rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[rattle_snake]

Ok thanks for the explanation Thom. Yes I marked the fitting clocking with a sharpie. Only two hoses matter, but I want to hide the hose markings as much as possible, because OCD. It is possible to rotate after crimp.

The shop is 'air components' in Mesa.

Air Components & Manufacturing Inc | Automotive Air Conditioning Parts

Air Components has been providing automotive air conditioning parts and tools to wholesalers and retail customers across the country for over 35 years. We are located in Mesa, Arizona and ship throughout the USA. We specialize in AC fittings, hoses, and tools.

www.aircomponents.com

 

[rattle_snake]

I figured out why I needed adapter fittings on the evap lines. There is supposed to be an expansion valve there. I figured it was inside the box? No.

Not exactly clear what type of expansion valve this truck would have come with. Not sure the evap is original either, it has aluminum tubes instead of copper. I was not able to find a generic H block (4 port) TXV that used the four different sizes of o-ring fittings (6, 8, 10, 12). Went with a simple internal compensated 90* 134A TXV that has #6 liquid in and #8 liquid out. This removes the need for the custom fitting so had to cut that off and get a female #6 90* crimped back on. The suction side still needs a custom #12->#10. Also picked up a can of chem flush for the evap, as it has been open to elements for a decade or more, no caps. It's just finned tubing so it can actually be effectively cleaned as opposed to a parallel type condenser.

 

[WoodsTruck]

° = alt 0176

 

[fouckhest]

° = alt 0176

or alt 248, °

 

[ntsqd]

alt + 0177 = ±
alt + 0216 = Ø

I used to have more on a Post-it, but those two and 0176 are the three that I use the most at work. They even work within SolidWorks' Notes or Dims editors.

 

[fouckhest]

Don't forget:
alt 243 = ≤
alt 242 = ≥

 

[rattle_snake]

π/2 radians...

 

[ntsqd]

mil or MOA?

Never had much need for 227, but I do occasionally use 169 and 174.

 

[rattle_snake]

I was going to waste a bunch of time and money cobbling together a pressurized flushing apparatus for the truck AC evap. Instead I bought one and it arrived this morning. I'm not sure how to feel about that.

 

[ntsqd]

Some tools aren't worth trying to fangle. Some tools should always be fangled. The tough part is figuring out which is which.

 

[Bob Heine]

Nobody asked but here's my two cents:
Alt + 0162 = ¢
Alt + 0162 = ¢

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Nobody asked but here's my two cents:
Alt + 0162 = ¢
Alt + 0162 = ¢

Sorry boys, but Bob won the internet again today

 

[rattle_snake]

Modified the front bumper on my '14 F250. I cut off the bottom 3", going beyond that was getting into the mounting brackets. I was never completely happy with the Road Armor bumper design. It was the least ugly of the options, before I would have just made my own. It is built way out and way down compared to stock bumper, which is the exact opposite of what an off-road bumper should be.
I also swapped out the china's cheapest LED lights. They didn't fit or look right. I got a set of used Rigid D series SAE/DOT as a gift and installed them on my 1972 F250, to augment the cheap LED headlights both on and off road. Then moved the D series amber floods from '72 to the '14. I found a H10 to 2 pin deutsch adapter for roughly the price of making one.


but there are two sets of light holes. Not going to put the cheap rounds back in. Another pair of D series would go nicely. Except for the cost. So I asked my neighbor who is a light, uh hoarder, if he had anything. He did have a pair of new D series rear-facing hi/lows that he scored at the parking lot sale for too cheap to walk past. So my plan is to see if Rigid (local to me) will swap out the red diffused lens for a clear and perhaps the reflector.

 

[rattle_snake]

After 4th trip to the A/C shop I was able to complete the lineset. Had accidently got a mis-labeled TXV that had metric threads that look exactly like the #o-ring system. The shop called and warned me, which saved me a lot of frustration. Can't get the capilary tube into the evap core from outside, so I wrapped it around the suction line as suggested.


Hoses finally done.


I bought a cheap flush kit and chems to clean the evaporator that has been open to elements. The first batch came out nasty so it needed it. Then I pulled a vacuum for an hour to boil off the solvent. Seemed to hold a vacuum ok, where as my cobra does not.


