Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart
-
Great weekend long weekend at the beach with my family but it rained early Sunday morning, so we packed up and left. We saw a multifaceted meth deal funded and carried out at a wawa on the way home which was sad but entertaining and got home a little before noon. I de-road tripped the Forester and got both kids to nap! Mrs. Tripper headed out to her garden, and I headed out to the 02 to see what other prep work I can do on the electronics.
I started taking things apart (relays that do nothing, more janky wiring, etc). Then I see that I can do more if I just remove the battery. I do that and notice how uh, not good the situation is with the connections there, so I took them off and sat them in a solution to clean.
As I removed the battery, I noticed how dirty that area was, so I broke out the simple green and kept on going... I felt like my mom whenever I have moved anything heavy for her and she's like, "wait, I have to clean under there!" Don't mind my wooden battery spacer, it works well, and I have yet to find a better solution (or a perfectly sized/shaped battery).
Nice and clean, but I exposed just how many, "oh I need to mount something... Here let me just ram a metal screw in"...holes there are. Hopefully I can just reuse/cover some of them with the upgraded components I want to get. I also found out that my fuel pump was dependent upon the absolute worst ground I have found yet!
Below anything you see that is red or blue (except for the two thicker, redder wires that are together) either went nowhere or does nothing...or both. I found couple more exposed power leads as well. I tore all of that stuff out removing tape the whole way if I had to.
I took out that big blocky thing with the yellow tape (I believe it is my voltage regulator) and tried to clean it up with a little metal polish and steel wool. It didn't come up that great, but it is better. I didn't have any yellow tape, so I used purple tape.
I cobbled everything back together in a temporary fashion. I don't like leaving the car in an undriveable state.
The connections still suck but they are tighter than they were before and cleaner.
I almost started on the other side of the car (not nearly as messy but I could still spend some time with it) but thought better of it.
Now I need new battery terminals, ring terminals for those and other connections, cloth tape, probably a proper distribution block or two. After all that I will probably also just buy a factory battery cable (with the terminals installed) Then I plan to re-tape...everything and find places to mount the two relays I will add for the gauge cluster as well as the power/ground distribution blocks.
I don't know why but I am spending WAY too long shopping these little components. I spent probably an hour looking at different battery terminals...
In the middle of all of this my daughter came out to see what I was doing after her nap. She sat in the driver's seat and asked all kinds of questions and then it started raining really hard. Then thunder and lightning...
*Big thunder crack
Her: "Daddy! That was scary, are we safe?"
*me standing in the water gushing through the car tent, in my sandals, playing with electrical things
Me: "Hah, you are! Climb over to the passenger's seat I'm going to hop in there with you."
She continued with the questions and I with the answers as we rode out the storm just sitting in the car. After 20 minutes or so the rain slowed down, and we went in, but it was one of those little moments as a parent that I know I will remember forever.
I hope everyone had a nice weekend!
E46 M3 | 1502 Hotrod | 11th Gen Civic Si
-
My brother bought a used Chevy Nova when he was in the Army back in the 80s, and my friend’s dad said the best way for him to keep it on the road was to take my brother’s tools away from him.
#Planelopnik all the things
Yamaha YTR-8335
Yamaha YTR-8445
Schilke P5-4 -
@ttyymmnn Hah well with similar sentiment I am causing myself a few problems as I do all of this. Sure, whoever wired this up did it half assed, but also, I'm just now learning of all of these "issues" because I have never had a problem! I'm surprised that I haven't, but I haven't.
For example, last night after I finished working, I cobbled it back together so that it's drivable while I order the nice bits and pieces that I want... Test it... fuel pump does not turn on... It's getting power, the relay is working but it won't turn on!
Then I remember another stupid "ground" that I pulled out. First of all, it was red... second of all it went from the fuel pump mounting bracket to the top of a plastic relay mount. I figured the FP was grounded via its mounting bracket and it couldn't be the opposite because this ring terminal was sitting on top of plastic... Wrong, one tiny sheet metal screw that was barely touching unpainted metal was providing the ground for something that keeps the car running!
E46 M3 | 1502 Hotrod | 11th Gen Civic Si
-
@Tripper this sound much more pleasant of a wrenching experience than my weekend lol. I have finally gotten the Subaru to start without any running issues. Still not done by any means but three days of hard labor and no more intake manifold leaks! My arms and back are sore. Hardly came out of my car hole to see the world. But that glorious first start (attempt like 7) was excellent. Exhaust leak and oil leak aside, it is sooo much progress getting a normal runnning condition.
'01 Mazda Miata, '06 Subaru STi, '22 Salsa Timberjack, '17 Schwinn Fastback
-
@Tripper said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
one tiny sheet metal screw that was barely touching unpainted metal was providing the ground for something that keeps the car running!
