Bits of stuff over the weekend

After a leisurely and moderately healthy breakfast of coffee granola and almond milk, I continued on the work started yesterday that has not yet been mentioned. Did I mention that I'm quite keen on healthy living?

One of the first tasks today was to spray the new camera mount brilliant white. It had already been primed but now it has a brilliant white paint finish. I would say that it took all of 30 seconds but in fact it took longer. Not as long as it would have previously though as yesterday my big thing was putting things away that have been littering the cockpit. 

Yesterday I did not "do" too much but as stated I did sort things out. In so doing I found missing screwdrivers, missing tube benders, missing wrenches and some thing that I had completely forgotten that I had.

The only thing I "did" yesterday was to rewire the console for the light, voltmeter and 12v socket. That turned into somewhat of a marathon. I'd used an illuminated switch for the socket and an ordinary flip switch for the voltmeter. The plan had been just to change the voltmeter and the switch but in the end I couldn't fathom the wiring I'd done and then the crimp connectors started sliding off. 

When I'd wired the panel initially I'd used a Radio Shack combined stripping and crimping tool. That, clearly, hadn't been all that helpful. Since then I bought a ratcheting crimper which is much better. In fact that Radio Shack tool really isn't very good. It's no surprise that Radio Shack went under, given their high prices and low quality.

So, several hours later the panel was completely rewired with all the connections properly crimped. Needless to say, the bottom switch was put in upside down and I had to fix that this morning. 

Given that yesterday I was struggling to find blue spade connectors (male and female) I presume that I'm pretty much out of them. Thus I had another go at doing the CB coax connection. I'd bought a coax tool on eBay for $5 and tried using it. It kinda worked but not very well. That's no fault for it being cheap - it was clearly designed for a different coax usage. In the end I did get the coax connector wired on correctly and soldered into place. 

Turning the CB on, I went through 40 channels of nothing but static. That was an improvement over before. Now I have had that CB working but the connector wasn't done correctly so I'd pulled it apart then left it as I wasn't that bothered. There doesn't seem to be any real radio traffic on the CB which does not surprise me. I did half hear a voice but only for a second. I'm pretty sure it's working.

The plan for today was to switch out the voltmeter on the left on the panel above but that never happened. I'd also have switched the push button switch for a double push button so that with one button press I could see both solar and battery voltages. That did not happen though. The new voltmeter is sitting on top at the moment, awaiting installation. As usual, I did different things. One of those things was to gather together a lot of my crimp wire connectors.

I did have a go at soldering wires onto a switch but in retrospect the wires are too thick. I do have thinner wires. I might redo this later. One of the things I'm short on is heat-shrink sleeving. I did try what I had and it was way too big even when heat shrunk. That is something that will have to be obtained.

Meanwhile, today for a change I ran the engine for 8 minutes. That was when I was surprised by a mystery buzzing noise. I'm not sure whether I've always had this buzzing noise or not. I did track it down to the console. Looking inside, believing it to be a relay, I found a black box with wires coming from it. Very strange and upon investigation, it stated on it that it was a buzzer. That was where my mystery buzzing was coming from.

Looking at the wiring diagram, handily installed by Carpenter, it seems there are three buzzers. One for the back door, one for the windows and one for no clear reason. It is the only buzzer visible and so is clearly where the buzzing was coming from.

I don't want to just disconnect the buzzer until I understand why it's there and what it's doing in case it's trying to tell me something. I'll ponder that over the week and maybe ask a work mechanic if, of course, he remembers Carpenter busses.

My attention turned next to the bedroom light switch. Inexplicably it had ceased functioning. Eton is supposedly a good brand but this one seems to have conked out after really, very few operation cycles. I tried blowing in it and flicking it but to no avail. In the end I just had to replace it. If Harrow makes switches, I might try them.

