Wiring

First time for everything…

Posted on August 20, 2017 by akadventurer

First time I’ve ever UN hot wired a vehicle! 😉

Back story is as follows; A buddy had his ATV stolen out of his yard in May. Insurance payed off and he got a new one… 3 weeks later, the troopers said “hey, we got your wheeler back”.

He’s run out of time for projects this summer, but would like to sell it to cover the difference between the cost of the new one and the insurance paid.

So, I’m putting it back together and selling it for him.

If it was a horse I’d say rode hard, put up wet… They didn’t baby it, but I wouldn’t say they thrashed it.

Needs a few things cleaned up, and put back together since they had started to strip it.

First up was fixing the hacked hot wire job. Then test ridding to make sure they didn’t screw the driveline etc.. It all works great!

Wiring like this isn’t too hard when you have a full wiring diagram to start with (free download of full factory service manual!)

And, your supplied with a new switch, and the proper plug for it. Got wire extension colors close on a couple…

Scrounged and shortened the harness wires for an aftermarket switch pod I’d bought for mine.

The harness wires to the switch had been cut so short I had to add something, but having them all one color would be a pain.

The next guy is going to wonder what the heck, but at least he won’t be fighting to track a wire in a bundle of all red or all black wires..

Voila;

😆

Couple days work on a few little cosmetic details and rewiring a winch, and then you should see it on Craigslist Fairbanks. 🙂

Categories: ATV, ATVing, Automotive Work, Damages, EDC/MT use, Improviser, Modifications, Outdoors, Vehicles, Wiring, Wrenching

motor boating!

Posted on July 28, 2017 by akadventurer

A buddy of mine is converting his outboard river boat to an inboard. Going from a outboard prop to inboard jet.

The motor is a GM made Ecotec supercharged in line 4 cyl 2.4L. Mostly stock Except some EFI, exhaust, and cooling components. 240HP. And the super charger is off of a 2.2L Ecotec… the 2.4s didn’t come with them.

The outboard that came off was 80HP.

He had a custom boat(among other things ) welding shop that another buddy works at chop, channel the boat and build the motor and jet pump mounts in the boat. Then he’s done all the install, wiring, tuning(most of it) etc himself.

There is a lot of custom stuff done with this motor, it’s a popular one to swap into things, but this is the only jet boat, and IIRC only boat of any kind in the world with one!

I was out with him on Monday the 18th for the first ever in water running and tuning. We spent 9 hours on the water, only about 45 min running it. The rest of the time was chasing fuel supply issues, mostly mechanical, but also in tuning the computer control of the EFI..

I’ve learned an Epic amount of stuff that I didn’t know about how EFI systems work.

There is a lot of his builds details posted on a couple forums;

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/2-4…5-supercharger-2272-mv-jet-boat-build-322969/

http://www.meanchicken.net/webmain/forum/viewtopic.php?nomobile=1&f=69&t=19737

Apparently jet boats are Really popular in NZ? A lot of the info hes using came from down there!

http://www.nzjetboating.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=30216.0
It just amazes me, the new motor and jet setup is only about 100lbs heavier than the old setup, if that much, he’s still only drafting 6″ under this thing,(on step it has to be 3″ or less!) With selling the outboard motor off it, he’s almost broke even, and gained 100+ HP ( 80 to 240, but ya lose some to the jet pump).

Unfortunately I lot all my video and pics from that day except one shot;

Yeah, the scenery is pretty epic too! 🙂

That lake is unique in the area, and relatively new, only been there a couple years. It’s only about 1/2 mile, maybe a touch more across the London way, 1/4 the other way I’d guess… BUT It’s within 2 minutes of the industrial part of town, and 5 minutes from metro/downtown, a 10 min max from just about anywhere in Fairbanks.

It’s Deep, has a great launch and floating dock, picnic areas, bathroom facilities, and allows power boats. That last one is the big thing… Otherwise it’s a 1.5 to 2 hour drive to a lake that allows powered craft. Otherwise it’s the rivers… But playing in a current can get old, and these are shallow water rivers… Can be less than fun at times.

It’s perfect for this project, as shallows and a current could be killer for testing a new motor!

As a bonus, this lake does outlet into the Tanana river, so it has options. And fish.. 😉
So, onto the next time we were our with it, last Saturday;

[IMG]

Junk yard GM ecotec 2.4L with a supercharger from a 2.2L. Full custom setup for fuel delivery and injectors( the only GM part left is the rail itself). The jet pump unit is top of the line made by Scott.

