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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#3,721 ·
Started on the Speedway 20 ckt. GM wiring harness system for the Falcon yesterday. Got fuse block mounted, and all the plugin connections made up. It came with new GM headlight switch, and dimmer, plus extra connectors for various steering columns. Had to pull and re-pin the steering column plug, plus the ignition switch plug to mate with the '95 Camarro column.
Got all the various groups pulled and fished out to their assigned areas, and now have a couple days of soldering and heat shrink to make up all the ends.
It's a pretty nice harness, but already found a couple small errors in the instructions that threw me for awhile. Lots of circuits for every imagineable thing that a person might want to have, and since I wont have a bunch of electric windows, cruise, etc. I will have spares for future use.
 
#3,722 ·
The fiero lost the lower alt. bolt. so today I raided my extra 305 out back for a bolt . got it in and tight and remembered I didn't install the new belt.. that'll be tomorrow..
other than that went in shock over the cost of a front wheel bearing for the wifes sport trac..
165.65 with tax. WTF. the chinaman one was 118.00 but bought the moog. I don't want to do this twice.
 
#3,724 ·
Started on the Speedway 20 ckt. GM wiring harness system for the Falcon yesterday. Got fuse block mounted, and all the plugin connections made up. It came with new GM headlight switch, and dimmer, plus extra connectors for various steering columns. Had to pull and re-pin the steering column plug, plus the ignition switch plug to mate with the '95 Camarro column.
Got all the various groups pulled and fished out to their assigned areas, and now have a couple days of soldering and heat shrink to make up all the ends.
It's a pretty nice harness, but already found a couple small errors in the instructions that threw me for awhile. Lots of circuits for every imagineable thing that a person might want to have, and since I wont have a bunch of electric windows, cruise, etc. I will have spares for future use.
I have been doing the same thing last night and today,i thought I was finished. then I realized I didn't have any headlights or turn signals so I had to order a headlight harness fro Auto wire,i got finished today ,I think LOL.:confused: Not hard just time consuming.
 
#3,725 ·
Started on the Speedway 20 ckt. GM wiring harness system for the Falcon yesterday. Got fuse block mounted, and all the plugin connections made up. It came with new GM headlight switch, and dimmer, plus extra connectors for various steering columns. Had to pull and re-pin the steering column plug, plus the ignition switch plug to mate with the '95 Camarro column.
Got all the various groups pulled and fished out to their assigned areas, and now have a couple days of soldering and heat shrink to make up all the ends.
It's a pretty nice harness, but already found a couple small errors in the instructions that threw me for awhile. Lots of circuits for every imagineable thing that a person might want to have, and since I wont have a bunch of electric windows, cruise, etc. I will have spares for future use.
What do you guys do with the spare circuits you don't need? If the kit is pre wired you don't have a terminal strip to wire from do you?

John
 
#3,727 ·
Yes John trere are several kits avalible out there, Painless in my opinion has the most user friendly,every curcit is labeled and every wire is marked about every 6 in.it comes with all fuses curcit breakers flasher,etc.you order it with what options you have or expect to install later,mine has 8 curcits ,I onlh needed 6 ,so I have extra if I add air later,i just rolled up the wire under dash out of sight and zip tie for use later ,ome end is already hooked to fuse block the other end is loose u=you just cut to lenghth ,,.you can order with any optional acc , lights fuel sender unit wire are extra long ,I used a kit from Auto Wire,a cheaper kit since I don't have Air p/w or even a radio just the sound of a BBC lol.
 
#3,728 ·
Put the correct hose in the rear brakes of my caddy. Thought about fixing some fuel line stuff where I had left the lines too long, but decided to mow the front yard instead. I left the lines too long just in case I had put them on there wrong, but I actually got it right. Trying to figure out what to do with the vent line. Originally it was a fixed metal tube which fits nicely in some brackets on the underside of the body over the rear axle. But now with the rubber hose I am not sure how I am going to retain it. I have thought about some zip ties to the brackets, maybe in combination with a hose clamp to make it fit the brackets better. The brackets can be bent easily so that is a help, but I have to get it cut to the right length and figure it all out first. The inlet and return lines are easy enough to do though, already got them hooked up and just need to shorten them a bit.
 
#3,729 ·
Finishing up getting my Pete ready for market. Needed new brakes on the rear drive axle.
The dust shield was rusted away too



New shoes, hardware and dust shield.



And new AMERICAN made drums...



I take it to get steam de-greased on Monday and then it goes on-line...:)

It's incredible how different,yet how similar that stuff is to on our older cars.:pain:

Brian
 
#3,730 ·
What do you guys do with the spare circuits you don't need? If the kit is pre wired you don't have a terminal strip to wire from do you?

John
I coil them up and tie them up high under the dash John. I have a 12 ckt. harness in my Austin, and have used the spares over time. I doubt I'll ever use all the spares on the Speedway 20 ckt. panel and harness.
The Speedway harness is as good as any I've evr used, and better than most. Like the Painless that David reeferred to, it has all wires clearly marked every 6" and has not only good instructions, but excellent one line diagrams with colored lines showing ckt. paths.
It also has all the crimp connectors to terminate at various devices, and plastic plugs with terminals to insert for things like headlights. It has wires for everything needed, and even things most will not use. Leads for oil, temp, and gas sending unitsthat are part of the dash group, so if you're using mechanical they will be pulled from the group, or abandoned. Even leads from the signal harnesses that connect to the dash indicators.
This is my first Speedway harness, and it is for GM columns, which are also used for many aftermarket columns, so much is plug and play. I'll have to terminate the tailights, and headlights/turnsignals, plus engine wires. It comes with GM headlight switch, dimmer, and column plugs, so they are all plugin. I still need to wire up a relay for the wiper switch in the steering column, or use the wiper lead supplied and make up an aftermarket wiper switch in the dash. I think '95 columns used a relay for the wipers, as the wiring is quite small, and I'd guess the switch on the blinker handle wont hold the wiper load. Need to investigate to see, and then decide which way to go.
 
