Dash Wiring in Place

The wire bundles behind the dash are terminated and installed out of sight. The only bundles remaining are in the area where the console circuits and tach panel join.

Before I can consider the main wiring complete, I have to conduct a manual continuity and shorts test and that will be a tedious job working alone! I'm also waiting for the park lights I ordered and still have to hook up the tail lights, turn signals and backup lights. All the little wire clips around the trunk were rotted off, so I'll have to find some self-adhesive clamps to replace them

I think I'll take on a few mechanical tasks while waiting for my remaining electrical parts to arrive. All the linkages have to be designed and fabricated and also the emergency brake cables. No shortage of things to do, but at least some progress is visible!

New Plaything

My DIY wheel alignment tool arrived and while it looks reasonably simple to assemble and operate, the website for the video location is incorrect, so for now all I can do is look at the shiny new toys. Everything looks high quality, so I hope looks aren't deceiving.

Their brief instruction sheet makes it clear they want you to first visit the instruction website and watch the video, but the only video I can find about the tool is a brief description of the alignment method on youtube, not details of how to assemble the little loose parts and set up. 

Maybe by the time the weather warms up enough to crawl around on cold, concrete floors the website info will be corrected. In the meantime I have plenty of other things to do.

I did get a start on connecting the dash bundle to the firewall connector, but the first thing found was a wiring error, and of course I now have to track down a splice hidden in a mass of wires that I can hardly see.  Situation normal! 

Progress!

A few pieces that had been taking up shelf space for months are finally finding a home. The dash is in place and the next job will be hooking up the mating wires behind the dash while standing on my head, but at least the progress is becoming visible.

Too bad the weather makes a big change tonight. It was comfortably warm and breezy today, but a cold front moves in tonight with near freezing temps and 40 mph NW winds. Guess I'll spend a couple of days cleaning up the new wiring diagrams until the weather gets better again.

One thing I've been putting off is finalizing the rear shock mounting. I used the stock 1970 B-body shock plate, and I'm concerned about the length and angle of the installation. I no longer have the OEM setup to measure, so once again I'm flying blind, but I think the shock length could become a problem. If anyone has made a similar rear end swap, I'd like to see a picture of what you did, or hear comments and opinions. Did you use longer shocks, or make a custom mount, or did the later shock plate work out okay?

Almost Back to Normal

The wife and dog returned from their Las Vegas trip, so things are starting to get back to normal. More projects on her list, but I'm still glad to have them back.

Normal also means I have unexpected problems to eat up my free time. My computer decided to act up again, so I've been haunting HP tech support. Last year, my months-old HP Envy desktop breathed it's last. Tech support decided it was a hardware problem and wanted me to send it to the HP repair facility under warranty but the time to fix would be a month or more. I wasn't about to wait that long, so I visited the Best Buy Geek Squad for an estimate. They quoted $200 to troubleshoot, but suspected the mother board needed to be replaced. That would be another $350 and about two weeks to get the board! That was within a couple hundred dollars of getting a new computer, so naturally, being old and stupid...and since I had an almost new monitor, a new tower was the way to go. I bought the same model with the idea that I could cannibalize parts and have extra memory cards to upgrade. Now, eight months later, the new computer is giving me fits and tech support is stumped again. The worse part is they suspect another mother board. I know that if they want me to send it out again, I've bought my last HP computer! I've had Gateways since '92 and never had one go bad.

My dear wife has lots of projects for me to work on, but I put them aside so I could spend time on the car while the weather cooperated, but that only lasted two days before winter returned.

 At least all the console wiring is routed and tied into place, and I'm incorporating a few changes into the dash bundle. When the next nice day arrives, I'll try to get the dash installed.

Before I install any more sheet metal on the front, I'll have to make some rough alignment tweaks while all the adjustment points are readily accessible. Instead of taking a wild-ass guess with a level and a tape measure, at the recommendation of a Forward Look member, I ordered a simple tool that claims to measure all the adjustments.from one setup. It should arrive within a week, so we will see if their claims are truth or the usual BS! At least it's US made.

Getting There...a little Faster!

It hasn't been often that I felt I had made much progress, but the past two days I have. Still working on wiring, but I'm down to about a dozen wires to route so I can soon begin terminating everything inside the console.

I also have the dash wiring nearly complete so if I can find time in the next week or so, I should be at the point where I can check for shorts, grounds and continuity, and then install the dash.

I figured out how to wire the seat belt module and will be able to install the fuse panel as soon as those dozen or so wires are in place. Then the progress should be a little more obvious.

I got to reading about trunk mounted batteries and the experts suggested high amperage protection as close to the battery as possible, so I ordered a 50 amp circuit breaker  and it's on the way.  One unpleasant surprise was a nearly $5 tariff on the breaker. That's the first time I've seen that on the invoice and I'm curious to see the country of origin. It might be just another fool-the-buyer fee like inflated shipping charges.

I ordered some parts recently that fit in a 3X5 envelope and weighed a couple of ounces but they charged almost $10 for postage. I know they need to charge for handling, but I wish they would just be honest about what they are charging for.