Brake fun

I'm slowly learning.  Rear brakes on the Rowlf are more complicated than the BMW 2002 drums.

I found even after the front rotors were turned there was STILL some pulsation and sponginess in the brakes.  I believe that three things are going on.  First is crappy rear brake hoses.  These look to be 50 years old and completely rusted on.  Had to trash them to pull them off (and still slightly rounded one of the hard brake line nuts, dang it).  New ones were ordered and installed, look much better and takes that out as a variable.

Busted knuckle lesson time:

Old line:

Second is that the drums are likely warped, just like the front rotors.  I removed them and had them turned (sure enough they found a wobble).  Variable removed.

Last is that the shoes were falling apart!  Ordered new ones and will install.  They should arrive Monday.

Oops one more.  I don't believe I was adjusting them properly.  Here are my new steps:

1. Loosen the handbrake.

2. Remove wheel, drum, replace all worn parts (in this case shoes and drum).

3. Replace parts, making sure adjustment rod spins freely.  

4. Adjust rod until can just move drum.
5. Pump brakes a few times and recheck.

6. Adjust rod and then repeat step 5 until happy.

7. Go to other side and do it again.

8. Adjust handbrake.  I'm thinking that I need to set it to 2 clicks and then tighten both sides to make sure they are evenly tight.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

What the heck are these connectors?

Under the dash, the following two connectors are unused.  I'm sure it's part of the original cluster, I'll trace it back to find out.

Spent some time tracking down stuff

I'm actually beginning to get a feel of the work that was done.  I can appreciate the amount of time spent, and see that it was a "work in progress" of sorts.  It's not as formidable as I imagined it to be.

For instance, the wires for dashboard lights are labeled and sitting under the seat.  The lines to bring the signal up to the front do exist, just need to connect them.  I will then need to buy 5 mm LEDs to install as appropriate.

Also, I found 4 open vacuum lines in the engine compartment - this initially had me worried, but as I dove in to take a look I see that they are part of the blowby and unburnt gas recirculation and should be connected together.  Purchased some 1/2 inch ID hose and just need joining links to finish it up.

Wiring!

No photos just yet, but am now also working on the wiring issues.  So far they are:

1. Tach not work
2. Dashboard lights not work
3. No engine management information at all - not even a "check engine light"

I think I found the dashboard light issue, so shouldn't be too hard.  Tach may be a different deal, but shouldn't be too hard to track down.  The engine management issue we are fixing with a "ScanGuageII" for OBDII engines, which will tell us more than we need to know on a neat little LCD panel.

When it warms up a bit I'll tackle it hopefully this week.

Brake time

Next up was the brakes!  Although a new brake kit was added in the front, the pedal was severely spongy and pulsed when using.  Didn't pull at all though.  I pulled the wheels off and noticed the rotors where "clean" then "rust" on both sides - clear sign of warp.

Took the rotors to local shop and had them turned (free!!).  While they were being worked on, I installed four new shocks.  Bilstein "Sports" which should help all around.

To get the front off need a custom shortened allen key to hold the top.  All in all pretty easy to do, parts are much more accessible then on a BMW 2002!

After it was all done, I replaced the wheels, jumped in and hoped for perfect brakes and ride!

No such luck.  While the brakes don't pulse any longer (good thing), the pedal still is spongy and can't lock the wheels up.  Not safe for the family at all so this needs to still be addressed.  Next step is to replace the rear brake hose as the ones in there look very old and potentially part of the cause.  Once the new hoses are installed I will bleed it and see where we stand.  If this does not fix the problem, my next steps is the master cylinder.  Fingers crossed!  Brakes need to be perfect.

Back home and time to go through it

Other than driving hundreds of miles, we really haven't been able to use Rowlf as of late.  Work has been busy, holidays, all of that.  However - been slowly taking a look and making a list to fix what needs to be fixed.  The goal is:

1. Safety

2. Reliability

3. Comfort

First thing was to clean the inside.  I took out all cushions and used Mr Clean with Oxyclean to scrub it all down.  It was clean to start with but wanted to make sure it was "a fresh start".   This was easy to do and with the warm weather took no time at all.

I then took a look at the back bench seat.  It had separated from it's support brackets, so I bought nice carriage bolts with wide fender washers to eliminate the screws.  Much much better.

It now lays nice and flat!

Trip map

Here is the map of our route.

View Larger Map

Made it home!

We made it home before 8pm, a great trip! Rowlf is in our driveway waiting to be cleaned and gone through.

Thank you everyone for supporting our journey! Especially to our wives for holding down the fort at home!

Is it coming or going?

Almost home!

Doomsday sky

Fill em up

Breakfast outside Little Rock

Everything closed downtown.

Heading into little rock...

For a short grub break!

Indeed!

Stuff everywhere!

Everything is everywhere, it's pretty loaded down! Bought a big bag of oranges too that we are going through.

Heading on down the highway!

Driver swap, need to keep the wheels spinning to get home!

Crossing the mighty Mississippi

We are in Arkansas!  Is that worthy of an exclamation mark?

Just outside Memphis!

Making good time but still a long way to go!

Set up for a few hours sleep

Departing rest stop!

A good snooze - heading out now to the wide open road

Snooze time

Taking a much deserved break and sleeping for a few hours.

Had to stop for tire iron

Just in case! Paper towels too. Still in Kentucky.

Somewhere in Kentucky

Fill up 533 mile mark

Just happy going down the road listening to music..but something seems a miss..
Honk the horn, stereo goes off..seconds later, stereo comes back on..hmmm
Put the blinker on to change lanes..stereo goes off...odd..didn't do that before..
Lights are getting dim, power seems to be going out...uhhhhh ohhhhh..
Drift to the curb check things out..

Jason popped the engine cover and saw that one of the bolts holding the alternator in position broke in two..a piece of it was still threaded in the bracket.
He used channel locks to get the piece out of the hole..how to replace?
Luckily the truck has a box of spare parts and I found a bolt exactly the same size to fit in.
10min later, we're happily rolling down the road again..weeee!

Take that gremlins!!!

We still can't honk the horn without the radio going out.
I think this is a good thing as it makes one think twice about expressing road rage.
Maybe we all need a little of that.

Alternator fail Protip:

 

What you are looking at is a bolt in two pieces.

Bolts like this are designed to be in one piece.

When one finds a two piece bolt trying to do the job off a one piece bolt, it's best to trade the two pieces for one piece and get on your way.

Alternator bolt failure

This wound up being an easy fix.  We were driving down the road, not far from departure when suddenly we lost the radio.  Weird, but we kept on moving.  Then a different light stopped and then the car started to bog down.  Classic "running off the battery" symptoms but we didn't know that yet.  Worried, we limped to the side of the road and opened up the hatch.  It was obvious what happened and the easiest fix b/c the Suburu alternator is RIGHT on top.  While I worried about how we would fix it, AJ jumped in the cab and scrounged an exact fit from the parts boxes.  Perfect!  10 minutes later we were back on the road.  Now that was an emergency stop that I can handle!

Driving happy

Filling out the paperwork.



Thank you, Brian/Andy for making this so easy.

Picked it up!!!

Fingers crossed it makes it home!  I'm confident of it overall but don't know it well enough to troubleshoot it on any little stuff.

At the Detroit airport

Time to head out!

It's 5:30am and just about to head to the airport.  Pretty excited and nervous too!

It should be a good trip and we'll post as we are going...

Test Post

Wanted to see the post appearance...