Track Truck – repairs done, now the mods start.

11 January 2015 David Leave a comment

With the required repairs to make it run complete, now the work on mods to get it from a former runner of illegal immigrants, to functional (if not nice) micro toy-hauler can begin.

Flooring

After doing some research at the San Jose International Car Show, I’m now more convinced the flooring found in the van is a factory original. As such, I’ve decided to re-use it.

Next to the flooring are two rolls of recycled industrial No-VOC carpets (6’x9′) that are enough to carpet the floor of the van, probably all the way to the firewall if I decided to go that far with it.

Audio / Communications

Having used the existing stereo briefly, I quickly found it’s navigation horribly complicated and it’s general performance underwhelming. Plus, it has a CD player in it.. might as well have an 8-track too. So that was removed, and a new (and very INexpensive Kenwood head with built-in Blutooth, and both Apple and Android music interface capabilities.

Having found the unit jammed in there fairly tightly, I ended up going a little medieval on the dash:

Having pulled all these parts off ended up making it MUCH simpler to route the Blutooth microphone (required for drivers making phone calls here in Nanny-State Kalifornica). I also noticed that the framework under the dash was painted a bright yellow, not at all like the read the rest of the van is painted.

Instructions for mounting the microphone were not at all clear, in fact there was only a single small diagram showing it mounted on top of the steering column. Huh? Screw that I said.. and ripped the left side A pillar cover off and mounted the microphone up at the top of the window, pointing at the driver. I hope that was not a big mistake. I’m sure I’ll test this soon and find out!

Running wires down the A-pillar and through the dash was easy enough, but getting from the lower section of the dash up to the top was not exactly obvious. Using a tool not at all designed for the job, often makes things simpler. 🙂 Here I used it to fish the microphone wire up and over the pedal box and long another wire loom, eventually appearing under the HVAC environmental controls.

One there, the wrong tool was once again used to fish the wire up to the top section of the dash (removing the cover around the dash vents makes like a lot easier). Viola… easy as cake.

Not being a fan of rattles, and especially in the dash area, the wire loom was tightly bundled, and once inserted into the dash, the head unit’s rear section was zip-tied to the dash structure as seen. Probably should have used grey or black wraps but…. I’m going to call this a design test.. yeah, that’s the ticket.. This radio is much tighter in the dash that the other install, and that’s OK by me.

Decal Removal

This is nearly complete. There are patches of left over adhesive I need to remove, but the nasty and ugly decals (save a couple that I just might leave) are GONE!! Thank you Magic Eraser!!

More Interior Cleanup

With some help from the family, we removed A LOT of USPS shipping tape stuck to the ceiling of the truck. Purpose? WHO KNOWS!??! but it was all over the place and Debby just couldn’t stand it.

So while she was busy peeling the tape, A.J. and I unscrewed all of the interior panels and removed them from the van. Once able to inspect the the bodywork from the inside, I’m even more convinced that a diamond in the rough is what I have here. No signs of rust or any type of body work / repairs. If it wasn’t so loud, I’d be tempted to just leave the interior just like this!

iPhone Integration

One of the features of the head unit, is iPhone (and Android) integration. This I wanted to test out. Thankfully it just worked. One press of the button to change input to USB, about 60 seconds to sync with the phone and store it’s ID, and bang.. music starts playing.

Here I have WAZE up and running on the screen while the music app drops the bass.

That was enough for one day… many more days of work on this to come.

automotive, Trucking, YouTube

Track Truck LIVES – Alternator replacement completed

9 January 2015 David Leave a comment

This really shows it all:

The work was not difficult, but it was a little time consuming to get to the upper most rear bolt, and also to remove the turbo resonator. To do so actually required a 1/4″ spanner wrench to operate on the small E8 TORX head bolts.

To properly address the repair, intake tract has to be removed from the passenger (right) side of the engine. Here you see the parts removed, which include the intake hose, turbo resonator and output hose to intercooler, along with the heat shield.