[IMG]

Our day out the first time that Monday, 9 hours on the water, 45 min run time mixed with problems…. But it did run all the time… or would run for short times.

This last time out on Saturday, boat was in the water 6 house before we got it to run at all… uhuh.

First 3 hours it would fire over but not stay running. We were trying to run it without an O2 sensor (which technically it should do!) since the machinist that’s making the O2 adapter for the marine water jacketed exhaust had the sensor.

No go.
We had his spare sensor, but different plug/wire harness and colors. Tried unsuccessfully to hot wire it in.

Drove the 40 miles(1.5 hours) round trip and picked up the right O2 sensor.

Installed.
Then it wouldn’t even fire!
Checked and found no spark.

Serriously turning into a rough day at this point. After over an hour of checking everything, I found a main fuse blown. We’d shorted out something and blown power to the whole setup when hot wiring the first O2 sensor! Oops!!

Them it ran great! Other than a hick up or two at about 3200 rpm, where it would stall out, and if you pushed it, the compute would kill the electronic throttle…

We found out later that the tuning/computer fuel tables transition at that point to a higher rpm/load setup, but it not set right and it leans out too far– enough to cook the motor fast– computer was doing right to protect the motor when it was cutting off.

So that will need chased in the programing, to richen up that tables’ mixture curve.

For the rest of our testing we kept it below 3K without a hitch.

Its a non issue for general run though. We hit 50% throttle and 25 to 30 mph at 2800 rpm or below depending on load in the boat.

And there is the big point; load in the boat.

First run with around 900 pounds in the boat and it went “on step” within a boat length, and ran like it was empty!

So we bumped up to all we had.

Two 50 gallon drums, two 20 gallon drums all full of water, my friend and I, and we had 1800 pounds in the boat.

With the full 1800 in it, it took maybe 40 feet to get on step, then ran 40% throttle to 25 mph, at around 3000 rpm, ran fantastic, circle after circle in the lake, without a hitch.

Never bogged, never pulled bad… was almost like an empty boat!!

Technically, the hull itself is only rated at about 1800 pounds, so add in motor, jet pump, and gear weight etc, we were a good 500 pounds over that. Ha!

So the most weight you could ever safely have in there, and more than you’d ever really need to, and it ran basically like the loaf just wasn’t there.

100% success to the project! (A single 66″ moose, 2 guys and their gear last fall with the 115 hp outboard, he couldn’t get it on step, and they got back with less than 2 gallons of gas to spare. Almost didn’t get back, basically!) The point wasn’t a speed demon, but a super weight hauler for hunting. I think he’s got it.

A bonus too, on about the third loop around at constant rpm/speed, the fuel ratio suddenly improved by dropping on air percentage.. anything over 15% is bad, and 17ish on up will cook the motor.

We were running between 14 and 14.7 to start, at cruise speed. OK but not great. It suddenly dropped to 12.5. The computer is learning what it can do, and what the motor needs, and is tuning itself.

At this point, the more it runs, the better it should run the mixtures as it continues to learn. Shouldn’t have to worry about it as much.

Anyway, our last two runs of the day, part one and two from in the boat. And part three from the launch, while we waited for some kids to get out of the way of loading on the trailer.

Slight hitch at the end of this next one… lol.

Sorry you don’t get to see me.. (lucky you actually! ) we started out both filming, but he ran out of hands between throttle, steering wheel, and phone… lol.

So, anyway, this has really been a lot of fun for me, I’m super grateful he’s included me, and allowed me to be a part of helping with this.

As you all know, I Really enjoy custom work, things out of the ordinary. Along with my automotive interests, growing interest in boats, and absolute (if probably a bit weird)love of troubleshooting, improvising and chasing a problem, I really am loving this project.
As I type this, he is mounting the marine water jacket exhaust(last few days anyway), and custom O2 sensor mount. Be interesting to see how, or if, that changes the run of the motor.

All things stay good, and God willing, on the 3rd of August this boat is one of three going on a church group fishing/camping trip. 3 days in Minto Flats, one of the biggest and most remote norther pike hot spots in the state. Yes, I’m going! 😉 😀

Categories: Adventures, Alaska-Life, Automotive Work, Custom, Fabrication, Fishing, GetOutdoors, Improviser, Modifications, Outdoors, Summertime, Vehicles, Wiring, Wrenching

New ATV Taillights.