The A/C system doesn't make the engine bay look better, but it's not the ugliest system either.


I ran the low side switch wiring with the hoses, but I might go back and route it on the left fender/firewall. The R12 system didn't have a low cut off switch. I chose to add it to the compressor clutch relay's ground side, with positive being the original clutch wire. This also isolates the control switch from the clutch's coil inductive kickback, and removes the power from the main harness. I think it's several amps continuously to keep it closed.


Next step is to see if it holds any pressure and if so, fill it up and test it out. I'm missing the pass side A/C vent duct. I think my dad can grab one off a parts truck. The fan has a squeal so will see how that goes. The 72 was the same, I just added a drop of oil, been good since. But there is no way to access the fan motor without major work.

 

[larry4406]

Very nice work on the AC - well thought out and professionally done!

Let's see the Cobra!

 

[plain2car]

Agree with the above Justin .... very nic eand clean install and addition. job well done!

 

[rattle_snake]

I drove the truck for 3 days and then checked to see if the A/C system had held a vacuum. It did, so I put a small amount of refrigerant in. All seemed OK until I took the high side cap off to hook up that side also and the service valve was leaking. Poked it a few times but no seal. I happened to have a few in my A/C stash. I checked the thread pitch and put in a new one that sealed properly. Jumped the low side switch and started the engine but no power to the clutch relay. No power from mode switch to de-icer. I check continuity of de-ice switch, it was OK. Wiggled the connector on the mode switch and it started to cycle sporadically. Pulled the connector off/on a few times to break the crust and then it started to work properly across the settings. Put in about 22 oz and had 25* split at the vents. Afterwards I realized you are supposed to turn a new pump by hand to get the oil out, or dump it out into the condenser. I think the janky wiring did something like that.

 

[rattle_snake]

The new (now beat to ****) bumpside body on my R/C crawler isn't narrowed like the old and hangs up on things, especially the rear corners. So I made a rear bumper out of some 26 ga sheet metal. It worked OK, but was too thin and eventually bent and ripped off the fasteners given the operators driving style. It also gut hung up on the 'step' shape to it. In 1/10 scale 26 ga (~0.026") is roughly 1/4"

I made an improved revision out of 16 gauge with a single slope. Bent the edges and welded the corners.


My 48" box break doesn't like 16 ga so eventually the hammer came out for that custom look.


Attaches with just two 3mm SS SHCS (~1-1/4 to scale)

 

[plain2car]

nice job on the bumpers... what type of foams are you running in the tires? it is hi time that i got me a replacement crawler, got out of the scene when i started working on my '86 C10, maybe a RTR axial scx10-3???

 

[ntsqd]

Axial Capra. I bought a 1/10th RTR and had fun with it so I bought an 1/18th. Got to looking and listing all of the parts that I wanted for the 1/18th and just built one from scratch with very few Axial parts. Gave the 1/18th RTR to a friend.

 

[rattle_snake]

I do not know what the foam is exactly, I bought it with the wheel/foam/tire combo it has. I believe the foam is different front to back, and perhaps a size smaller than tire. There is a gap between foam and tire tread.

I finally wrecked my Reefs 555 steering servo. I pulled it apart and found the pinion gear stripped (the first one on motor shaft). I bought an import 45g unit but kept the 555. Not sure I can replace that gear. I did strip out at least 5 metal steering arms with it, so it lived a good life. Or an abused life. The new one works OK from the abuse so far. The landscape crew did a major cut back of the HOA property shrubs that is adjacent to me. My crawl pile of rocks, bricks and concrete then looked trashy by itself, so I removed the bricks and concrete and restacked the rocks for a new set of obstacles. Slowly filling in the small holes and undercuts that bind and break things on the truck. Most of the new lines are not possible to get up. Yet.

 

[rattle_snake]

Now that summer has arrived get to see how the truck does in the heat. It was only 95 yesterday, but got caught in traffic jam for awhile. A/C blows cold, but the truck runs hotter and oil pressure goes lower. No idea what the values really are, but temp got to top of normal, and oil to 'L'. The A/C compressor brings idle down to 600 RPM in gear.

