No Options Apply My endless list of jobs (or feels like)

[Drover]

I like your wheel align, haven't done that for years .......................... Unlike @Boots in Action my fridge fan is not so flash, a CPU fan hangs under a shelf with a small rubber block and zip ties, power comes from the light switch, it was temp job to see how it all worked, went very well so couldn't see any need to upgrade, did plan on a micro switch on door to shut fan down when opened but experiments showed fan on or off didn't make any difference so didn't bother about a switch, fan comes on when I power up fridge and stays on....my fridge is biggy........ Others I have done on smaller fridges I ran the wire out the drain which wasn't a biggy.........as it turns out I wouldn't have been able to get to my thermo cable run anyway outlet is far to high to get at.................. My wiring mess at the back I tried to tidy up when I recently had fridge out but gave up and just redid/cleaned all connections.... The circuit board certainly needed a good clean out it was caked in 10 yrs of stuff.................................. I had thoughts of upgrading wires but found mine are of good size and my 12v from tug I have an anderson on the end and it is my reducer from 6B&S with about a 10 B&S (12?) on the other which goes into a terminal block to feed everything.........

 

[Boots in Action]

I desperately want to run the power that way but multiple attempts in both directions have failed. I can push a stiff whipper snipper cord up from the back but not out the hole in the compartment and I can't even start a run from that end. I tried using a thin fishing line and a vacuum cleaner with no success from either end. The thermistor cable moves freely so it's driving me crazy. I did wonder about being brave and pulling that cable out with a leader attached but that is another day.

We are melting here with weeks of high temperatures and not much energy to work outside

I understand your difficulty about pushing wiring out through the back of Fridge. I used stiff tie wire and pushed it through the thermostat capillary tubing entry hole from the inside of fridge until there was a lot of loose wire at the back of fridge. Then went fishing for any part of the exposed tie wire using a mirror and a light. Managed to snag wire on two occasions and then by manipulating the amount of wire, I was able to carefully withdraw the tie wire and connect up cabling and run wire to switches. Only need very light wire for fans as only less than 200ma per fan. No chance on mine of running wire from back of fridge to inside. Only try from inside to back and go "fishing" with light and mirror., even if it means sore elbows and a crook neck!

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Ok next job - repaint my ute hard lid.
The clearcoat on the arb lid only lasted 5 years and is flaking off. Had to remove the solar panel...again

I used a length of fishing line to cut the adhesive, a scraper to remove the majority, and turps for the residue.

So what is going on here? This is a great example of why I never trust adhesive as the sole method to hold solar panels. Two of the brackets required effort to break the bond but pulled away clean - unlike above. Just a tiny prep mistake and no screw backup is too risky for me.

An hour in. The clearcoat, while deteriorated, is putting up a good fight. And did a great job of hiding all the surface imperfections. The original painter must have been on a fixed price retainer.


And to break up the joy of sanding, I started drawing a replacement catch for the camec caravan door. It's symmetrical so testing a print of one half until I'm happy with the dimensions and strength.


Finally (for two reasons) the fridge fan wire is in the thermistor hole! Went out every day for a few tries and just like that it pushed through. I used a fairly thin but stiff electrical wire with a 20mm piece of heat-shrink on the end with about 10mm flopping around. This helped guide the wire around ridges in the channel and twist around when it reached the sharp angle of the fridge internal hole. Yay for me!

 

[Boots in Action]

Ok next job - repaint my ute hard lid.
View attachment 68129 The clearcoat on the arb lid only lasted 5 years and is flaking off. Had to remove the solar panel...again

I used a length of fishing line to cut the adhesive, a scraper to remove the majority, and turps for the residue.
View attachment 68127
So what is going on here? This is a great example of why I never trust adhesive as the sole method to hold solar panels. Two of the brackets required effort to break the bond but pulled away clean - unlike above. Just a tiny prep mistake and no screw backup is too risky for me.
View attachment 68128
An hour in. The clearcoat, while deteriorated, is putting up a good fight. And did a great job of hiding all the surface imperfections. The original painter must have been on a fixed price retainer.
View attachment 68131

And to break up the joy of sanding, I started drawing a replacement catch for the camec caravan door. It's symmetrical so testing a print of one half until I'm happy with the dimensions and strength.
View attachment 68130

Finally (for two reasons) the fridge fan wire is in the thermistor hole! Went out every day for a few tries and just like that it pushed through. I used a fairly thin but stiff electrical wire with a 20mm piece of heat-shrink on the end with about 10mm flopping around. This helped guide the wire around ridges in the channel and twist around when it reached the sharp angle of the fridge internal hole. Yay for me!

@jazzeddie1234 , so perseverance paid off at last. I knew you could do it. How's your neck and knees for soreness???

 

[jazzeddie1234]

I'm stuffed, only one eye will focus since trying to feed the wire through the hole, and my memory of painting cars is highly over rated

 

[Drover]

I'll spray small stuff but bigga bits like that the memory is still there of hours of work and dust........... and that thought of "Why the hell did I start this" ....
I like that anti stone chip stuff just let loose with the gun, a rough finish is a good finish... ... and on tubs and lids it looks okay.

I recently discovered if you spray something with Silvereen then give it a coat of clear, you end up with a very nice pewter finish......

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Prototype test shows dimensions are fine
It's messy because I printed in 2 halves and super glued without much sanding.
Now to print a complete one

 

[Drover]

Sometimes I wish i could do that to replace some bits, do the items go the distance to warrant the design and time, the door bits are only about $12 but sometimes DiY is more satisfying all round....

