Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 20:39:53 -0400
Reply-To: Marla Stelk <mjstelk@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marla Stelk <mjstelk@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Wiring and Stan's 8 years of experience
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I know what you mean - I've only had my van for about a year now and I've learned a lot (its amazing what you can do if you have to). Still mountains of knowledge to go tho - but its nice to hear another GIRL who's working at it, too!
Peace,
Marla
'87 Westy Van "Morrison"
----- Original Message -----
From: Kim Brennan
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 11:50 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Wiring and Stan's 8 years of experience
A newbie reading Stan's revelation earlier Tuesday, might wonder how
someone, that 8 years ago knew nothing (self admitted) could now be an
expert.
Its easy. Working on Vanagons will teach folks a LOT about all sorts of
things.
For instance, after a trip to WV over the weekend, I realized one of my
Fog lamps wasn't working. I had recently replaced the bulb on the lamp
on the other side...so I figured it was possible that the bulb was
burnt out...but first, I decided to check some of the other things.
I checked the ground wire. Good connectivity. Since the fogs I wired
together on one hot circuit and one side was working, I probably had a
good hot wire. BUT, I checked it anyway. Guess what. It was bad.
So I went back to the splice. Fiddled with the splice and got a hot
connection again. On the other paw, I wasn't really happy with that
solution. So I decided to redo the splice.
As it turns out, I redid most of the hot line as the original wire
(supplied with the Projectzwo Fog light kit) was already oxidizing...
These are copper core wires, of course, but on stripping back the
insulation, they were black. From the copper oxidizing. Oxidized copper
is just about impossible in my experience to give a good connection. So
I replaced it with 10 gauge (definitely overkill, but what the hey)
wire. Then I soldered a good connection and used fusion tape to
completely insulate the splice. Should last for a couple more years
like this.
But the next time (i.e. when I do the complete rewiring of the
headlights) I'll be putting ALL these wires inside rubber tubing to
better shield them from the elements.
I also changed the oil. Maintenance done for the next few thousand
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