When I got home I let it idle parked and measured temps through the cooling system. Top of normal is 210* at t-stat, which isn't really that hot. I suspect the fan clutch is just getting started at 210. Inlet of water pump is 165 so rad drop is about 45*. A/C split was 90 in 58 out so 32* which is good for being in park.

I trashed my test pressure gauge on my Cobra fuel system diagnosis, so no way to see what the minimum oil pressure is. This lead to shopping for a new test gauge, which snowballed into more gauges. I like 270* sweep style which are available in the cheap-ish series of the Tach I have, Equus 6000, a autometer pro comp-ish clone. But there isn't really an easy place to put them, which is why I went Dakota digital in my 72. But no money for that. Would be nice to have a volt gauge too. So I need to come up with something 80s-90s hot rod, maybe on the cowl, or hide them above rear view mirror. Didn't find a dent A-pillar mount, and the dent A-pillar is way more vertical than anything available, but that is 2000s diesel vibe. Other option is some type of multi gauge.

But step one is to tweak the fan clutch to engage at a lower temp to work in conjunction with the 180* high flow t-stat I installed. My old man shipped me a drinker's side A/C vent tube from his neighbor's dent yard/part stash so I can finish the ducting. All the vac system and blend doors seem to work properly and fan motor noises are gone for now.

 

[rattle_snake]

I finally got carpet samples I ordered in January, and a bunch more from another vendor. I'm guessing the different vendors have semi-custom colors but the product itself I believe is manufactured by ACC. I ended up with 20 colors of tan/greys to choose from. There were colors very close to the seat but I picked a darker shade that goes well with them. I also ordered a yard of carpet and some custom floor mats of the same. I might do kick panels, lower doors, speaker box or back cab wall with the extra carpet.

 

[zmotorsports]

Justin, just a thought here on the oil pressure and temp. gauges. Can you see if they are biased hi or low when disconnected? If they are biased opposite each other from the sending units and seeing as how dash clusters generally share a ground circuit, is it possible that a bad ground could be causing erroneous reading of the gauges and not necessarily low oil pressure or high coolant temperature readings?

 

[rattle_snake]

Mike,
I think the readings are as intended. The lower RPM due to A/C pump being driven is likely the cause of the shift in oil pressure. I just need to verify the oil pressure with another gauge, then I can ignore if it's OK at hot/low idle. I'm not convinced I really need duplicate oil/water gauges permanently installed in the truck, unless I can make it look cool. For the money I might as well get the matching oil gauge.

But your point is a good one. I had that issue with my boat gauges, and had to run a dedicated ground wire for the instrumentation isolated from the other loads. As you turned on accessories (lights, bilge, trim, ect) all the gauge readings would shift as the 'gnd' wire had a voltage drop across it of about 0.5 V.

 

[zmotorsports]

Mike,
I think the readings are as intended. The lower RPM due to A/C pump being driven is likely the cause of the shift. I just need to verify the oil pressure with another gauge, then I can ignore if it's OK at hot/low idle.

But your point is a good one. I had that issue with my boat gauges, and had to run a dedicated ground wire for the instrumentation isolated from the other loads. As you turned on accessories (lights, bilge, trim, ect) all the gauge readings would shift as the 'gnd' wire had a voltage drop across it of about 0.5 V.

Those damn RV's Justin. My learning experience with gauge clusters was with the same stinkin' issue on our last coach. Shortly after purchasing our 1991 Beaver back in 2000 I noticed that when driving at night and turning the headlights on, all gauges would shift. After measuring voltage drops across both positive and negatives, I too found almost a volt drop across the ground circuit.

Fast forward to the purchase of our 2003 Dynasty in 2007 and found it had the exact same issue. Installing dedicated grounds on both coaches solved the problem.

 

[rattle_snake]

Ah the joys of RV ownership. My Lance cab-over is still on my truck from last weekend's trip for some repairs. Always something...

 

[zmotorsports]

Ah the joys of RV ownership. My Lance cab-over is still on my truck from last weekend's trip for some repairs. Always something...

Yep, they're definitely a labor of love. To be honest, I don't know how those that can't perform their own repairs actually afford owning an RV. We're very blessed in to be able to perform the repairs ourselves.