Following that I looked at a mysterious black box in the engine compartment. It seemed, when photographed using a cellphone to be little more than a weather cover over a cable outlet. That was a disappointment! That's where the horn wire comes through and the horn has ceased functioning again. The red wire is the wire the hillbillies put in and had no fuse. Eventually I'll get the right fuse into the circuit - I'd have thought 10A would have been adequate for just a horn!

Not feeling like doing anything too complicated or strenuous I went for a tramp in the woods. He got away! I did discover that the trees have been making pallets though. At current lumber prices this has to be worth at least $800!

What an achievement. I actually managed it!

I have been unhappy with all the marker lighting solutions I have thus far encountered. I had been completely unable to locate marker lights similar to those already on the bus until I was in Harbor Freight the other day. Then I saw they had a single pack of 12 amber marker lights. Well, I needed 7 in amber and 5 in red. Just by chance I found Advance Auto has the red lenses for these markers listed, quite cheaply. When it comes time to install I shall install all as amber then I shall get the red lenses and switch out the 5 lenses that need switching. What a score!

The other day I'd tried my hand at aluminium welding and it really had not gone well. Today I tried again and it all went almost perfectly. The Harbor Freight Aluminaweld rods worked really well with the Benzomatic torch and MAPP gas that I bought in Home Depot a few days ago. 

The trick with this "welding" seems to be to do one side and then let it cool before doing the other. The torch will melt the weld but not the aluminium. I had a good go at it and I think I did reasonably well. Cutting the aluminium and welding it took all day because I was feeling my way around how to do it the whole day. I was learning and this was my object lesson.

After spending all day on it there were two problems left. The first was the camera would not fit inside the square tube so using a G-clamp, I inserted the immovable part on the inside of the corners and the rotating jaw on the outside. Tightening down I managed to bend the aluminium sufficiently that now a round camera will fit into what used to be a square hole. It fits tightly enough that it should not slip loose. If it does, I can epoxy it. 

Having made the camera mount for my upper reversing camera, I sprayed it with white primer. The next stage will be to make a lens hood for the camera. Being a cheapskate that might well end up being aluminium tape doubled and painted. Being where nothing should touch it, tape should work just fine. 

Meanwhile I was curious about the LED clearance lights I'd bought some weeks ago versus my incandescent clearance lights so I put them head to head. I really don't think there's much choice there. The incandescent wins hands down. It keeps coming back to this doesn't it? LED is the technology we all really want to work but it's just not ready for primetime - very much like electric cars. Sure, there are people willing to swear black is blue and the moon is made of cheese but when it's a cold hard logical comparison devoid of emotion, incandescent wins every time. Both lights are P2 rated. The only lights that would be brighter would be the sealed 4 inch incandescent lights I bought that clip into separate bases and won't light when clipped into that base.

And finally, I was just asked for a hand to do something with the something undeclared. Apparently the tarp and shovel were not needed. Now I'm disappointed. My friends are all so tame!
 

Achievements

I'm still feeling pretty shattered from my 2nd Covid shot. I did get down to some more bus work though. 

Thinking about the problem of welding aluminium I tried again using the 1/8th rods and beating the coating off them. The two plates that were separate at the end of yesterday are now joined. How well, I don't know. I do know that it helped to lay them flat on a brick. The joints were blobby from where I'd attempted before so I was not expecting perfection. This is a practice run.

Using another of the 1/8th rods I did appear to produce a reasonable join. The sheets are not entirely flush but that's because they were blobby to start with. The brick has helped a lot and I'm wondering about other bricks to hold the metal in place and reflect heat. 

I have yet to test the new weld. There is a small hole in it. It's not usable as it is but maybe with more practice I will be able to produce something useable. I do have some uncoated Tig rods on the way (bought in error) that should work just fine. 

After that I took a break. I'm still not feeling great after my 2nd Covid shot over a week ago. For some unknown reason the air filter for my car came to mind. I'd bought that some years ago but never felt like getting down under the dash to put it in. Today I did and I have to say that (the top is one of the 2 new filters) the new filter looks better. Having said that I could probably have gone on another 15 years on the old filter.

