Killing Time

Mail Order. I've learned to take delivery times with a big pinch of salt, but it's always frustrating to have to wait a week for a tiny part that could arrive within 24 hours if the supplier could be bothered...

So, since I'm still waiting for the Pony Express to arrive with the replacement resistor, the heater repair has had to be put on hold. There's no point in putting everything back together only to dismantle it again, so we're immobile until this £3.00 bit arrives. I could link the heater hoses together but, to be honest, it isn't worth the bother of topping up and bleeding the cooling system just in case a dump of snow means we need the truck on the road. It isn't likely to happen.

So I've turned my attention to other little jobs. Now that we've proved the concept, I replaced the plastic tabs that had been holding the "downpipes" in place with proper "P" clips. I wouldn't say that this is the first experimental fitting that has made it to Full Production status, but probably not far off.

Having spent months thinking about the rear wash/wipe system I eventually admitted defeat and bought a new switch from MUD UK which is supposed to be a "plug'n play" replacement for the existing one - if it was there.

  Since it isn't I thought it would be easy to find the wires behind the dash - they must be there somewhere - and connect the two components together. Of course, the new switch arrived with more spades on the back than there are wires to connect....which goes where? And the promised wiring diagram is nowhere in site/sight. I went onto the website in the hope there was a clue in the "fitting instructions" menu. No chance. Never bloody simple is it? Especially when you discover this on Saturday evening and you can't get advice until Monday. Yet another job gets shelved...Late entry: the matrix  - on the website - that explains the pin locations assumes that you know that the pin numbers are etched into the side of the switch in numbers as easy to read as the Dead Sea scrolls. Simple when you've found 'em, though. I also got a bit stumped with the wiring to the wiper motor. I had 5 wires but only 3 connections. All the on-line diagrams and pictures showed a 3-pin Econoseal connector on the top - that bit was easy.

They also showed another 2-pin connector, apparently on the side. It is, actually, on the "back" of the motor. Having already bolted it to the door this connector is hidden...once I'd taken everything apart the connector revealed itself but, of course, I hadn't got a 2-pin plug to go into it. A bit of lateral thinking ensued. I'd bought 2 Econoseal connectors in case I messed one up, and the pins would fit into the connector with a bit of persuasion, all I had to do was insulate them...Of course, it wasn't quite that simple. Since the pins in the socket don't seem to fit the female pin I had, some force was required. This resulted in one of the pins disappearing backwards into the motor body and required the dismantling of the motor cover to get it back. Eventually, though, all 5 connections have been made and the wires - albeit not the correct colours - led out of the door to the loom. I'll make the final connections later, once the switch is in place. I'll make sure I keep a note of the wire colours in the Little Black Book, though.

The wires exit the door on the left of the picture and normally have a plastic cover and rubber tube to lead them into the tub. These are silly money so I'll make my own out of something, although I've ordered the little support bracket to keep it all aligned.
The motor and cover protrude quite a way from the inner door skin and this needed to be accommodated if we're going to retain the drop-down table. I could just cut the appropriately sized piece out of the table top, but this will look a bit odd and probably make the thing unusable. The solution I came up with was this:

First, cut the table flap in half, rivet a new hinge along the cut line.

 

...then re-attach the flap and connect the stays. There's a bit of a kink in the joint, but it's in the "right" direction to stop things rolling off.

The flap then goes through a double fold before being retained as before. We might enclose the chains with something to stop them rattling.

We might do a bit of colour-co-ordination eventually to make it all look a little less experimental.
                                          An EGT gauge. Do we need one?

Having bought a "boost pin" - they can dramatically improve the pulling power, apparently -  I really don't want to fit it until I can monitor the engine temperatures more carefully. This requires a method of measuring the exhaust gas temperature. I have two from a kit that came with a Rotax engine and tried to find a way to connect the probe to the exhaust system without drilling through the EGR housing, which is how most people do it. I replaced the EGR system earlier this year for the benefit of the MoT rules which now state that any interference with OEM EGR systems etc will mean a "Fail", so I don't have this simple option and will have to find another. Before getting the drill out, though, I tested the probe by heating it with a soldering iron. The results weren't exactly spectacular. The temperature needle didn't budge. Either the sensor or the gauge are broken (or both?) or the connections between the two aren't good. Given that there are 2 wires from the sensor and 4 pins, some guesswork was involved anyway. Another job that didn't get beyond the tinkering stage.


About the only major progress this weekend, then, has been the installing of a waste water tank and the sink plumbing.

This is the old fresh water tank from Dapne's kitchen.

The pump, tap plumbing and sink waste are all shoehorned into the space between the cooker and the forward storage box. I originally had the cover screwed on, but Sue suggested that Velcro would be a more useful alternative if I needed to get in there in a hurry. It's a 6mm ply panel and very small, so we did it that way. The pump filter is now more accessible than before and the whole thing is much neater...

As is the wiring behind the passenger seat. This was sorted out when we installed the second aux battery. The wiring for that is now in place, although at the time I photographed it, some tidying was obviously needed!

Once it was all done, though, we could box it in  and sort out the lounge bar!

The seat base is an old cushion from a Series Landy....doubles as a seat back, too.

The seat back folds down and the fridge carrier can still slide over it.

I think the sink is a bit of a  triumph!  Having wasted a lot of time trying to find one that will fit into the space and find someone who's prepared to sell me one without ridiculous delivery charges, we changed tack and looked at simpler solutions. Well, not simpler, exactly but cheaper, a bit easier, outside the influence of the courier's charges and with a little bit of imagination applied.

This is a folding washing up bowl. Collapsed, it takes up little "vertical" space so doesn't take up space underneath that would otherwise be needed by a traditional sink.

Most of the commercial items are about 145mm deep - quite a lot of space for something that just holds air most of the time. This bowl unfolds upwards, and doesn't need to project below the worktop, so avoids that wasted space. All it needed was a waste outlet. The 12mm ply carrier allowed enough of a lip to secure the bowl's feet so when the Soup Dragon pulls it up, it won't take off!

The bowl is inset. A bit of carving to provide a flat surface...

..for the 90 degree 3/4 inch outlet,

..for the waste. 

The sink is aligned with the tub capping, so with the truck sitting normally it isn't horizontal and the water won't drain towards the plughole unless we've set up on the ramps, which is what we normally do anyway. If this becomes a nuisance I'll have to adjust the worktop a bit to compensate.

The waste water catch tank is in the wheel arch. I made a cradle to support it, bolted to the crossmember, and moved it as far to the rear as possible to give more room to fit a storage box in future. 

Looking aft

It's a semi-permanent fixing using a bungee and a rubber strap rescued from the garden. We've got dozens of these which were used to tie our young trees to stakes years ago. They seem to have a half-life of about 500 years, so should be ideal as underbody lashing! Routing and spacing everything around the exhaust for the hob was a challenge, as the tank is plastic, but we now have a simple system with no expensive bits to maintain or break. 

A right Lash-Up!Works, though...so far.

I'm still considering moving it to the rear corner, over the exhaust, where we had a storage box in the previous truck. This would allow us to make another storage box to match - almost - the one on the driver's side, but given that the hob hoses have already compromised the space under the wheel arch, it might not be worth the bother. I'll make some measurements and see what can be achieved - it's a valuable empty space which we don't want to ignore.

The kitchen is now almost finished, so when it stops raining and blowing the leaves about we'll pop the roof and check it all works....