 

[ntsqd]

I wish that I had a picture of it. My grandad built a three gauge enclosure that say on top of Grandmother's '68 Town & Country Station Wagon. He covered it in black "Naugahyde" to mostly match the dash. It wasn't just a rectalinear box and I daresay that it looked like it belonged there. He built it with a bit of a sun shade shape into it and 8 year-old me thought it was really cool. I still do.

 

[rattle_snake]

Yep, they're definitely a labor of love. To be honest, I don't know how those that can't perform their own repairs actually afford owning an RV. We're very blessed in to be able to perform the repairs ourselves.

Yes, agreed.
I think many just ignore the issues than can be ignored. The issues 'go away' when you get home, get forgotten, and don't pop up until next trip is already underway. I guess that's why I won't put mine away broken. Same for cleaning guns.

I wish that I had a picture of it. My grandad built a three gauge enclosure that say on top of Grandmother's '68 Town & Country Station Wagon. He covered it in black "Naugahyde" to mostly match the dash. It wasn't just a rectalinear box and I daresay that it looked like it belonged there. He built it with a bit of a sun shade shape into it and 8 year-old me thought it was really cool. I still do.

Cool thanks for sharing. I've got similar ideas rolling around in my half empty skull...

 

[PugetDude]

Yes, agreed.
I think many just ignore the issues than can be ignored. The issues 'go away' when you get home, get forgotten, and don't pop up until next trip is already underway. I guess that's why I won't put mine away broken. Same for cleaning guns.

Cool thanks for sharing. I've got similar ideas rolling around in my half empty skull...

If it's anything like the full side, that's a lot of open space.

 

[Bob Heine]

I had that issue with my boat gauges, and had to run a dedicated ground wire for the instrumentation isolated from the other loads.

Justin, when we owned our boats, it was a scary moment when there wasn't an electrical problem. I'd double-check the bilge to make sure we weren't sinking.

 

[rattle_snake]

Yes and then there is boat trailer wiring on top of that.

 

[PugetDude]

Yes and then there is boat trailer wiring on top of that.

...the lowest common denominator in the trailer industry, from my experience. They know it's going to get wet ( a lot) , but still use skotchlock connectors or just twist and tape.

 

[ntsqd]

Trailer wiring has been such a problem over the years that I now hit it hard with overkill. Adhesive lined heat-shrink, 3M Self-Fusing 600V splicing tape, dedicated ground wire system - no grounding thru the trailer frame, no exposed connections, Sealed LED lights, etc., etc., etc.
I use 4/16 SOOW or similar for the simple lighting systems and the special, similar cable made for the 7 wire systems. Tape up and seal the jacket ends to the individual conductor insulation to keep water out there too.
I really hate when trailer lights do not work!

 

[PhantomEB]

Justin, the more I read your threads, the more I happy we are a lot a like and I got some work to do to get where I want to be.

so want a 4ws Axial Capra for where we go camping as we tend to go by creeks where theres lots of rocks to play on.

Just like I am more open to Michelles desires for an acreage where I can have a way bigger shop with room like you got.

 

[ntsqd]

FWIW MISF has one of the 4WS Capras. Seems like he rarely uses the rear-steer. I don't miss it, 2WS is enough for me.

 

[PhantomEB]

FWIW MISF has one of the 4WS Capras. Seems like he rarely uses the rear-steer. I don't miss it, 2WS is enough for me.

Good point It will be something I barely will use so might not even bother.

 

[ntsqd]

It does cut down the initial investment, so that you'll have the funds for upgrades.

On the advice of MISF my first mod was some J Concepts green compound Ruptures on a set of aluminum wheels from The Jungle. The change in capability was immense. Were I doing it now I'd just buy those along with the RTR and not ever mess with the stock wheels & tires.
Second mod was a Holmes Hobbies brushless motor & Mamba X controller. I still need to spend some time with dialing that in.

 

[rattle_snake]

One of my friends has a Capras in mostly stock form. My basic but modified/well tuned SCX10 II is significantly more capable. The portals and steering on axle do make it perform better, but I like keeping it more realistic like a real truck.