no way on earth I can use those.

In the end after all those failures I gave up for the day. it was just too cold to be bothered messing about outside much more. I had hoped to have working brakes by the time I went back to work but it looks like I'll have to look for a decent day at the weekend. It's quite stressful to have been trying to get this done for over 4 months and not finding time or weather.

Drained the brake fluid

Yesterday I mentioned the recycled brake line from an earlier unsuccessful attempt at forming something. It has a bit of a kink in it that doesn't need to be there but it doesn't hang down so it should be fine. It's armored and it's a front brake line so not a major braking line.

All the lines to the passenger side front wheel have been replaced. Both the flexible lines and the solid lines, including those that go from one side of the chassis to the other.

Today I put the second blended line into place. In doing so I found the hose securing clamp for the back brake line that was missing. It was wedged behind the hillbilly brake line replacement. All that's missing now is the nut to secure it to the bodywork. That's probably 8-32 so I'll pick one up in the store on my next trip.

Only one line under the hood needs to be replaced now. I'd made one beforehand but it was wrong. Then it's on with the line along the length of the bus - the main line. Well, that's hidden behind the transmission so that's going to be interesting to locate and install. I'm wondering whether I can reach the securing points.

Bending the last piece of brake line is challenging because the old line has much sharper bends more tightly together than I can achieve with my current tools. I will have to come up with my own version and that's going to eat up a lot of brake line in experimentation. The tight U curve at the bottom is the most challenging part. This line is clearly eaten up with rust.

I am not looking forward to the section behind the differential but I'll have to investigate. Most of the length there's no problem. It's just the bit behind the transmission box that's hard. I might have to pull out my cell phone to take pictures or even use my endoscope.

Once I have the last line installed under the hood (aside from the main line to the back wheels) I shall be very happy. Every inch of line so far has had many challenges.

 

Moron brake lines

I had an odd happening with the undersink water pump the other day. It just didn't want to work. Thinking the lines were blocked, I removed the lines and the filters and blew through it all, proving that wasn't the problem. It wasn't sucking water and wasn't really blowing much air out of the other end when the outlet was unplugged. After being baffled by that I ordered another waterpump since that seemed the logical thing to do. I also got a fuel filter from Tractor Supply as that might also help. Then I got home and tried it again and it was all working. Very strange! That goes in the annals of yesterday it worked, today it didn't and tomorrow it will.

I've been thinking on lighting and playing with various ideas. I'm going to standardise on BA15S mounts for all my bulbs as BA15S bulbs are commonly available as turn signal bulbs. Not just that but with adapters that I now have I can use G4 halogen bulbs (which I have also). 

The bulb mounts will have to be redesigned. On order I have a Grote dome light fixture. Those are expensive but with frosting spray inside the lens and white paint inside the unit should produce very pleasant, usable light. That will be an experiment but as it natively takes BA15S bulbs I can also use my G4  halogen bulbs.

My task for today was to remove the old front brake line. One side was easy enough to cut with just a junior hacksaw. The other side there was no room to get a junior hacksaw into the space.

The old lines are black and nasty looking. The new lines are bright and shiny. But the difficult to cut line was fairly readily cut using a simple Harbor Freight air saw.

I like the air saw - it works really well. I did get an air hammer too and tested that, finding it also works well. Well, it worked well on the nails I removed from wood but I have yet to try it on rivets.

The old front brake line, removed with two cuts is pretty big. There was no way whatever to make a line that shape and size without removing the radiator and the turbo intercooler. My replacement had to be made in four pieces.

That air hammer was a load of fun. Essentially I suppose it's a miniature jackhammer. I can see that will have a lot of use.

Today though I had great success in removing the old brake line, I had to remake the right hand piece because it just wasn't right. The first piece was pressed against the back of the turbo intercooler. That wasn't good so I had a couple of goes at remaking it. Above is the latest effort. I'm hoping that I can put a slight bend in the tube in order to make it fit. The real bend needs to be at the bottom but I can't do that with an armored tube. I'll have to try to slide the armor back far enough to put a bend in the top - if there's enough space. Otherwise, I could well end up remaking the line for a 5th time. Who said brake lines were simple? I'm definitely getting a new appreciation for the heroes that do this on a daily basis!

All I can say is that the back brake lines look to be several lengths of straight line with a bend on one end then the other ends in a T connection before heading down both sides of the differential to the wheels.