Gordon Engineering
Mice. Death to them. Last night, I fixed my wife's 2006 "old reliable" Subaru. It's on its last legs, but she doesn't seem to want to part with it at 238,000 miles.
It would be a great donor for the Beck boys.
She got a check engine light and at the same time the fuel gauge stopped working AND the reserve fuel light was on. Hmmmmm. Of course, if the check engine light is on, it will FAIL a safety inspection in NY as the state-provided computer(that each station is forced/extorted to buy from the state) plugs into the OBD port and reads it. Any check engine and/or not enough warmup cycles to remove the "emission readiness" flags and it fails.
After a ton of research, downloading wiring diagrams, pulling fuel pump/float assembly from the top of the tank, head scratching, wire testing, etc. I still didn't find anything other than a headache and an open wire from the tank to the ECU.
Then after MORE research, I found that there are TWO flanges on the top of the tank.
One has the fuel pump, fuel lever sender, and fuel temperature sensor(yes, really). Six wires to the plug.
The other one has two wires and is called the "fuel level sub-sensor". Yup. It's on the other side of the tank, but under another panel under the back seat. Friggin MICE! Two wires, one semi chewed and the other chewed through. After I fixed it, all went back to normal immediately. No check engine, fuel gauge working, reserve light OFF.
@DannyP this makes me wonder if my persistent CEL on my '01 325 sportwagon is something like this. (not a wire but a vacuum/vent line issue?) I keep getting EVAP System Leak (large leak) detected.. most of the time its a gas cap thing... but not this time and I can't find it. At least being 22 years old they don't plug it into the State computer now.. so I can still get the "safety" inspection done without the "emission readines" flags causing a failure. guess it's time to get a smoker..
I've never had mice problems here. They're probably eaten by the snakes, lizards, and big-arse spiders.
Not to mention keeping the Weiner Dogs inside a lot to keep them away from the Alligators wandering through the back yard..... This was taken about 45 minutes south of Lane.
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@Wrenn Smith posted:@DannyP this makes me wonder if my persistent CEL on my '01 325 sportwagon is something like this. (not a wire but a vacuum/vent line issue?) I keep getting EVAP System Leak (large leak) detected.. most of the time its a gas cap thing... but not this time and I can't find it. At least being 22 years old they don't plug it into the State computer now.. so I can still get the "safety" inspection done without the "emission readines" flags causing a failure. guess it's time to get a smoker..
Subarus usually develop gas filler tube rot. With your Mercedes at 22 years old, I'd start looking there. Also look at evap canister hoses, tees, connectors, etc.
@Gordon Nichols posted:Not to mention keeping the Weiner Dogs inside a lot to keep them away from the Alligators wandering through the back yard..... This was taken about 45 minutes south of Lane.
Luckily our back yard is fenced, so the gators can't get in. The cotton mouths, etc., can, though.
Here's one of Lane's spiders. But it's the little ones, like "Golden Orbs" the size of your thumbnail, that you really want to avoid. They can take you out for a few days.
This is a Banana Spider, so named because they arrive in bunches of Bananas. The good news is.......They don't bite!
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@DannyP posted:Subarus usually develop gas filler tube rot. With your Mercedes at 22 years old, I'd start looking there. Also look at evap canister hoses, tees, connectors, etc.
not a Merc... but still German, this has been my "back-up" for when the other DD's are in state of dis-repair. I didn't think of filler tube rot. Yep at this age all the rubber is going, going... well you get the idea. .
Just did the headliner, about to do oil pan gasket & level sender (& rear main while I'm under there..) and the 3rd oil filter housing gasket & 2nd valve cover gasket. Frankly I'm surprised the oil pan gasket lasted this long. Speakers are rotten as well. But car still starts, drives ok and has been pretty darn reliable.. plus nothing I could buy would be any better at 2x the price. Planned on this being son's first driver but he wants a truck. ("Well son, you get what you get, or you can go buy what you want.") I personally would have loved something like this for first car..
