ImAddicted's driveway build

[ImAddicted]

[Jetfxr69]

[ImAddicted]

[ImAddicted]

Happy Father's Day to all.
Parts have been trickling in, seems like for each project 90% of them show up at the same time and then one important piece is being delivered by pony express and not here yet. So, while I wait for the rest of the exhaust, CHT, windshield, and winch controller, maybe I'll get this done tonight once it cools off some. I know, bitch all winter and spring about the cold, all summer about the heat. Nope, never happy

100w solar, 100a ammeter, 30a controller, SAE pass-through connector.

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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[ImAddicted]

Had some time tonight after work to play around with some of the new stuff. So, this cheap ass solar panel from eBay wasn’t quite as described. Reached out to the seller, and though they responded quickly, they really didn’t know much about what they sell. Yeh, and English definitely wasn’t their first language, despite shipping out of California, responses came in around 2:30am and needed my Ingrish translator to figure out they didn’t understand my question. So it was listed as “100w solar panel with 2 USB plus 12v & battery clips.” Welp, it did come with a ciggy plug and some tinfoil alligator (more like tiny as hell salamander) clips... but... no place to attach them, lol. All there was on the junction box were 2 USB ports. They did revise the listing after I purchased to show output of 5.5v @ 1500ma. So I asked wtf? They were clueless and were going to “ask me our supply” which I took to mean “ask our supplier.” For $35, I told them forget it. Popped off the “junction box” and looked at what I was dealing with. Two nice tabs coming out of the panel with blocking diodes, connected to a PCB with that only had the USB ports and some ICs

Disconnected after the diodes, put it in the sun, connected my DMM to the diodes and BAM! 22v DC. Clipped on a couple of leads to a big resistor I have kicking around and got 8.3a in full sun 90 degrees to the panel. WOOT! Wired it up with a 20’ run of 10ga fine strand copper wire soldered to the diodes, wrapped in that expandable nylon wire sheathing, terminated with a SAE connector. Tested in the shade about 7:30 tonight and still got over 18v over the 20’ run of cable

I have a weatherproof passthrough SAE socket that will go on the back of the bus by the left tail light to feed into the solar controller. This weekend will install that, mount controller, set up the ammeter, etc. Even is this thing shits the bed in a year, worth it just for the education and I’ll have the groundwork in place for a better panel and controller.

Cost:
Cheap ass panel - $35.99 shipped
Cheap ass “50a” PWM controller - $12.29
100’ 10ga fine copper strand wire - $17.48 (used half)
SAE connectors - $13.79
50’ nylon 0.5” expandable sheathing (plus 50’ 0.25” roll for other stuff): $10.49
Playing around with something new - $ priceless.
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[Jetfxr69]

3/4 of the people that just read this, said, “ wait, what?”.

Including me.
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[ImAddicted]

[notchboy]

[ImAddicted]

Got some more done before the skies opened up with some very much needed rain. Before I started I had to run to the dump, while there I checked out the freecycle tent, poking through a box of misc junk, I saw something g that didn’t belong in with the fondue pot and nasty looking cutlery.... I now finally have a fan screen and timing scale. Free, gotta love it

Wrapped up the solar install. Wired up the passthrough connector for the panel, added a master cutoff switch that kills the battery ground on the house system so I can just toss the switch instead of dealing with disconnection it when it is going to be sitting for a while. Put in tray, hold down, and 110AH FLA marine battery that I got on sale last week, and got controller mounted and wired.

Plugged in the panel, put in a bright spot (partially cloudy day), and it works:), went into float as the battery came off the charger last night. Still need to get it programmed more for my preferences.

Put shunts on both the house and bus electrical systems, ran the cables, ran thermocouple extension for CHT since I was already pulling wire back to front, and cobbled up a center stack out a scrap of barn board, hit it with some poly, and mounted it to hold the meters. I put DTDP switches inline with both ammeters, that way I can see both pull and push just by reversing polarity of the reference leads. CHT all set now too. Put in two other DTDP switches for later use while at it. Now know my 2 ham radio pulls 8.8a when transmitting, and the starter pulls 104 when cranking

And while I had the kick panels off, I rebuilt the door switch for the dome light and wired in a footwell LED on the passenger side, it can also be activated on demand by a switch next to the defroster knob.

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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[cmonSTART]

Wow great score! No way I would ever find an old ACVW anything at my dump!
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[ImAddicted]

Last year I got a pair of solex 32s, a couple of upper T1 tins, and four 009s in a bag that also had an air fryer in it. Never know what’s going to show up there
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[ImAddicted]

Dropped some pics in the tire sticky, thought I should update my own thread. Picked up a set of Achilles Desert Hawk XMT 27/8.5R14s for $99 a tire delivered, paid $80 for mounting and balancing (tire guy was stoked when he found out what they were going on). The old BFGs had a date code of 4/2006 so yeh, they were well past their prime. I like the looks of these, loved my BFGs so these will have a pretty big set of shoes to fill. They do look tough:).

The old

The new

Have goodies on the way - new shocks, more lights - LED floods and LED headlights - marker lights, a new timing gun since mine, ummm, got run over, SMP points, and some recovery gear. Windshield should be here next week. Getting closer to being on the road:)
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[ImAddicted]

So, got the SMP points from NAPA to replace the 25,000 mile set of Blue Streaks that we’re in there. Yeh, think they had seen better days.

Pulled distributor, installed and gapped the new points to .016, dwell was a whopping 84. OUCH. Was going to pull it back out and check my install but discovered a MASSIVE vacuum leak, both right side intake boots are just the fabric, the rubber disintegrated, so will fix those before doing anything else.

With that setback, time for a easy win. LED headlights, directional, brake\running lights. Will have to see how they do in the dark. In the sun the small lights are noticeably brighter. I got some LEDs to use as marker lights but didn’t have the ambition to wire them up today, too damn humid.

Decided to do one more easy win, out with the original shocks, in with some new GR2s up front. I didn’t do the rears yet, will do those when I reindex the torsions. With the intake boots shot, it can’t move right now and where it s parked is not the best spot to deal with that job so will wait.

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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[cmonSTART]

Come on... get out your matchbook and tune those babies up! Good for another 25k!
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[ImAddicted]

Ha! I actually did clean them up and put them in my emergency bag. Knowing some of the new crap out there, these were still working when I pulled them. Figure if stranded someplace, in a pinch they will get me home.
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[cmonSTART]

That's how I ended up with shelves of spare parts......


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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[richparker]

Interesting that with all your off road mods you went with the Softer GR2 instead of the stiffer monotube gas-a-just.
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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[ImAddicted]

[wagohn]

Is that panel truly 100w for $35? How well does it work on cloudy days?

Im looking for a bigger panel that I have now (20w) and $35 for 100w seems like a deal.

Thanks
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1976 VW Transporter, 2.0 FI Engine

[ImAddicted]