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.
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