Mine was this
@Wrenn Smith posted:
not a Merc... but still German, this has been my "back-up" for when the other DD's are in state of dis-repair. I didn't think of filler tube rot. Yep at this age all the rubber is going, going... well you get the idea. .
Just did the headliner, about to do oil pan gasket & level sender (& rear main while I'm under there..) and the 3rd oil filter housing gasket & 2nd valve cover gasket. Frankly I'm surprised the oil pan gasket lasted this long. Speakers are rotten as well. But car still starts, drives ok and has been pretty darn reliable.. plus nothing I could buy would be any better at 2x the price. Planned on this being son's first driver but he wants a truck. ("Well son, you get what you get, or you can go buy what you want.") I personally would have loved something like this for first car..
Mine was this
Just tint out those windows and change the rims, perfect for the kids 
The kids don't want it. It's a wagon!
I hear that. Back in the high school days I had a 1964 "Rambler Rapide" staitonwagon as we called it. Go to the drive in, flip the front seat backs all the way down flat, slide into the back seat and enjoy the movie....
We're old. That's what we did. I myself put many "miles" on the hatchback area of my first car, a used Vega GT graduation gift.
My girlfriend at the time used to complain about the piano hinge(there when the back seat folded flat) hurting her back.
Not as many kids drive today.
Today, they "Netflix and chill" right in their parents houses.
My buggy in HS had a $800 Hearse, Bill said it was a great for Saturday night Horizontal Mombo dance lessons whatever that was~
@Alan Merklin, my first car was a '37 Packard hearse. I paid $65 for it and it had 21,000 miles on it.
My friends' parents sometimes didn't like me parking in their driveways.
I put a mattress in the back.
Forward progress!
All of the “Tin Whacking” is done, everything fits with zero forcing (it just falls into place), the clutch is installed, I threw in a new set of NGK plugs, the fan belt is on but loose and my motorcycle racing neighbor, Gusto, came over to help me get it off the engine stand and onto the motorcycle jack. I still have to set the valves, but I’ll do that after the engine is back in because the distributor is hanging on the side of the engine compartment, waiting for install because it was easier to do it that way than remove the wires from the coil.
I will say that is really pretty, painted fresh and all. Even Gusto was impressed and he’s more OCD than I am!
After all that, it was time to do a little league baseball game with the grandkids, so the actual re-install will have to wait til tomorrow.
No more parts to buy, no more tin to whack, just finding the time to get it back in there, get the carbs/manifolds installed and…..
GET THIS BABY RUNNIN’, AGAIN!
“Tin Whacking.” 
I like it.
I’m glad I read a bit from, I think, Awesome Powder Coating, about shrouds/fans needing some “adjustment” or I would have freaked out when I installed my Thing shroud. The first time I test fit it, the fan wouldn’t even turn. I loosened it all up and it was fine. In the end, the process involved tightening one screw a little bit, “tin whacking” until I got a full rotation with no rubbing, tightening another screw a little bit, rinse, repeat.
Finally got it all together only to realized the nutserts I’d installed for the coil heat sink were a little too close to the hex bar. Luckily, the second time it went together much mo betta, but I discovered there was a specific sequence I had to tighten the 4 alternator flange screws in to keep the fan from rubbing.
@Gordon Nichols posted:No more parts to buy, no more tin to whack.........
Sounds like something someone around here would have chiseled into their headstone.
There are a LOT of pieces if you use all of the VW-designed-style tinwork, like a dozen or so, and they all have to fit just so. The guy who taught me what little I know about VW engines impressed me that all of the original VW tins should just "fall into place" with no tinkering.
That was then, (the 1960's), and this is now. Any original tin you get is old and tired and needs adjusting. Any new tin you get was made from who knows what as a model (Unless they got some original VW part drawings from somewhere or could reverse-engineer it) and a "perfect fit" is more of a suggestion - Everything has to be adjusted to whatever it's fitting to so remember that if you're buying Powder-coated parts - They will need to be adjusted. And besides, we all deviate from the originals because none of us are driving a VW Beetle Sedan! On top of that, there are differences between IM, VS, Beck and CMC cars, all made in the name of progress, not to mention some of us "tinkerers" coming up with our own ideas of what should work.