#3,733 ·
I coil them up and tie them up high under the dash John. I have a 12 ckt. harness in my Austin, and have used the spares over time. I doubt I'll ever use all the spares on the Speedway 20 ckt. panel and harness.
The Speedway harness is as good as any I've evr used, and better than most. Like the Painless that David reeferred to, it has all wires clearly marked every 6" and has not only good instructions, but excellent one line diagrams with colored lines showing ckt. paths.
It also has all the crimp connectors to terminate at various devices, and plastic plugs with terminals to insert for things like headlights. It has wires for everything needed, and even things most will not use. Leads for oil, temp, and gas sending unitsthat are part of the dash group, so if you're using mechanical they will be pulled from the group, or abandoned. Even leads from the signal harnesses that connect to the dash indicators.
This is my first Speedway harness, and it is for GM columns, which are also used for many aftermarket columns, so much is plug and play. I'll have to terminate the tailights, and headlights/turnsignals, plus engine wires. It comes with GM headlight switch, dimmer, and column plugs, so they are all plugin. I still need to wire up a relay for the wiper switch in the steering column, or use the wiper lead supplied and make up an aftermarket wiper switch in the dash. I think '95 columns used a relay for the wipers, as the wiring is quite small, and I'd guess the switch on the blinker handle wont hold the wiper load. Need to investigate to see, and then decide which way to go.
I should have checked with Speedway Motors they have better kits at better prices ,noticed they also have Painless systems ,but the same company probably builds both kits Speedway and Painless ,speedway is about half price though.:confused:
 
#3,734 ·
I should have checked with Speedway Motors they have better kits at better prices ,noticed they also have Painless systems ,but the same company probably builds both kits Speedway and Painless ,speedway is about half price though.:confused:
For once being very frugal (gee I love that word) worked out really well for me. I bought an 8 circuit Quick Wire fuse block at a swap meet. It was very well made, included the horn relay and the turn/hazard relays and 8 fuses all wired to a terminal strip. I then contacted Rebel Wire who made me up a package of the wiring for the circuits I needed. They were labeled every 6 inches and color coded to GM color codes. I just love the way this worked out. No loose or extra wires everything terminated to a terminal strip and all wires color coded and labeled. All for about 130 dollars.

I don't see why other manufacturers don't use a terminal strip. Yes, it does give a point of possible service issues but it also gives you a great place to trouble shoot from. JMHO.

I would not hesitate to recommend Rebel Wire. They are a small company here in Tennessee but they were very accommodating and reasonably priced.

John
 
#3,737 ·
I dug into my truck parts, I need to find the cab mounts before I can do anything so I went looking for them and came up empty handed. Ok, still got a few more boxes. But I also started cleaning out the Gran Sport extra parts from some little drawer holders for small parts and put in the truck ones, door lock cylinders and misc bolts and crap like that. I needed to take the ignition switch out of it's bracket and used the clutch head screw driver I bought in 1978 to work on my truck. It cracks me up to pull out this tool and use it on the truck once again.

Brian

 
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#3,738 · (Edited)
Thought you guys may get a kick out of my fabrication project from when I was about 18 or 19. I came across this in my cleaning up tonight. The water and oil pressure gauges on these trucks were mechanical and the sending units always got cut off. So I didn't have a water temp gauge in the cluster that worked. I got a SW gauge from a car at the wreckers and made a recessed area in the back of the cluster. I cut the front of the original gauge and glued it to the face of the SW. With the cluster bezel on it looked perfectly original........well, except that it was backwards! But I knew what was what and it worked fine for me for many years. Kinda hack, but it worked! :D

Brian







 
#3,739 ·
For once being very frugal (gee I love that word) worked out really well for me. I bought an 8 circuit Quick Wire fuse block at a swap meet. It was very well made, included the horn relay and the turn/hazard relays and 8 fuses all wired to a terminal strip. I then contacted Rebel Wire who made me up a package of the wiring for the circuits I needed. They were labeled every 6 inches and color coded to GM color codes. I just love the way this worked out. No loose or extra wires everything terminated to a terminal strip and all wires color coded and labeled. All for about 130 dollars.

I don't see why other manufacturers don't use a terminal strip. Yes, it does give a point of possible service issues but it also gives you a great place to trouble shoot from. JMHO.

I would not hesitate to recommend Rebel Wire. They are a small company here in Tennessee but they were very accommodating and reasonably priced.

John
I used a NW Autowire 12 ckt. universal kit for the Austin, and also made up harnesses to connect that kit to the rear tailight area, front lights, and engine. I figured out what I needed for wires, and added one more to each harness. Made up a diagram of what wires were connected to, and then terminated them at the under dash area once they were terminated at their final points.
 
#3,740 ·
I bought a small boat trailer for at the cabin and one of the hubs was strange. I bought a replacement hub but the spindle was too short, so I bought a spindle too. This is what I cut off.
I had a boat trailer like that years ago and put a beautiful tear drop body on it that I picked up somewhere (don't remember now) it was made after WWII by an aircraft mechanic and had parts from war birds on it! NO KIDDING I crap now thinking about it, damn it! I was at a B-17 a few years after I sold it and there was the very distinctive tear dropped shaped handle on the crew hatch door! And also there was a B-24 and the light that was in my trailer was the bombay light in it! Wish I had it today, it was super well made. But I ran it on that trailer for a while then made an axle and ran 15 inch wheels.

Brian

 
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