The next task was to install the last of the BA15 mount lights. I'd made a wooden disk to stand the light away from the wall so that when the toggle switches are finally replaced with pushbutton switches there should be nothing to cast a shadow on the desk.

It wasn't too hard to remove the old light assembly. There are three bolt holes that will have to be filled but that's a job for another day and possibly I'll use some plastic push-in hole fillers from Lowes (hiss, spit).

The end result was pretty good. I need to put pushbuttons in place of the toggle switches. I'll do that when the switches I ordered finally arrive. I want to replace the blue voltmeter with red but I didn't do that. It's lying on the desk on the other side of the bus waiting though.

The light fitting is installed and will take my more powerful lights. I can use halogen bulbs as well. 

Inside the bus all that's left to do is to screw down the panel over the one rear window, redo some of the failed wiring in the cockpit, install a solar charger for the driving battery and perhaps a second fuse panel inside the control panel. There's also the CB coax connection that severely needs attention. Other than that (and covering over windows in the bedroom that I'll be covering from the outside), the inside is pretty much done. The pollen is holding up exterior work - that and the fact I cannot currently locate one of my flare wrenches.

Challenges

I had several goes at joining the two aluminium plates I cut the other day. Than Heavens I have more where that came from as I didn't half make a mess.

I started with the 1/8 rods that are too thick and a Bernzomatic torch with MAPP gas and found the flux from the rod made a nasty mess. In the end I could not produce a weld like they showed online on the YouTube videos. That was not too welcome!

Next I pulled out my welder and set it to the recommended DCEP and could strike and ark but couldn't hold it despite the rods claiming to be 50-80A and my welder being set at its maximum of 75A. If it says 50A then it should work at 50A right the way through to 80A.  

The mess produced was a very blobby, weak weld that did nothing to improve my morale. The plate fell off my bench and broke.

So, having queried Hobart about what's going on, I had another go with the Bernzomatic. This time I knocked the flux off a welding rod. Heating the work substantially I did manage to get the two plates to stick together. As it was thick aluminium I wanted to weld the other side as well just to make sure. That went fine until the weld on the first side must have melted as the now unsupported side fell on the ground. That was rather frustrating.

So, to recap - the 1/8 welding rods won't work with my welder. The 3/32 welding rods that are in spec for my welder don't work with my welder either. That leaves 1/16th welding rods so I ordered some from eBay. That means another in a long series of delays. I really do regret that South Carolina has little of anything in any of the stores. They stock the main lines of things but few if any of the more specialist things. 

The alternative to using welding rods and aluminium is reasonably attractive. If I fitted a metal receiver for a 1/2" PVC pipe then then I could use commonly available PVC pipe for the camera mount. That would have the advantage of being break-off  event of and encounter with a particularly vicious tree branch and of course easily replaceable. 

Right now, welding has thrown a problem at me and I want to defeat that problem whether or not I go on to use PVC pipes as my ultimate solution. The problem with PVC pipes is in having a base for them to attach to. They can be glued or screwed on and I really don't think it matters which. 

At the moment I do not have a way of attaching the replacement camera that is foolproof. If the thinner welding rods do the trick then I will be able to weld my downward pointing camera arm and the camera holder. 

What I suspect the problem is with welding is one of two things. First I suspect the humidity could be an issue and secondly I wonder whether the amperage given on the welding rod packet is for a higher voltage welder. Mine is probably low voltage but high amperage, given that it runs off 20A 120V.

While I was out yesterday, I bought the Bernomatic torch and the 3/32 aluminium welding rod I tried using.  That wasn't the focus of my trip though. My driver's license was set to expire in about a month and so had to be renewed. Now was a good time being a longish gap in work. Looking at the DMV website it said bookings only. I booked and had to book several days in advance. 

