Have 10mm will travel · 14 November 05

This image depicts:

A) The very latest in dog fence technology

B) A dog thinking inside the box

C) The last of Eve’s fuel line, removed and then stretched out on the ground with a standard ZMU for reference.

D) All of the above

BZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!

Time is up. Put down your pencils and pass your tests forward please.

The answer is, of course, D) All of the Above.

Back when we were kids growing up in Nebraska we had two choices for making forts: in a tree or undeground. Since the big kids down the blocked lived next to the only tree that pretty much left us digging holes.

Unlike the soil here in New Hampshire you can actually dig for days in Nebraska without ever hitting a stone larger than slingshot size. The only real problem is hitting sand and water, which usually happens below six feet. We’d dig a big hole in the ground, cover it up with boards and dirt, and then dig a narrow tunnel into it for secret access.

Instant fort!

I only mention this because it came to mind while I was zipping back and forth under the car with the chassis flying a few inches by my nose. Felt a lot like squirming through those claustrophobic tunnels in Nebraska.

10mm socket in hand I removed all of the brake and fuel line clamps, pried out the three fuel line tubes, and then bolted the two brake lines back into place. Cramp, tight, and dirty work with a few surprise splashes of gasoline still left in the pipes.

I think it’s now safe to say that Eve is truly gas-free.

Here’s some of the other relics pulled out of the car recently. Another bunch of wire came out, mostly the fuel injection bundle from inside and the cables to the alternator.

The flat plastic things are some sort of “scoop” to help channel air flow from below the bumper up towards the two radiators.

Gone.

The esophagus looking thing in the center was the most interesting removal. When I started getting serious about chasing all of the wires I found that there’s a big bundle that goes from the passenger compartment, through the left front fender, and then back into the engine compartment by the battery.

In order to get to it, the wheel well plastic was pulled off, another horn removed (one in each fender), and then this plastic contraption. It’s the air intake for the engine. They kind of jammed into the front of the fender (less dirt?) with a hose running down into a plastic container. I figure the container is meant to catch water.

That or it’s a precisely tuned harmonic chamber meant to reverberate when you step on the gas and give the car a deep, powerful sound.

Naw… ”:^)

With that out of the way I set about my mad task of reverse engineering the wiring.

First off there’s lots of electrical tape and most of it is pretty grimy with engine grease. If nothing else I’ll at least be cleaning that up. Secondly, who the heck did all of this wrapping? It certainly doesn’t look like a machine was able to do it. Having wrapped my fair share of wire with electrical tape over the years I must say that this is impressive.

There’s a couple types of wrapping going on here. First they wrap the base wire bundles, with more tape around junctions or offshoots of wires. Then there’s the plastic sheathing which covers some of the wiring and is taped in place. This is probably for the hotter parts of the car or places where the wire might be rubbed, since I found some of it melted a bit and some abrasion.

Finally there’s the tape that holds the plastic channels and connectors. These usually snap into the body frame to hold the bundle in place, especially when going around a corner.

This “sign” was made out of the removed electrical tape and measures about 7 foot by 6 foot. The biggest continuous piece of electrical tape was almost seven feet long.

I haven’t unwound enough of the bundles to really claim any victories yet. The jumble shown earlier is the result of unravelling the bundle going to the relays on the firewall. I thought this would be an easy win since four out of five of the relays are fuel injection (EFI) related, the fifth one is the horn. The brake fluid sensor connector is in the same bundle.

Lots of common grounds and pretty messy. Looks like the EFI lines go into the passenger compartment via the main bundle and then branch off from there.

Not all of the time was spent messing with wiring though. Me and my trusty 10mm found all kinds of extra things to unbolt and throw in the scrap pile.

Both sides of the firewall are looking mighty clean.