After that, how well everything fits is up to whomever is adjusting and installing everything (a mix of original and reproduction parts from several different vendors who don't share or talk to each other) and how much they can learn about how it is all supposed to go together.
I certainly am not an expert at fitting engine tins - A lot of it is guesswork on my part while thinking, "Well, this aught-a work!" and so it goes. Eventually, with trying, whacking, re-trying, rinse and repeat, I got everything to fit with minimal gaps, everything works, nothing binds and the engine looks good. I'm still glad I wasn't in a hurry doing this.
I do kind-of miss my chromed head top tins, though. I thought they looked classy.
Oh! And here is my engine with my Patent-Pending, Anti-Mouse protection system!
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Tried installing the engine today.
Note to self: Remember to remove the flywheel lock after installing the clutch. 🙄
Once that was remembered and removed, something else is holding the driver's side away from the bellhousing so it won't seat. Can't be the starter, as that's on the passenger side.
After messing with it for a while and getting nowhere, I gave up and walked away for the day (actually, I got the dinner call) so I'll try it again, tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'll wear my lucky shirt from:
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Don't feel too bad Gordon , I was installing the engine into the Outlaw and it would not go the last 5/8". ( I have this down to a science where they slide right in) Connie comes into the garage with and ice tea and say's maybe those bolts you put into the trans mounts are too.... long ? ........ Umm Yup a 1/16 " too long.
Very perceptive of Connie!
@Gordon Nichols posted:Oh! And here is my engine with my Patent-Pending, Anti-Mouse protection system!
I’ve got the grill from a shop fan that shot craps that I intend to use to make a grill for my fan.
Im not so worried about mice as I am my fingers. Especially after I install the Andrig fan. In a Spyder fan isn’t semi-protected against the firewall like it is in a speedster.
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I actually bought one of those fan inlet screens seen at CIP1 and others. Turns out it will fit an early, 36hp-style fan shroud, but not the later so-called "bigger" fan shroud. It is also a very close mesh and I was worried about how much airflow it would restrict - If it has half as many woven strands it would be a lot better..... We're trying to keep out mice here, not Mosquitoes......
On my later shroud (for the larger fan and oil cooler), the inlet is of a different shape and the giant water-pipe clamp holding the screen on wouldn't get a good grip and it could easily fall off, not to mention that the screen base and clamp also restrict some airflow. Plan "B" was what I ended up with, above. Less restrictive, cheaper and seems to work better (and, at least, it can't fall off).
I bought one, too, after the guys at Cooled1 told me it would fit with my Thing shroud. It doesn’t, because of the Venturi ring.
Mine isn’t restrictive at all. It’s made just like a headlight screen.
ps: If you’ve never had a small rodent as a pet, it might surprise you how tiny a hole they can get through.
Meet Boscoe, a little guy I saved from freezing to death after I found him on my patio nearly solid.
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¡Hola, Boscoe! "¿Qué Tal?”
We have a neighborhood house rented by several Vet School students and one or more of them have pet white and gray mice. They often walk the ‘hood and carry one or more in their pockets.
So I found that the engine was actually seating correctly first shot, but I forgot that my top, driver’s side mount is actually a bolt that threads into the engine - DUH! I had to call up Dr. Clock to verify what was in there and found that we both do that mount differently. Alan puts a stud there as a pilot to guide the engine in, while I use the two bottom mounts (studs) as a guide and put a bolt in top driver’s side (The passenger side top is usually a captive bolt at the starter).
So I had it right all along, just getting too old to remember stuff like that once it’s been apart too long. 🤷♂️
So things are humming along again, Patsy Cline and Juice Newton are wailing in the background and all is right with the world. Except that we’ve got errands to run today and another little league game this evening. The life of Grandparents is a constant shuffle.
I was always surprised that the Newtons didn't get their own family variety show in the 1970s like the Osmonds.
Forgot one, Ed.
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Damn!
Tough crowd!