Arriving at the DMV I was amazed to find they had turn up and go as well as bookings. That was a little irritating as it meant I could have been and gone days ago. Onward with things anyway and I now have the coveted gold star on the corner of my license. I like gold stars! The one downside is my license has a restriction noted that was not noted on the previous license - that I can't drive commercial class B with a manual gearbox. Why they did that, I don't know because a stick shift bus works just like a stick shift car and I can drive stick shift cars. I learned on a stick shift and passed my test on a stick shift. Interestingly my last license was valid for 5 years. This one is valid for 8 years.

Well, no more work on the camera mount until my next lot of welding rods arrives. If that fails then I can try brazing rods. If that all fails then I can go to my fallback of putting some kind of mount for a plastic tube for the camera. The plastic tube has the advantage of being easily replaceable.  

 

Bad day all around

Yesterday was a fairly appalling day when absolutely nothing went right. Even my car decided to cease starting and then when finally coaxed to start to run rough with laggy transmission and surging accelerator power (surging all by itself) with the wheel slip light lit (in park in a parking lot together with the traction control being marked as "off"). Putting a scanner on it brought up 34 errors, none of which were recognisable as OBD2 codes. I couldn't find my 10mm wrench to unhook the battery so I had to abandon my shopping trip (no loss there. Not much of what I wanted was in any of the stores) and head home. Nissan truly outdid themselves with that daft onboard computer system. Just think, all the problems I've had with that car have been to do with sensors and the computer system. Anyway, after unhitching the battery and reconnecting it after getting home, the check engine light went off and the errors stopped being produced. Yes - the computer had mucked up again. I never had a problem with my old cars that used distributors and carburetors. 

The first task of the day was to make a better brake line to go from the blended line from the master cylinder to the chassis. It took probably three goes and one length of $10 brake line but I got there and it's superior to my existing version. The downside - nowhere could I find my 7/16 flare wrench to take the old one off and put the new one on!

While I'd been doing that the mail arrived and brought me a switch that I'd ordered and the loose nut indicators I'd also ordered. The switch turned out to be a little hard to operate and I suspect would likely damage the panel it would be mounted on so that was a disappointment. The loose nut indicators were similarly disappointing as they were too loose to use. They look good though!

With all the problems - a little experiment. In many places I've put spray foam and now have to remove it. Thus I have filled an old electrical box with spray foam and passed thin wires through it. When I'm removing the spray foam I shall be able to experiment with different methods and also see how those methods affect wiring. The foam went in today but I'll leave it for a week or two so that it ages properly. Then I'll have a go - probably starting with an air jet tool.

The camera needs to be replaced but I wanted to replace it with a different camera, better situated and this time, protected from the rain. Thus, yesterday I bought some aluminium square tubing. Sadly the tubing was too small to accommodate the camera but it will stand the camera a few inches away from the bus body. I did buy welding rods but didn't use them given the way everything had been going today.

As I had to cut the aluminium square tube, I pulled out the cheap Harbor Freight mini chop saw. That was sold as having only a 5/8 arbor. Inside, I was amazed to find a second arbor that was smaller. Unfortunately this time I needed the bigger arbor for my 4.5" cutting disks. I do know now that I can use a wider variety of 6" blades. I had not found any with a 5/8 arbor. 

Because the disk was so small it didn't cut all the way through the aluminium tube so I had to finish the job with my angle grinder. That didn't get the cut very even so I'll have to redo it. Because of that and everything else seemingly going pear-shaped today I decided not to risk doing more work.

I looked at the light I wanted to install but don't have screws thin enough or long enough and definitely no screws with the dome top that the light calls for. Perhaps that's just as well. Perhaps it saved me from having more issues.

Still stuck in Missouri at the Post Office are the lights I ordered. That's holding up painting etc. That and the pollen, of course. I have to say I'm pleased with how far this bus has come but it has taken since November 2014 to get to this stage. One thing I have learned is when problems like the number of problems from today emerge, it's time to call it quits for the day.

