Replaced both upper ball joints today. I was a little worried, not having done this job before, but the most difficult part was finding a 24mm combo wrench. Three local hardware stores didn’t have one that big, and Home Labyrinth only had it in a $70 set of a dozen wrenches. Strauss Auto ended up being the place wit’ da goods.

Time for first one, including F-ups, research, and tool hunt: 3 hours
Time for second one (ie, once I knew what I was doing): 30 minutes
Time quoted by local mechanic to do both: 4 hours(!) labor @ $69/hr

Mechanic quoted something like $75 each for the BJs. Busdepot provided them for 19.95 each.

Here’s the procedure I followed – this guy describes it perfectly except for a few small things: -

• the nuts on my old and new ball joints were 24mm, not 22 as stated at the link above
• even with the 12 point wrench, you must turn the wheels all the way toward the side you’re working on to reach the nut on the bottom of the ball joints.
• any time after you remove the bottom nut, the whole brake/hub/knuckle assembly may decide to make a rapid descent toward your crotch; prop it up or you may end up sounding like Danish heavy metal singer King Diamond.

The wheelcovers were bothering me since I got the van – horrid generic ones trying to look like alloy wheels and failing miserably:

…and of course the lack of curtains can be bothersome when camping, but I got what is basically a toy sewing machine from Target and cobbled together the first set…they need some tweaking and retaining straps, but I’m pleased. Wild purple on the inside:

…and a less conspicuous blue on the outside (you can also see the proper chrome hubcaps here…sortof):

Some day, maybe I’ll paint the van purple and reverse the curtains, since the interior is already blue.

Finally, the previous owner tragedy of the week…the same guy who sold me the wheelcovers sold me some proper Vanagon front speakers, which matters because non-stock ones protrude and interfere with the glovebox and window crank. The VW speakers were brown, but I used Forever Black plastic dye and they looked perfect. YAY! Outside with a screwdriver to remove the old ones, which had already drawn blood.

Whatever genius put the wrong speakers in accomplished it by enlarging the holes in the door panel with a saw.

The VW speakers, which should snap into place and sit perfectly flush, go through the hole and fall into the door. I’ll need to find some door panels in the boneyard or invent something. Sonofa….

Just stuck this together with iron-on “fusing web”. Tried it in the van, fits perfectly. Now I just need to do some sewing, and find long-ass springs or something for the bottom straps. The blue faces out, to match the van and be discreet, and the wild irridescent purple goes inside where the party’s at

I found my curtain material at a great used stuff store called “Junk” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I’ll do all purple if there’s enough for two thicknesses, otherwise the outside of them will be the blue. Some kind of insulating material will go between the two pretty layers. Gonna get one of those $30 “as seen on TV!” sewing gadgets and try my luck…I mean, it’s only one project, how hard could it be?

Yeah, I know, I’m totally gonna end up hiring someone to do this for me :-\

Lights!
I ordered some bright white LEDs to see how they work as lighting. Made an array of 7 of them and replaced the driver’s interior light…pretty bright, but I think I’ll add a few more bulbs and more diffusion



Juice!
Got the solar panel mount finished. It’s a sheet of plywood with two 2×3 cross-pieces. The one with the notches will be held to the rear luggage rack bar with u-clamps so it can serve as a pivot to set the panels up at a good angle. The other one will be attached to the front bar, but behind rather than on top of it, so the wind pressure will push down on the panels rather than tearing them from the roof, though I don’t intend to drive long distances/high speeds with them up there anyway. The wooden frame is covered with spray-on truck bedliner to prevent rot, and there’s industrial carpet between the panels and plywood for padding.

Instruments!
I’ve been dealing with the lack of instrument lights for too long, so I dug into the dash.

How to disassemble the Vanagon instrument panel:
Reach around the windshield-side of the plastic cover over the instrument panel and find the two grooves. Pull toward you and it will pop off. Then there are 4 screws holding the instrument assembly to the dash. The two nearer the windshield are easy. Of the other two, the left one wasn’t accessable until I unplugged a wiring harness, and the right one was hidden until I removed the hazard light and defroster switches (pinch the clips on either side of them and rock them out).

Another wiring harness comes off the right side (just rock these off), and then there’s the speedo cable. Feel around behind the speedo for the cable; there’s a pretty obvious retaining clip dealie you pinch to disconnect.

I spent about 30 fruitless minutes trying to find the failure; the bulbs were good, they made good contact with the flexible circuit board, and everything else on there worked fine. I ended up running a red wire directly from the “out” post of the dimmer to one of the bulbs, which completed the circuit for all 3. There’s just too damn much spaghetti in too tight of a space to mess with until I have a better reason to tear the whole thing apart.