Posted on July 21, 2017 by akadventurer

Well, brake lights anyway.

I’d had to take the stock brake/tail light off when I mounted the rear winch right where it had been.

Then the rear accessory recievers, and the bumper, and it left very little realestate for putting it back– Especially since it’s bulb housing is 4″ off the back of the light… It needs 6″ depth where I had rack cross bars at.

Had bought a 2″x3″ trailer marker light for this, but even it was a bit big to fit in the space I had left, and too thick to end up behind the bumper face.

Then, I remembered the marker lights that came with my big trailer, that were left over when I cheated and mounted reflectors instead. 1″x4″. Perfect for between rack and bumper, recessed from bumper face. Just so happens that the space between the frame rails there is 9.75″. Perfect for 2.

Made a mount bar from 1″x3/32″ 1095 bar stock.

Paint, mount lights, and mount between the frame rail tails with the upper bumper bolts.

(Ignore the scratched paint around holes… I scraped it up to ensure it all grounded.)

These lights are nice. They’re a base plate that mounts and wires, then a sealed water proof 2 bulb unit plugs/snaps onto the top. Should be easy to change when burnt out, but being sealed I can’t see them ever burning out very easilly.

I wired it to the brake light circuit, intending to later add another couple lights under the rack as constant on taillights.

I might end up just making one of these a taillight, leaving one a brakelight. Won’t be symmetrical anymore, but it would work! We’ll see. 🙂

Anyway, they’re pretty bright, here they are with the park brake locked, in daylight, on a bright sunny day.

Categories: ATV, ATV Accessories, Custom, Fabrication, Modifications, Vehicles, Wiring

ATV Turn Signals.

Posted on July 21, 2017 by akadventurer

This has been a long time in the works. I started ordering parts in early to mid June. Took about 3, 3.5 weeks for everything to come. Then I had to find time to start it…

Then decided I had to do the fuse block first, which took several days over last week. Now I’ve finally got the turn signals wired in, which also too a few days spread out over several total.

Covering the fuse block install and the turn signals, I believe I have about 50 hours in this wiring and mounting.

Yes, I’m epically slow at wiring!

Why turn signals? I dunno, just seemed like it’d be cool . 😎 Why not? (No, unlike in some states I can’t make a quad street legal in Alaska.)

When I get the second flasher hooked up and have hazard lights, that could have a practical use, for emergencies, or simply visibility. But, these I don’t really need–but who cares? 😉

I bought two styles of small cheap motorcycle turn signals, off ebay. Serriously, these things were about $5 a pair!

I originally intended the round ones for the rear, and the pointed ones for the front, to match a bumper bar angle.

But in the interim while waiting for them to come, I mounted the front bull bar, and changed the bar angles and openings..

Tuned out great though, I really think the look fits better this way.

I did the rears first, designed mounts, and spacing, working off the right side… Then got ready to mount the left side and realized it didn’t clear the rear winch motor. Oops.

Slight rearrangement, flipped the brackets side to side, and turned over, and a small angle, and it’s perfect!

The brackets are a simple angle iron, but at least 3″ on one leg… Not common, and especially not in my scrap bin..

I remembered some 2″x4″ rectangular tube I got from scrapping a BowFlex. Slightly bigger than what I wanted. Then again I remembered some other older tube I had, that is 1.75″X3″. Used that.

Cut off 1″ long, then split into two “L”s.

Worked great, being tubing made by forming then welding it up one side; It has a crease halfway along one long side.

That gave me a perfect locator to drill mount holes exactly the same distance from the end on both. The crease also worked as a centering locator on the front bumper tube, keeps it from twisting as easy. For the rears I used the other side Ls, that were flat and straight.

The rears mounted;

Bracket is on the lower bumper mount bolts, sandwiched between frame and bumper. Since these lights had ground wires, I ran them to the upper bumper bolts.

The fronts turned out to be really easy, using the exact same brackets, bolted to the bull bar, and angle trimmed to match it for looks.

And amazingly they ground! Even though that bar isn’t directly bolted on, it has great continuity! I didn’t have to use the ground wires I first installed. (These lights came setup to ground off their mount studs, I was adding wires.)

Yes, I’m an electronics techs’ nightmare lol. 😉 Looks worse than it is actually, it’s all cleanly routed together(as clean as possible without a bare frame to start with anyway), down each side of the wheeler, and zip tied off.