 

[jazzeddie1234]

There are several material types than can be printed including ABS and PETG - both are very resilient. Yes it is taking longer than the $12 replacement part but I'm still learning and it teaches me how to replicate a part from a couple of photos and vernier calipers. I'm hoping I can do more of this as a hobby with my engineer son who has several printers

 

[jazzeddie1234]

One step forward

One step back
I decided to remove the lock mechanism and promptly dropped the arm into the lid cavity. I spent ages trying to fish it out but ended up making a new one out of 30/3mm flat bar. Sigh

Then off to bunnings, supercheap, and a few other stores
I have a professional iwata gun but it needs a big (12cfm) compressor and we only have a little guy. After a bit of research I ended up with a cheap ozito one that came with a regulator.
Supercheap had a sale on paint so I got them to mix up the basecoat from my code - 6 pigments! I better remember to agitate thoroughly

Anyway, first go with the ozito gun and primer surfacer at 50% thinners (just to be safe on first use)
Coverage is fine, a bit of overspray so I can probably drop a couple of psi. This coat will get wet sanded to remove the sanding scratches I missed

Did I mention how much I love sanding? Not

 

[jazzeddie1234]

And we're done. Clearcoat required lots of work with the 2000 grit and cutting compound but it's turned out ok for a garage job.

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Just in case you think I've taken a break -time for more project updates

Ok not the caravan but the roof aircon was on it's last legs so it got replaced

Then time to print a new set of distribution enclosures for under the bed. This time big enough for the new juntek 200 amp shunt and a 200amp fuse for the inverter (to replace the useless circuit breakers I tried)


The juntek counts amp/hours in and out to give a better picture of the lithium state of charge. The best spot for the readout meant moving the drifter of course


Then onto something a little more interesting. Redesigning the enclosure for the LTC dc dc circuit board as it was a bit temporary where it was

First draw up an enclosure. Me being me, it had to be fancy

I wanted to keep the 40mm fan for cooling and because it has an unplanned benefit that , when wired to the output (which is the setec aux input), the fan only fires up when the circuit is charging - so I get an audible clue as to what is going on if I leave the tug hitched up and the tug solar has some extra for the van

Found a spot next to the setec where a blanking plate was fitted. I wrote the settings on the front so I don't forget again



Ok. Next job is to replace the diesel heater tank mount because it's a bit broken

 

[jazzeddie1234]

How about this as an idea to solve a problem? My rear water tank is a long run to the pump which often causes it to cavitate when it's really full. The solution has been to drain the vent pipe (at a low point under the van) because is also very long and has several dips holding water. This is a pain every time I over fill the tank.

Enter my solution...maybe!
A tee piece inserted in the vent line very close to the tank vent connection. The tee has a simple check valve which 'should' prevent water escaping when I'm filling (or driving) but will allow air to bleed into the tank when the pump fires up....

What do you think?

Yes I need to get out more....so long as it doesn't require fuel at 2.20 a litre

 

[Drover]

Sounds plausable, so long as the valve will always drain the water from it otherwise water sitting there could stop the air bleeding in, depending on style of valve..... On daughters van I thought of a marble in a short tube one end would seal the other had a couple of grooves for air to bleed, the tube was smaller than the pipe it fitted into anyway didn't do it, ended up running a length of conduit from tank to where the it rose to the wall vent, either end had hose on it, managed to get it to lay so that anywater in the pipe would drain into tank. It had about 2m run to vent, was a pain to fill as well so fitted a mains pressure feed also..... all that work and a few months later the bugga sells it..................

 

[mfexpanda]

i put a drain valve at the lowest point of our tanks and open them when parked for the same reason breather pipe fills everytime i over filled the tanks and didnt drain
seems to work for us

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Funny story about the juntek. I decided to make a new mount to replace the double sided sticky tape - so far so good. But in remounting it I bumped the channel setting for wireless connection. It has hundreds of channels so the only solution was to plug it into the shunt via usb so it could auto set.

Then, to my dismay, I discovered a design flaw in my new wiring under the bed....No space to get the usb to plug in arrrrgh. So much language and careful use of small pliers the cable is in and will stay there
. So the junteck is back in it's new mounting.

As an aside - there are reviews critical of the junteck because it 'continues to count amp-hours-in even after the battery reaches 100% soc'. So when it reaches fully recharged it continues counting up so you might end up with 110ah available in a 100ah battery , and when discharging it starts at 110 and not 100 as it should.

I did a few tests and the fault is with the reviewer. The trick is to initially set the battery soc at 80 or 90% (not 100%) and let the juntec figure out where full charge is. It then sets that to baseline in/out and the display works correctly. Simples

Finally a bit of fun trying mount my diesel heater pump more securely. Mounting system worked great but lasted 5 mins when I discovered it was way louder than before

 

[Drover]

You fitted it in its own sound box, did it go from tick,tick,tick to TICK,TICK,TICK ?

I mounted my pump in an extra foam mount with fuel lines in clear plastic tube with a foam wrap where I clamped it to body in an effort to deaden the ticking, works pretty good like the water lines kept away from direct contact with any part of van.

I ownder of it was mounted in the box in a foam bed, no hard mounting if that would keep it out of the weather and kill the sound ? Probably have a moisture problem then or get hot.

 

[jazzeddie1234]

Started drawing up all my wiring mods

I find mistakes every time I open it but it gives an idea of how the +ve side is all hooked up. Comments and observations welcome as I frequently look at my install and wonder why I did it that way!

 

[Drover]

D+ , does it reallly go all the way back to tug ??

 

[jazzeddie1234]

D+ , does it reallly go all the way back to tug ??

Yeah, to an ignition wire. Now I would probably use a motion sensor