Music!
The radio had been bothering me too – some bastard wired it up properly…I hate that! I want to be able to use it regardless of the state of the ignition switch, so I ran the main power wire to an always-on fuse box connection that already held the other power wire, that keeps the clock and presets when the car is off. Eventually this will live on the second battery’s circuit, along with all interior lights and some cigar lighter plugs for doodads like the sink pump and 12v vacuum cleaner.

Speaking of interior lights – I found a small flourescent light at Home Labyrinth for $11 that takes 8 AAs, meaning it’s 12v. Not as nice as the stock Westy ones, but at 1/5 the price I’m not complaining. It’s the middle one in this (sloppy) panoramic. The rear one is stock and the front one is the LED dealie detailed above. You can also see two of the new curtain rods in this pic.

Cabinetry!
OK, it’s not electrical and actually happened last week, but anway…spotted a set of drawers put out for ‘big garbage day’ that was pretty close to the size I needed for the left-side cabinet. Trimmed a few inches off the back, put on latches and handles, and drilled holes to bolt it to one of the middle seat mounts on the bottom and to the holes for the side trim panel. The top is exactly the right size to hold my Coleman stove, which fits inside it behind the drawers – the last few inches of the top now lifts off to access that space. Eventually I’ll build something nicer, but it’s great for now and like everything else it can be removed/installed in a few minutes.

Bought a stick of aluminum at the hardware store, and in maybe 15 minutes it was drilled, bent, and sanded, ready to go. I bet I can make the rest of them in an hour. Making curtains should be an adventure…how will I get my hands on a sewing machine?

If anyone wants the curtain rod measurements or more detail in the post, lemme know

The door catch idea I had was rendered unnecessary, as so many inventions are, by poking around in Home Labyrinth for a while. I eventually settled on a wooden dowel and some broom clips. Now you slide the bottom of the door into place and press the top. It’s easy enough to pull off when you need to, but firm enough that I don’t fear losing the door going over bumps.

Clever design, if I do say so myself…but I’m not as confident in my ability to manifest it in physical form…we shall see. Since I want to use the door of the sink cabinet as a table when eating, the top/front will ideally have no protrusions, like so:

Here’s my sketch of the mechanism. To put the door on, you put the top in place and push upward, compressing the springs and bringing the bottom catch high enough to clear the opening. Then you push it all the way flat and let the springs push it down till the bottom latch engages (bottom latch must be full width or one at each side for lateral stability). To remove door, push up on the bottom, compressing the spring and making room for the bottom catch to be pulled forward.

(By the way, if scribble makes any sense to you, you’re an engineering geek and/or mentally a bit “off”)

I’ve been out enjoying my VW more often lately as weather and mechanical dependability have improved. Last weekend, it was suddenly 60 degrees out, and I took the Best Woman Ever and the Best Dog Ever to the country. The Mr Heater Buddy did a great job keeping us warm at night (but never, NEVER sleep with one of these – for that you need to go to a $400 RV furnace…someday)

I’ve had an annoying sound coming from under the passenger side, toward the rear of the sliding door. I suspected the fuel pump just because of location, and someone on thesamba.com confirmed this; the fuel pump was struggling with a clogged filter. I replaced the filter and the noise went away, and idle seems a little bit smoother, but the rust in there meant that I’ll have to pull and clean the fuel tank at some point. Until then, new filters are only $5 and I’ll keep a used fuel pump around as a spare.

Made some nice progress on the sink cabinet. My carpentry skills are rather primitive and I’m using plywood, so iron-on laminate edging will be needed for a finished look, but I’m pleased so far. Used self-stick floor tile for the top around the sink.

Note: aerosol polyurethane might sound very convenient, but when you have to wash your hair 20 times before going out on a Saturday night because it’s matted together with goo, you see the downside. Brushes and cans for me from now on.

Anyway, here’s the sink unit. The door will have invisible thingies holding it on for a clean look, and will double as a dining table when removed:

I think I’ll move the pump down to the level of the freshwater tank (which will live in the bottom of this cabinet) so it will always be primed; I don’t know if it can tolerate running dry. I’ll probably go with toggling pushbutton switch, though I’m tempted to make a simple controller that will give you ten seconds of water for each press, in the interest of conservation. I don’t want to carry a lot of water around, it’s heavy.

Gray water tank will ride between the beams under the sliding door. Making the drain hookup removable without ugly holes in the floor when in a non-camping configuration will be a challenge. I’m tempted to run it through the passenger seat pedastal, but hesitate because that’s where the main battery lives. For ease of connection and “my parents grew up during the depression and I heard all the stories” thriftiness, I’ll use garden hose for the drain. For a p-trap (that curve under the sink that keeps smelly air from rising up through the drain), I’ll just loop the hose with a zip tie. This will also enable me to run the line wherever I want, maximizing storage area under the sink. A nice piece of wood from an old Ikea coffee table will be transformed into a hinged cover for the sink, so it can serve as counterspace when not in use.

Finally, after a weekend eating from old take-out containers, I bought something silly that nevertheless gives me a smile: