new progress, the duster closer to a car

[dusterbd]

i cant help myself. posting progress pictures is getting addicting.

today, got the front harness mostly completed. reclocked the fuel pump, made the alternator fit (GM internally regulated, stock brackets), modified the clutch linkage, finished the suspension except for the sway bar, installed the steering column, and generally tidied up the car.

the major sense of satisfaction is that this is the most complete the car has been since before this time in 2004. it should be ready to fire up here in another couple of weeks, once i finish the plumbing and wiring, rebuild the carb, and double check every nut and bolt that i have touched until now. it will be the first time i have fired up the new motor. can y'all tell im getting redicuously excited by all this?


pretty soon here, we'll have to ask a moderator to condence all these posts into one so i quit clogging up the board....

Michael

[dust]

*drools over beautiful red* What shade is that?

[dusterbd]

its actually Honda Rally Red. base clear, and easily matched. found it on a clients car when i worked for DSS, and loved it. looks much brighter when theres not a bunch of dust on it, and its outside. i love it.

and would you be impressed that it was shot in an old chicken coop? really.

Michael

[charger_dan]

that's some damn nice work. congrats.
i'll bet this thing cooks as good as it looks.
don't skimp on the progress images, either!

[dodger1]

I assume you told us about re-clocking the fuel pump but I didn't catch that. How did you do that?

[dusterbd]

im using a summit high volume fuel pump. inlet/outlet held to pump diaphram with six or so screws. i just pulled the screws, rotated it, and rescrewed it. made it a lot easier to bend the fuel lines, too.
Michael

[BJSracing]

Micheal,

What type of wiring harness is that in the car? It looks almost familiar.

[kamstra]

Very Very nice. Great work, nice brake lines, aluminum struts etc

[rumblefish360]

WOW! Real nice

[dusterbd]

Jason:
thats actually an EZ wiring harness. i bought it before i knew the difference, just because it was cheap at the swap meet. after installing it, i can see why.

and the strut rods are actually steel, painted aluminum. the origonals were left bare from what i understand, and i wanted to come close to that color. but i used a bare color on the brake splash shields, and the strut rods didnt look right in the same color. so amuminum they went.

and rumble, if you look at the last set of pictures on this thread, youll find one of me and the reason the car isnt running yet.
http://www.moparchat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105217

Michael

[BJSracing]

Originally Posted by dusterbd

Jason:
thats actually an EZ wiring harness. i bought it before i knew the difference, just because it was cheap at the swap meet. after installing it, i can see why.

Micheal do me a favor and when you get done with the wiring call me or email me and let me know how it all goes in. I have had alot of people tell me a little about those harnesses. I want to hear what you have to say.

Jason

[rumblefish360]

Oh hell, no pressure on when it runs. Ya get there when you get there. That Dodge truck doesn't look to happy. You do, not the truck. Were you in that??????
Hope all is well!!!!!!!

[dusterbd]

yup. i was driving, and apparently god was riding with me. got smacked my some illegals doing around 70 MPH when they blew a tire. i walked away without a scratch. lost a well modified dakota, though...

and having to go through finding a new ride set me back a few weeks. i'd hoped to have it at least running by now....
Michael

[rumblefish360]

Ohhhh man, your singing my blues tune there my man. Ohhhh boy do I know that story well.
I just, I mean just got a 2000 Dodge Intrepid from Dad because of some crazy reason. (Ahhhhhhhh, F.I. heat, A/C, heat for the winter, A/C, heat for the winter...LOL)

[dusterbd]

BJS:
ill give you a review of that harness here for all to see. dont buy one. they are missing necessasary circuits, like instrument power, etc. the wire lengths are either too short, or incredibly long. cheaper wire than most the other kits, and gauge choices for those wires that makes almost no sense. also, petty things like only one lead for power eindows and power door locks, leads that arent that tight into the fuseblock, and an instruction manual that is better used as a fire started than a primer on wiring.
if i had had the money to rip it out and buy another harness and start over again, i would have. but as it stands, i made it work.

Michael

[aarracer]

When I did my AAR, I used harnesses from YEAR ONE throughout.
They were expensive but PERFECT replacements!
I don't know who manufactures them, but again they were PERFECT!

Cheers

AARRACER

[BJSracing]

Originally Posted by aarracer

When I did my AAR, I used harnesses from YEAR ONE throughout.
They were expensive but PERFECT replacements!
I don't know who manufactures them, but again they were PERFECT!

Cheers

AARRACER

M&H builds those harnesses for YearOne. They build them exclusivly for them. Yes they are great if you are doing a concourse restoratation, but if you are doing a resto mod, depending on the mods it may be better to deal with a more universal type of system.