Here is the intake hose and turbo resonator that were removed.

Replacement rebuilt alternator, ready to install!

Close up of the “fiddly bolts” you will encounter doing this work. The larger of the two (there are 4 of these to deal with) use and E12 TORX Socket (seen below the bolt). The smaller of them (there are 2 of these) use an E6 TORX socket, however a 1/4″ wrench works better due to the confined space.

A little closer picture of the turbo sands intake hoses.

To easily move the belt tensioner, I found it simplest to just disconnect this hose at the intake (don’t lose the locking clip!), making the turning of the socket wrench on tensioner stud much less of a hassle.

Intake tract and post-intercooler high-pressure hose.

Another part of the system that can fail, are the high-AMP fuses that are located in a black box next to the battery. Here is that box.

Location of high-AMP fuses for T1N Dodge Sprinter

Inside the high-AMP box are a set of specialty fuses. It’s generally reported that the dealership is the only source of these fuses, and they are not commonly stocked, so it might be a good idea to order a few ahead of time “just in case” as this is not an rare failure point.

Grounds are also an issue on these trucks. This is a main body ground, located right above the battery. In this photo the negative ground is still disconnected from the Alternator replacement service.

Chassis groun; one of the many possible causes of a failing electrical system.

Another of the highly suspect grounds can be found (again on the driver side) down at the engine mount, and connecting back to the chassis. Both of these grounding points should be carefully examined.

Engine ground strap; one of the various possible causes of Dodge Sprinter electrical maladies.

automotive, Trucking

Track Truck – first repair attempts

8 January 2015 David Leave a comment

At the beginning of the week, the new truck broke down outside of town. After some fighting we got it back to the garage for diagnostics.

Once running again after purchasing a new battery charger and hours of fiddling, it was clear the battery was junk.

Testing battery and charging system performance.

It looked like a cheapo battery, and it had no date indicators on it to clue me in to it’s age. Regardless…

Once a new battery was obtained, it was then possible to truly test the remainder of the charging system, namely the alternator.

Having started up the van easily with the new battery, checking voltage across the terminals showed that the rest of the charging system was in failure. This could have killed the battery during our repeated jump-starts to get it back home. Might have just been cheaper to tow it (note to self).

Lack of charging can be result of multiple issues other than a bad alternator in the Sprinters. The most common culprit are bad grounds. There are several on the driver (left in USA) side of the engine room that need to be checked.

main chassis ground just above the battery negative terminal
engine main ground on the left side engine mount, connected to the frame rail in the same area
control system and accessory points below the battery near the headlamp

Having checked all those and cleaned them for good measure, the next easy win is checking the alternator fuse. On the sprinter there is a large plastic block bolted to the battery cable lead connector. From that block runs several high-amp wires (red) and one very large black wire, which heads to the alternator (this is the main charging feed). Inside this block there are plastic fuses of various amperage, high amperage, including a 200A fuse on the charging system side. This fuse is next checked for continuity to ensure that it is not open, and thus causing the charging system to fail.

Having inspected that, and seeing that it is in tact, the next avenue of investigation is the alternator itself.

Following the acquisition of some TORX Sockets (female, not male), sizes E12 and E6 where required, and about 1 hour of pulling parts to access top and bottom of the alternator, the item was removed.

Turbo charger as seen from top in Dodge 3500 Sprinter (intake and outflow piping removed).

Dodge 3500 Sprinter intake and turbo outflow parts

Tomorrow I will be picking up a rebuilt alternator for around $210. Hopefully that brings the fun-van back to life!

automotive, Trucking

Track Truck Breakdown — failure #1

5 January 2015 David Leave a comment

I guess it was bound to happen, but after only 4 days? This might not bode well for my project.

While out making this test video…

I lost the electrical system out in the boondocs of Hwy1, with not a 2×4 of civilization in sight.