Too much pollen

Looking under the bus today, I saw the pollen lying in a thick, yellow carpet under the bus. That ruled out immediately doing the back brakes or the battery compartment. By the time I stood up from kneeling to look, my eyes were streaming and I was coughing badly. Not a good place to be for a week or two.

The alternatives to working under the bus are the roof vent, the rest of the painting and the upper reversing camera. All of those require a stepladder as does working on the passenger side wiper mount. That left just one job - the final interior light upgrade.

Interestingly, today was time for an experiment. Downloading a lux/candela meter onto my cellphone I gauges different bulbs in the "reading" light in the bedroom. With no light on, the meter registered almost zero lux. With the small 1.5W bulb from Walmart it registered 100 lux. The bigger Walmart 2.5W bulb registered 150 lux. The LED turn signal bulbs from eBay that are clearly dimmer than those from Autozone (not tested) registered 125 lux. An LED spot bulb that I'd got from Lowes registered about 6,000 lux. That was very interesting.

So, looking at the light control console for the desk side of the kitchen, the console stood out further than the beam in which it was mounted. Thus it was necessary to make the beam a shade thicker in order that the light stands out far enough that the console will not cause a shadow on the desk.

As the base of the light is about 3.5 inches I cut a 3.5 inch disk from some 3/4 inch plywood that I had lying around. Having cut that I drilled holes for the wires and painted it. 

After putting the wires through it was a case of simply soldering the wires to the new lamp. Needless to say, I drilled a couple of securing holes. Once I get some screws for that I'll be able to screw it to the wall and then do the wiring magic to the control console. 

The switches on the console are currently all flip lever switches. I've ordered some push button switches to replace them. That way I have a low-profile switch setup that won't throw a shadow on the desk.

Speaking of ordering things, the exterior clearance lights ordered still have not arrived. When they do I shall be able to replace the non-functioning clearance lights. Normally I'd just replace the bulb but being as old as these are, it's probably best to replace the entire unit. While I'm up there I shall look at the two front corner markers to see if I really need to replace them with the replacements I bought or whether just a replacement lens would work. The same for those at the back but again those are jobs for the stepladder. 

The lights order seems to have been held up in a post office in Missouri for the past week. I suspect my other orders from China might be equally slow in arriving. Aside from the stuff listed yesterday, the only other things remaining to do are:

1. Fix the horn
2. New tyres all around.
3. Fix a little bit of internal wiring

While this hasn't been mentioned or photographed, I did put the wooden baffle back on the inside of where I replaced the driver's side rear wall window with steel sheet. It still needs to be screwed down but it's in place, awaiting screws. And that's as far as I got. Still exhausted from the Covid shot and it's getting pretty hot now so that is probably contributing. I notice the bus is noticeably cooler with the white paint done as far as it is.

Brake progress

Since the last blog entry, the front brakes were connected correctly. I still need an 8-32 nut to bolt the flexible cable strap down with but that's something to get on my next shopping expedition. 

The back brake lines are another story. I didn't feel like bending a complex line for the back brakes so I bent a really simple line. It is meant to be replaced with the correct line. Whether it will be is anybody's guess as there's nothing as permanent as a temporary solution. 

The truth is that I've had the first Covid shot and now the second. After the first shot I was very tired. Now it's possible to do little things then I'm exhausted and so it has been for the last 4 days.

Having got the lines in place, it was time to put fluid in. That way it will be possible to move the bus a little. Putting the vacuum pump on the lines gave me a puzzle - there was no fluid coming through the bleed screw. Eventually that was traced to the holes in the bleed screws being stuffed full of junk. That was resolved by twiddling a 3/32 drill bit in the holes by hand. Both front bleed screws were full of sand or something similar.