[dusterbd]

for my application and style, a repop harness would have just been a hinderance. nowhere near what i needed.
jason:
hope the review helped.

Michael

[BJSracing]

Micheal, Yes it tells me what I am wanting to know. Thanks. Let me know when the 1/4's are on their way please.

[kick_the_reverb]

BJSracing,
I got some feedback regarding the Mopar harness.
My friend installed a Painless GM truck 18 circuit harness and really liked it, it was mid $300 at the time (now the price has gone up). I told him about the Mopar kit and we looked at what it contains as compared to the GM kit.
The Mopar kit is really bare bones, and it uses mini-fuses. It's only 12 circuits. The GM kit was nicer. Now, if the Mopar was cheaper, that was understandable, but, of course, it's not. It's more expensive, by almost $100. It wouldn't hurt to have the Mopar kit contain more circuits, and be priced to sell.

Regarding universal type kits:
I used a Painless 12 circuit fuse block to wire my A100 van (I wanted to do it from scratch and use Mopar colors). I thought that it would have all the circuits I needed, but I ended up adding an aux fuse block because:
1. You provide "dash" voltage. Well, that's fine, but most factory cars have a separate instrument power supply, and instrument LIGHTS power supply that's connected to a dimmer. You don't want to hook the dimmer to the gauge power supply, just to the inst lights.
Also, the 12 circuits do not include electric choke or power socket (cig lighter).
Your market is resto-mod, and as such, even a basic kit should include (in my opinion):
dash, dash lights, power point, electric choke, electric fan, electric fuel pump, AC. An aux circuit would be nice. A basic resto-mod doesn't need electric seats, electric windows and third brake lights, that can stay on the "more circuits" kit.

One last point, you use TXL wires on everything. I think GXL wires would be better in regards to heat and mechanical protection. SXL wires should be used for sensative circuits/areas.

Thanks,
Ran

P.S. - note to everyone who thinks of buying Painless - do it through Autozone. It's cheaper - just give them the part number and they will get it. Don't fall for the "we can get it here in 2 days if you pay for shipping". Just tell them there's no rush. Everytime I did it, I got a call from them after a day or two - my parts were there. Most of the time the prices were cheaper than Summit, and there was no "handling fee".

[BJSracing]

Ran, thanks for your input. The only way to suit the needs of customers it to hear what they think. If I might add in some of my enlightenment on some of what you said.

In the harness there is the 930 insturment panel light wire that is for the dash lights. Then we have the 935 gauge B+ that is your power to the gauges. So that is separated. There is a cooling fan trigger wire for electic fan that is ignition hot and can also be used to trigger a fuel pump relay.

This is just some notes that I make to most. Hope that helps to clarify a couple of things. I am aware of the electric choke issue and am working on fixing that problem. Thank you again for your input. It is always welcome.

And there has been and electric choke wire added to the harness now too. Just double checked on it.

[kick_the_reverb]

BJSracing,
I'm sorry, the second paragraph of my post was not specific to the Mopar Harness. I should have made it clearer. The first paragraph was refering to that, and we never installed the Mopar Harness, because when we looked at the different pictures of it, and read the info in the different sources, we realized buying it would be paying more for a lot less.

The second paragraph was regarding the 3001 12 circuit fuse block and the instructions that came with it. I assume they are similar to a Universal 12 circuit harness. I know you can use different circuits for different purposes, but I meant that resto-mods probably use electric fans and (not or) electric fuel pumps.
Anyway, thanks for considering my suggestions.

Ran

[BJSracing]

Sure thing. Sorry about the mix up. Usually our suggestion is to trigger relays off or the cooling fan circuit for both. We have pretty much put as much on a 12 circuit system as we could. If you start to pile to much on top of an already existing circuit then you start having problems with burning up buss bars and what not. There are always limitations when building a product and sometimes there is very few ways around some of them. The Mopar harness has an auxilary 20 amp relay on it that could be used for most fuel pumps. as you said there isn't anything on the 30001 dedicated to that portion of the car. Thanks again for your input. I am constantly trying to make changes that will improve the quality and the usability of our products to the end user.

[kick_the_reverb]

Thanks!
For me the lesson has been - don't use "12 circuit" systems.

I also sent you a PM.

Ran

[dusterbd]

heres a pic of the motor as it looked on thursday. all thats left is to prime it, add the throttle linkage, check EVERYTHING done until now, and add the rest of the fluids. should light off this week.


and some before pictures for reference







come a long way, hasnt it?

Michael