By the time rescue (wife) arrived, it was dark. Having lost my jumper cables during the last move (how do such things disappear, my battery charger went MIA as well) we had a quick scramble to acquire another set! Lucky for me, Ace hardware was still open at 5:30PM on Sunday and they had a bad-ass set of 4ga 20′ “Mechanics Grade” jumper cables. 🙂

Back up Hwy1 we went for what turned out to be a rather hair raising series of events to get it back into town. Long and short of it.. here are the highlights:

required three road-side jumpstarts
van lost all lighting, and got stuck in 2nd gear on a 2-lane section of Hwy1, in the dark (max speed 30 MPH)
there are NO lights on Hwy1, so if you have no headlights are 7:00 PM, it’s pretty freaking dark out there
Sprinters do all sorts of weird things when the voldage drops below 10v, including many warning lights, things turning themselves on and off on whim, and locking the shifter into park, just to name a few
pushing a 5000 lb Sprinter is mostly a no-op

Back at the shop, some diagnostics were attempted, but without a way to charge the battery, it too was a rather hopeless affair. I’d need to get a proper battery charger and work on this again another day.

automotive, Motorcycles, Trucking, YouTube

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 3

4 January 2015 David Leave a comment

Another day, another pile of pictures. Today was more of a ‘get things done’ day than the rest. Here is how things are looking:

Removing the flooring

Having already removed the rear 8′ section, to find that the van’s floor already has sound damping material laid out upon it. Awesome! 😀 This means a lot less expense in re-doing the floor, since that won’t have to be done.

It was quite a mess under the flooring, so some multi-purpose cleaner and brush were put to work cleaning things up.

Starting the application of the sound deadening material to the wheel wells. First sections were easy enough, the sides, not so easy though.

In the following image, you can see the channels where passenger seat brackets would bolt to the floor. A cargo van this is, obviously those parts are not in place. They are on my list of things to do when converting this to my version of a Toy Hauler.

Next up was a mounting system for a navigation solution. I was shown this cool system at a local car audio shop, so I bought 3 (one for each car)!

I’m not ready to pony up for dedicated GPS, and I had this Android table with celluare LTE that cost me 99cents… and it was just looking for a good home. Now it will have one.

Below is what the mount looks like. Just a magnetic pad with a rubber fact to keep the device from moving around too much.

For now, the Android phablet thingy will be powered from a 12v lighter adapter. When I get a new head unit installed with USB power, this cable will be hard-wired into the dash, or some other more suitable solution. As is, it’s within reach, has power, and is ready to nav!

Adding one of the little steel plates by my iPhone, it too can serve as navigation, audio source, entertainment, whatever need be. This is the coolest product for using mobile devices in a car that I’ve seen yet!

Software Development, Technology

PHP single vs. double quotes what’s the diff?

4 January 2015 David Leave a comment

Using single vs. double quotes when handling strings in PHP (and code in general). This article is a re-hash of experimentation done about 6 years ago with PERL. It was very clear that unless you have a VERY compelling reason to use double-quotes with strings.. you shouldn’t do it.

Some people will ask.. “Why, what’s the diff”? Well, simply put.. double quoted string are more work for interpreted code languages such as PERL and PHP (and possibly others too, but I’ve never tested them). Compiles languages should not be subject to such unfortunate circumstance.

The Short of it

Using double quotes vs. single quotes in string copies or setting will cost you and extra processing time (proofs follow).

However, when it comes to variable substitutions, that’s where you’ll see more of the speed benefit, when not forcing PHP to interpret the string looking for variables to substitute.

Although, one interested finding after multiple test runs was that bounding the variable with brackets does not offer a consistent benefit, and often it’s a slight loss of speed.

