Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

...and that is when the fight started...

 

Last part of the trailer wiring done, staple the front marker lights to the floor.

 

The quote was from "Good Morning Vietnam."

Robin William's birthday was July 21st. It would have been his 71st. I still love his movies.

 

I liked his movies as well

 

Heads up on those metal staples; you'll have intermittent shorts years later.

I like using ADEL clamps (we use them for aircraft wiring). Self-tapping sheet metal screw (mark location, run screw in, back out and wrap back around wiring, ice pick to line the holes back up, screw to a metal part of the frame.

Very least this style will help prevent shorts.

$8 Gardner Bender MSI-150 Electrical Metal Staple, Blue, 100 Pack

https://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender-MSI-150-Electrical-Staple/dp/B000BPK5HC

 

Thanks, I didn’t even think about years to come, just now.

 

Flash forward 5 years down the road and Cole's hauling mowers around mowing yards hard as he can go and he comes home one night and goes dad Ive got no lights on the trailer! None! Let him troubleshoot it then.

 

Could be true!

 

Trailer looks great Shane. He'll be telling his kiddos down the road me and dad tore this down in 22 and made it brand new again.

 

I was doing Time-Speed-Distance Rallies in Northern California. Mazda RX2 flat out fast didn't handle worth chit. Pitch black on a levy road. Road built up on a berm, some crazy ass turns, with the river on the side, 20' down, and soggy farm land on the other.

There was an intensely bright light at my feet! WTF? It was like staring into a tungsten arc lamp, glanced too long, looked back up, then the car filled with black acidic smoke! Slammed on the brakes, stopped, and jumped out, hitting the battery kill switch. Dead car, side of the road, no moon, and we were still coughing our heads off from that smoke. Another five feet and I would have been down the bank into the river.

Thankfully the Mazda didn't go up in flames that night. A friend came along and towed us at the end of tow rope to Split Pea Anderson's along I-5. Another 12 hours before the rest of the rally made it back to that location. I spent that time hacking what was left of the wiring harness—rigged up a driving light switch, voltmeter, and one switch. I asked my navigator if he knew how a voltage regulator worked. He didn't but explained that he would when we got home. Voltmeter drops to 12V. Turn the switch on when the voltage reaches 14.5V; turn it off. He was the human voltage regulator for the ride home. Spark and electric fuel pump meant keeping the voltage at a reasonable level. Eight-hour ride home said too long for just battery power.

The fun part about a carb'd rotary engine: kill the ignition for a few seconds, and fuel builds up in the exhaust pipe. Turn the ignition back on, and you have a KABOOM with an 8' flame out the back. Navigator kept falling asleep and not doing his job. I had the perfect alarm to wake him! KABOOM! Dead panned "hey; you didn't let the voltage drop did you?"

Never found the cause, but it took months to rewire that car.

Split Pea Anderson is still in business. If anyone is ever there, snag me a postcard so I can send it to Mike with the note "do you know how a voltage regulator works?"

http://www.peasoupandersens.net/homeSantaNella.html

 

win

 

I will have to try and remember to grab one next time we head to the in-laws. That is one of our stops for gas. Just not sure when that may be as we don’t visit all that often anymore since traveling with 3 kids is more work than it’s worth.

 

I will check in the Morning to see if your still alive! Feeling brave were you??

 

Ouch metal staples are not a good idea unless your selling the trailer..

Those staples caused me lots of headaches many many years ago. I found it was just easier to replace the trailer harness build a new harness.

If the staples held the harness the length front to rear.

 

Multi compartment thermos?

Why not keep things hot and cold at the same time.

 

Well,

I completely gapped that my mom's service was today.

 

Not like you planned to go in person or did the family post a live internet feed?

 

It was in person and on Zoom.

 

Customer I got all the log chains, wire, and scoop pan from when he bought that house came by yesterday and ask if I needed this. I said I don’t need it but how much you want for it?

He said $20 in gas, I said okay, Cole go get your mower

Do we need it? Absolutely not. Will he enjoy it come fall? Absolutely

He ask if he could try it out. Ground is hard as a rock. Go for it, son