If I was installing everything at once it would get wire loom/covering… but I don’t have that luxury(kinda glad actually –that stuff is expensive!)

Hot wired test half way through;

Finally had to pull all the front plastic half way through… really wanted to do it with it on, but my hands are just too big.. lol.

Getting the wires from the switch pod tail run..

More progress;

Yeah, I even did indicator lamps. getting fancy here, I know! The custom dash in my truck doesn’t even have the indicators installed and it’s been 4 years since I put that in! Lol.

Finished, front;

And back(hard to see, but they’re there);

And dash/switches;

The other two switches on that pod are designed as a 2 position low/high light switch, and a momentary horn button.

When I get the hazard flasher wired in, I’m going to use the light switch for them. Simply leaving nothing on the “low” circuit for “off”, and “on” on the “high” beam position/circuit.

Not completely sure about the momentary button yet(working on an idea though!).

Categories: ATV, ATV Accessories, Automotive Work, Custom, EDC/MT use, Fabrication, Improviser, Modifications, Vehicles, Wiring, Wrenching

ATV Auxiliary Fuse Block

Posted on July 16, 2017 by akadventurer

I got tired of running everythi g straight off the battery… Was running out of space for the wires around the terminals too.

A lot you don’t get to see here, like removal of the front inner fenders, pulling the rack and tank cover, and routing wires…

I have it now run as;

Battery-> main fuse-> key switch-> signal into relay->

And the battery-> relay(switched)-> fuse panel.

I tapped the keyed hot wire that I previously tapped for winch switch signal, -what was the speedometer power wire-.
That activates an 80A relay. The relay hot activates a heavy 10ga wire from the battery, to the new fuse block. I didn’t have one on hand, so later I need to add a heavy 60A or 70A fuse between the battery and the relay.

Relay wiring;

Battery box wiring, fuse for relay activation is the black spade holder center frame.

Relay next to battery

Also found that even with key off, I have 0.10V after the relay… It’s bleeding power. But there is no amperage there, so no drain, it’s fine. (Or so my electronics technician friend tells me 😉 ).

The box will also house a switch panel when I’m done, thus it’s placement on the fender(and honestly it’s getting hard to find places to put wiring on this thing!)

When done I’ll have that fancy split wire loom/cover stuff on the wires. Will also silicone seal all box holes, and some connections.

Categories: ATV, ATV Accessories, Custom, Modifications, Vehicles, Wiring

Waterproof switch not included.

Posted on June 13, 2017 by akadventurer

Woke up in the middle of the night a couple nights ago to a weird screetchy, grinding sound outside… Ran out in the pouring rain to find my new atv winch running! The switch was in the off position (it’s spring loaded/momentary) too.

I tapped the button, and it stopped.

Disconnected the battery, and pushed it into the shop.

Long story short, what I’m pretty sure happened, was that the switch on this one Isn’t rubber booted, nor apparently waterproof…(how did I not notice that before??)

It got soaked in the rain, leaked, and shorted out.

And the winch just kept running even while binding up and jamming the heck out out of the cable because I had it direct wired to the battery. Hadn’t gotten around to putting in the circuit breaker I got for it (didn’t come with one!).

I’m pretty sure that that kind of drag and heavy load on it, heavy amperage draw would have tripped a breaker and stopped it. Oops.

Was a real pain to sort that cable out!

Had to take the hook off, and feed it back and forth through and around the drum, working the loops and switchbacks out of it by hand.. all 40′ of it! Ugh.

I thank God it did it when it did though… I was home, and I had the bedroom windows open. With the windows closed I doubt it would have woke me. Or if I’d been gone, either way it could have ate the winch motor, or at least ran the battery dead… Wouldn’t have been good!

New waterproof switch is on its way now.

Categories: ATV, Automotive Work, Modifications, Outdoors, Wiring

ATV Rear Winch Install

Posted on June 4, 2017 by akadventurer

I started with the concept of a rear reciever, and mounting the winch on a hitch insert. But it stuck out way too far to be practical.

And, the reciever would have been a pain to work around to get into the trunk, even if trimmed.

So, I moved to above the trunk, behind the seat. Perfect open spot for it, just needed the tail light moved.

Had to scrounge a wider plate, to offset between the frame tails, and still have bolt realestate.

