The bad, the ugly, and even the good.

   Today was a good day in the land of mechanical beings.  I feel like I made a lot of progress on the van today in a few areas, some of which was simply discovery.  It rained mostly all day and I didn't originally plan to work on the van at all.  Well, my curiousity led me to it, so I decided to fix a few things.  I had plenty of indoor work within the van, so I wasn't too worried about getting soaked.  I did however, find something wrong on the outside during my morning walk around.


I was mildly horrified to see this. Not tryin' to see dollar signs everywhere I look...

    When I got in the van this morning, I sat on the bed platform for a few minutes collecting my thoughts about the work ahead and listening to the rain, getting a feel for the van.  I looked over to the right and noticed what you see in the picture above.  Water was pouring in rapidly.  I went to the other side and saw the lens had broken and the gasket had become brittle, causing rain water to enter.  The driver side of the van was no different, even though that light was working.  Looks like I will have to replace both lenses and gaskets, and one bulb.  The front park light lenses aren't leaking yet, but the plastic lenses are somewhat warped. Time to empty the penny jar and head to the pick-n-pull.


You can see water flowing right into the top of the lens, going right into the van.

  

Driver side was the same. Chit.

   Moving back to the inside, I approached the problem of the lo beam headlights not working.  Tested the dimmer switch (floor clicker) with a test light and no output on the lo beam side.  I pulled the switch and performed a continuity test and sure enough, no beep.  I went out to the yard to see if I could find a working one on something else, but all I ran into was bad switches and spiders...

I can see from here there is certainly not a dimmer switch in this truck...

   Well, let's go back to the van to see what else we can find to spend money on.  The blower motor for the heater didn't work.  I had already tested the 3-stage switch and all wiring up to the motor, and no problem with power.  I pulled the blower motor and discovered the fan was rusted and siezed.  I gave it a liberal bath in PB Blaster and begun to spin the fan by hand. I also ran 400-grit sandpaper across the surface.  I cleaned it with contact cleaner and spun it again by hand until the 'friction' disappeared from the wheel.  I tested it with a car battery, and it would have taken off a finger it spun so fast.  Problem solved by cleaning, no money spent there. That was good.  I also found my windshield car shade and gave it a test fit in the van.  Not bad, not bad.  I also use it to lay on the ground if I have to get under the vehicle out on the road, handy for that. 

Shady Summer Van

   Still waiting to put the dash back on til I replace the defroster ducting and a heater control cable.  I replaced the pcv valve and air filter, both were long overdue.  I'll change the oil and give it a tune up in the next day or two, when I can find some time.  I may have enough primer to cover the whole van, so I would like to start on the body soon.  I'm so ready to drive this thing! 

Can you guess which filter is the new one?