Well, tomorrow, when I get back to the shop, I’ll do an hour of the Caribbean Jazz Project, just to listen to Paquito D’Rivera and his gorgeous Clarinet. That should move things along, nicely.
WHAT? A Clarinet doing Latin Jazz?
You Bet’cha……..
Randy Brecker on trumpet and Poncho Sanchez on Congas ain’t bad, either.
Ok, Ed and Stan, it took me a few seconds to get that. I guess I'm just slower even than normal this morning.
An apple fell on your head, probably.
.
@Lane Anderson posted:.... I guess I'm just slower even than normal this morning.
Completely understandable, Lane.
An object at rest tends to stay at rest.
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@Sacto Mitch posted:.Completely understandable, Lane.
An object at rest tends to stay at rest.
Hey, hey, hey - Lane was just "conserving energy*".
*A footnote regarding the above attempt at a joke regarding the conservation of energy, which I had always believed to be a Newtonian Law. Upon further reading this evening, I find that it was not Newton.
A guy named Gottfried Leibniz was working at the same time as Newton, and had a more complete understanding of kinetic energy which he called "vis viva" (living force). 40-ish years later, Émilie du Châtelet (a young French woman) was the first to propose and test the hypothesis of the conservation of total energy, as distinct from momentum. A working understanding of energy (encompassing motion and heat, etc.) didn't really coalesce for 150 years post-Newton.
In 1844, William Robert Grove postulated a relationship between mechanics, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism by treating them all as manifestations of a single "force" (energy in modern terms). In 1846, Grove published his theories in his book The Correlation of Physical Forces. (<that paragraph was lifted verbatim from the Wikipedia article)
It was less than 100 years before Einstein blew it up again.
Everything I thought I knew was wrong. At the end of the day, I'm a monkey at a keyboard.
Perhaps, but a monkey I enjoy having a refreshing adult beverage with. Then again I'm a bit simian myself.
I'm certainly looking forward to this year's TdS.
Hey Gordon, since this is your thread why don't you consider joining us this year? We're in VA instead of NC, so we're a couple of hours closer. Haven't seen you in quite a while.
Stan, I’ve got no time for either of those overachieving smarty pants.
OK, the momentum and energy stuff may be of some value. You need that to design a good engine or crankshaft, I guess.
But then they had to spoil everything by inventing calculus - both of them! They even argued about who was first. If I ever happened across some calculus, I’d quietly back out of the room and not breathe a word of it to anyone. But these know-it-alls had to publish and tell the whole world, as if calculus were something useful that mankind couldn’t do without.
They had to go and ruin senior year for countless generations of high school students ever since.
Don’t get me started.
@Sacto Mitch posted:They had to go and ruin senior year for countless generations of overachieving high school students ever since.
Fixed it.
Underachieving slackers (*ahem*) have been safe the entire time.
Calculus was my college downfall. I understand what it is doing, and even why it does it that way, but the tedium of going through all that to arrive at the answer just gets to me. My brain rebelled, and so did my grades. Of course, having class lecturers who could barely speak English didn't help, either. Fortunately, you don't need a lot of calculus to put together integrated circuits to make them do something.
What saved me, and my career, was the invention of the electronic calculator, first by Wang labs which created a big, desk-sized thing with Nixie tube readouts that did the usual four-functions plus a handful of scientific tricks - plus.... It was programmable with paper tape. Later, Texas Instruments created the calculator chipset and Bowmar quickly made the first hand-held 4-function calculator. I still have a very early (1973?) 4-function unit buried somewhere around here.
I spent many a fun-filled afternoon cranking out "Ball Clash Calculations" to properly balance miniature gyroscopes at 30,000 rpm with a Texas Instruments TI-99 programmable calculator. Those gyros became part of the inertial guidance system for the Harpoon missile.
Anyway, I owe a lot to those intrepid engineers who gave us the early pocket calculator (for big pockets). Saved me, for sure.
"Calculus was my college downfall." Amen, brother!
"Fortunately, you don't need a lot of calculus to put together integrated circuits to make them do something." Nor do you need it to write software unless you're calculating orbital dynamics or something like that.