Bleeding the side furthest from the master cylinder I got 100ml of fluid out fairly swiftly then a mix of fluid and bubbles. That was probably air leaking in around the bleed screw. The other side pretty well bled itself. Plenty fluid gushed out when the bleed screw was removed. Whether it's now wise to bleed the other side again, I'm not sure. In the end the screw was reinserted and the bleeding process done again with the bleeder but with little effect. The now half-empty reservoir was topped up again.

The back brakes never had any attention. I was just feeling way too tired and the ground below was heavily coated with yellow pollen. That was not conducive toward working on the back brakes. 

- at this point blogger refused to save any further text so I lost a lot of text. Perhaps it's time for a new blogging platform? On the other hand, given the vast number of readers this blog gets, perhaps a notebook might be better -

So having got the front brakes into a position where it's time to move onto the back brakes but there was just one little task first. The caps on the ends have always been missing. In order to avoid a repeat of having to bore the debris out with a drill bit it was time to make some caps. That was actually very easy. Some quarter in clear pex was cut into 1 inch lengths and one end sealed by melting it with a lighter and then stubbing it on some wood. The resultant cap then pushed firmly onto the bleed screw so now there should be no problem.

One of the other things I tried yesterday was aluminium welding. A long time ago I'd bought some 1/8 aluminium welding rods. Sadly they proved too big for my Harbor Freight DC welder. On the packet it said minimum 90A and that welder produces 75 max. Still, I did manage to get some blobby welds that held my test piece of aluminium angle onto my test piece of aluminium plate quite well. Still, it's time to get some 3/32 aluminium rod. The aim is to build a new camera mount for the upper camera. I did buy two sheets of aluminium for this but I probably over-purchased. I realised that since the camera has to be out on a stem, that stem needs either to be flexible or bendable, just in case a tree branch has an argument with it. That way the bus doesn't get bent.

The original idea had been to combine the camera mount with a power intake just in case I put a roof-mounted solar panel. Now it makes more sense to have them separate. That's very doable. The camera was mounted quite high before. This time it can be mounted lower, making use of the existing holes in the bodywork where the cable passes through. The upper point where the camera was mounted can now be the solar panel input.

As mentioned before, it's pollen season. Those with no experience of pine pollen will not realise what a miserable experience it is. Itching, burning eyes, coughing and sneezing - even with antihistamines. The pollen feels gritty in the air and tastes gritty to the tongue. As I walk outside I can feel pollen all around me even though I can't see it. It feels like a mini sandstorm. The ground is stained yellow with pollen and it forms a thick carpet on cars where after a few days it's not possible to see though the car windows.

So, currently I'm dealing with vaccination site pain, itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, runny nose and exhaustion from the vaccination. It all sounds like symptoms of Covid but in reality it's a reaction to what's going on around me.

Work remaining to be done...

1. 1 remaining internal light to install. I did turn the new ones on yesterday and the place looked a lot brighter.

2. Roof vent - this still needs to be done but I need to borrow a stepladder.

3. Marker lights - some are yet to arrive and there's no point in starting until they're all here as I'll need to borrow a stepladder.

4. Upper camera mount - for this I need some 3/32 welding rods and some extra, thin aluminium channel.

5. Windscreen wiper pivot mount. I have the old mount ready to work with but I'm not 100% sure where in the bus it is right now.
6. Second battery - this needs a flame shield to be made and that is going to have to be a really funky shape. That needs plenty under the bus rolling around.

7. Back brake line - I need more brake line to do this but at the moment I'm just going to fill the lines and try to move the bus a few yards into a better location.

8. Window coverings - I have two. I just need to install them, making sure not to damage the electric cables to the marker lights.

9. Paint - this is waiting on the stepladder and the end of the pollen.

10. Reflective tape - this is waiting for the paint to be finished.

11. Backup lights - one is the wrong kind and the other is rusted solid. Either both need to be replaced or the rusted one replaced by another that's the wrong kind and a collar installed in order to make the new backup lights fit properly.

There might be more work to do but that's what I can think of immediately.