That's peak German engineering for you!
I've seen things that you could not comprehend..without a couple of drinks
-
@ttyymmnn said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
My brother bought a used Chevy Nova when he was in the Army back in the 80s, and my friend’s dad said the best way for him to keep it on the road was to take my brother’s tools away from him.
Larry Phillips?
That car would not die, though it had numerous opportunities to do so. When I left Louisiana, it wound up with one of my buddies, a guy named Gbur. I think he finally crashed it into a tree when he went off a dirt road.
That car still shows up in my dreams every so often. And Leesville...
The Van of Theseus
The entropy of my garage is always increasing.
-
Great story. How old is your daughter?
Grandkids are fun, too:
The Van of Theseus
The entropy of my garage is always increasing.
-
What for a car are we discussing here?
-
@Rusty-Vandura said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
Larry Phillips? And Leesville...
Yup. My one visit to Ft. Polk (now Ft. Johnson) was enough to inform me that I never wanted to go back.
#Planelopnik all the things
Yamaha YTR-8335
Yamaha YTR-8445
Schilke P5-4 -
@Mr-Ontop This was not a factory ground, haha those are actually pretty good. The FP setup is really weird on my car (also not factory, almost nothing is). Pump is mounted high on the firewall on the driver's side instead of back near the tank, so they just sank a screw into the metal close by but decided to put the ring on top of plastic...apparently the threads touching the metal is enough!
E46 M3 | 1502 Hotrod | 11th Gen Civic Si
-
@Tripper I did a quick job on the 02, installed a windshield washer pump. Thankfully all I needed was a pump and some tubing, which were both available on Amazon. The connection was right where it should be and worked perfectly.
Not sure how the pump should install below the bottle, I don't see obvious screw down points, so I just zip ties it in place for now.
2015 Suburban 4WD / 1988 Suburban (#squarebody) / 1976 BMW 2002
-
@Wrong-Wheel-Drive Aye! Yeah my right knee and lower back are sore just from leaning over the hood/contorting myself under the dash. I guess it's kind of a gift and a curse that I can't do any "real" work on my cars at my house.
-
@Tripper I found a picture of the mechanic.
I've seen things that you could not comprehend..without a couple of drinks
-
@Rusty-Vandura She's 5...says she's never going to drive because she's afraid she'll be bad at it...she just going to ride her horse everywhere, or so she says.
E46 M3 | 1502 Hotrod | 11th Gen Civic Si
-
@HoustonRunner You're pretty close on location. Mine is up under the driver's side windshield and is factory...and works! But have removed the tank and tubing and just keep the windshield waxed. Related... how uh, fast are your wipers? Mine have only one speed and it is MF SLOW.
E46 M3 | 1502 Hotrod | 11th Gen Civic Si
-
@Mr-Ontop That's me but with less hair/jewelry
-
@Tripper Not fast. One of the local guys just cleaned the electrical connectors and said it made a huge difference.
2015 Suburban 4WD / 1988 Suburban (#squarebody) / 1976 BMW 2002
-
@HoustonRunner Ah that's good intel, I will give that a whack.
-
@Tripper @HoustonRunner I was lucky to work with a bunch of good techs at the marina years ago, and one was an older guy (for that line of work anyway) whose voice still echoes in my head at times. He would often say helpful things out loud but not directly TO anyone, expecting the person he was trying to help to just overhear him. Right now I can hear Steve saying, "Connections, connections, connections...." (like the realtor's "location, location, location") while strolling by but not looking at your problem.
-
@functionoverfashion @Tripper Of course I didn't check those connections while I was in there...
-
@functionoverfashion said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
Connections, connections, connections....
For sure. Part of the reason I am going through all of this is to rule out or at least know where to look if I have an issue in the future, but I can't help myself from correcting as I go.
@HoustonRunner cleaning those switch connections (both the connector connections and the contacts on the switch) are likely my issue with the wipers as well as my high beams. When I flick on the high beams I almost get a full one Mississippi with no light as it makes the change from low to high... pretty scary.
-
@ttyymmnn said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
@Rusty-Vandura said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
Larry Phillips? And Leesville...
Yup. My one visit to Ft. Polk (now Ft. Johnson) was enough to inform me that I never wanted to go back.
I was there a lot and I don't want to go back.
-
@Tripper said in Somone Stop Me From Taking My Car Apart:
@Rusty-Vandura She's 5...says she's never going to drive because she's afraid she'll be bad at it...she just going to ride her horse everywhere, or so she says.
Sounds good to me. Have you bought her a horse yet?
Also, what for a car are we discussing here?
-
Referenced by
Tripper