Made a mistake with the saw, cut too far. Twice. Erg.

The offset between the frame rails is to sit the winch and fairlead far enough back to clear the racks etc with the winch cable.

I LOVE this cutoff saw! Goes through 1/4″ plate like butter! Just gotta turn the lights off in the shop or it trips all the breakers.

Squaring it all up, laying out for holes.

Drilled.

I checked 3 times to make sure the winch cleared the bracket bolt heads. Oops.

Found a bar with holes that matched, cut to length, made a spacer.

Test assembly;

You will note here that it’s only u-bolts holding the plate in. It was super tight, and if it slid backwards the plate would hit thr curved up frame rails, ride up the curve, and tighten the u-bolts. But I wasn’t 100% happy with it.

So for the final install I drilled one hole on either side, through the plate and frame rail centers, and bolted it. Removed the two rear u-bolts in the process.

Bonus there is not having to worry about gouging my hand on the U-boat tails when I reach in for the spool freewheeling release.

Didn’t exactly like holes in the frame rails, but they’re small enough to not weaken it too much. While still big enough I think to keep the thing from going back under pull.

Plate re welded at the cuts, welds dressed flat, corners clipped and rounded, drilled, and painted. One of the nicest install brackets I’ve ever made, if I do say so myself!

I had to install the wiring twice. First time I got it all in, then tested the winch before bolt up… And it fried the relays.

3 hours later, after some research on relays, and about 75 texts with a buddy that’s an electronics tech, I finally found where it was wired wrong. ( that’s how it was pre wired as it came too!)

Had to take it all back out and lay it out, rewire it to match the existing wiring for the front winch. Works beautifully.

5 minute fix. Ha!

Then reroute/reinstall it all.

The relay bundle will almost fit in a small side area of the trunk.. This is a temporary setup to make sure I still don’t need to rewire again. Will fit it into its relay box it came with, and in turn into the side cubby hole later.

Wires out the side, gotta silicone the hole when I’m sure it’s setup permanently.

One set of wires crosses and goes into a drain hole in the battery box, to the battery. The other set goes up, over the trunk.

And outcome the winch…

My mess of wires while trouble shooting

The way someone wired it wrong…

Temporarily relocated the tail light. Need to build a bracket for it. (Cut the stock tabs off to clear the fairlead bracket)

Aaaannndd, two days, about 12 hours total work (amazing how long fabricating things can take!) It’s installed!

Categories: ATV, Automotive Work, Custom, Fabrication, Modifications, Outdoors, Vehicles, Welding, Wiring, Wrenching

So, a little ATV wiring…

Posted on April 30, 2016 by akadventurer

What I gouged my hands up doing… installing winch control wiring on my ATV.

From the switch on the handle bars, down to a keyed hot to actuate the switch relay; I got that on a accessory wire that was under the front fenders.

Then winch main switch wires back along the inside of the frame to the relay box I put at the battery.

And that relay box turned out to be too big to fit where I wanted it next to the battery… (ALWAYS check your plans before running the wires! LOL )

Took apart the box, and sure enough it’s a wired set of relays, all bundled up stuffed in a water tight box… with twice the air space wasted..

I chucked the box 😉 and the bundle fit perfectly in the battery compartment.

THEN did it all over again;
running the hot wires from the battery foreward along the same path to the front bumper for the winch motor.

Whole thing only took about 4.5 to 5 hours, including reassembling the fenders… Yeah. Plus 1 hour before hand just chasing the accessory wires to begin with..

FUN. 😉

Easiest part was taking apart the front and taking the fenders off… actually amazed me how easy it is to get the plastic off this quad! (2009 Kawasaki Prairie 360)

And it is amazing, the owners manual says there are accessory wires at the rear, under the fender by the tool box (actually great, two sets, one constant power, and one keyed power!) But doesn’t mention the front set of wires.

And the service manual doesn’t mention Either set! Except on the wiring diagrams, the rear set is marked.

EDIT; ok, I found the front set on the wiring diagrams in the service manual… It’s either the provided wires for the non-USA model speedometer, or the non-USA and non-Canada Horn. (Really? A stock horn on an ATV? That’d be cool! 😆😎)

Given the location, and that it lacked a green signal wire for the speedometer, I think it’s the horn wires.

Categories: Alaska-Life, ATV, Automotive Work, Modifications, Vehicles, Wiring, Wrenching

Wiring

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