Here is the raw comparison of the following string copies (heavily iterated):

The Raw Data

$x = “THIS IS A STRING” 1.336
$x = ‘THIS IS A STRING’ 1.187
$x = “THIS IS A STRING $i” 3.004
$x = “THIS IS A STRING ${i}” 3.015
$x = “THIS IS A ${i} STRING” 3.448
$x = ‘THIS IS A STRING’.$i 2.647
$x = ‘THIS IS A ‘.$i.’ STRING’ 3.488

automotive, Motorcycles, Track Bike Project, travel, Trucking

Sprinter 3500 Track Project – Day 2

3 January 2015 David 1 Comment

If it fit’s you must use it!

Barely, but it does fit. Now to paraphrase Quinn “You’re going to need a bigger garage.”. It would seem so… or external storage lot (there are a few around).

Bought this fancy Magic Eraser thing to try and remove the plethora of hideous graphics on the van. It was $14 at the local auto parts store, I bought both of the ones they had. Sorry, didn’t take a photo of it, yet.

After a few hours of grinding off decals from the driver’s door.. it’s looking just a tiny bit better!

Taking a break from vinyl / decal / sticker removal, I started to measure out the interior of the van for how things are might fit. First was measuring off the back doors to see how far the track bikes will intrude into the cargo area (7′ 6″ minimum). The black line is where it will likely end.

Van has a cargo floor with several anchor points. Good for hauling gear, bad for adding a 2nd seat row as I’m currently planning.

With a lot of 10 year old halogen lighted vehicles, the plastic lenses age, yellow and during into little more than a diffuser. Not good for night time driving. A kit was “On Sale” at a chain auto parts store (I later saw it for the exact same product at another locally owned parts store for the same daily price).

About an hour of sanding on both lights and polishing netted a decent result. I think I need to spend more time working on these lights, it’s still not a like-new effect.

Much more work to be done to bring this thing back to a more presentable condition.

automotive, Track Bike Project, Trucking

Sprinter 3500 Track Project- Day 1

2 January 2015 David Leave a comment

It’s January 1, 2015. Not only is it a new day, and a new year, but a new project.

It’s Project Track Truck. Prepping for the next season of track days begins now, with the end of a 3 month search for the desired track vehicle. After much deliberation, waffling, searching (including writing software to find these elusive beasts at less than insane prices), missing out deals…. I finally (think) I have it.

A 2004 Dodge Sprinter 3500 Long WB, High Roof, Extended Box. Yeap, it’s as big as big and heavy duty as they came in 2004.

With a GVW Rating of 9990 lb., this is just a couple of happy meals shy of a commercial vehicle. Powered by a 154 HP, 5-cylinder diesel engine (yes, it’s forced induction by way of turbocharger). It’s no sports car, and it’s also not very pretty. In fact, I believe the first words out of the Mrs. mouth were: “Holy crap, that thing is ugly. Have you lost your mind?”

Perhaps… but it’s my mind to lose (I think), and this is how I plan to do it.

Cleaning it up

Later in the day, I assembled a crack cleaning crew, consisting of myself and my 12 y.o. son. We embarked upon a clean-up effort to remove the gruesome letting from the van.

After nearly 4 hours of labor, a trip to the hardware store, and some failed ideas.. we were able to mostly clean up the passenger door and the two rear doors.

It might not seem like much, but it was some progress, and even though I might still shudder when visible in daylight, for now, at the moment, at night… with poor lighting.. it almost looks OK.

Economy, Entrepreneurship, Technology

Is Google looking at a rough 2015?

18 December 2014 David Leave a comment

Interesting read about possibly looming troubles for Google. I will say that in the past I used Google to look for products, but most of the items I found that way were from shaky looking distributors, or links to Amazon, where I found they had a very competitive price.

Perception is reality, my personal perception is that Amazon is a trustworthy enough for me to buy from them. Over the last few months I’ve simply quit Googling for products and checked Amazon first, and only using Google if I felt that Amazon didn’t offer the product or the price was more than I wanted to pay.

Google’s stocks have taken a dive recently. It was a rocky 2014 but the last month has seen a nose dive in stock trading value:

That’s not all. As the Mercury News (headquartered in Silicon Valley) reported last month, FireFox has dropped Google as it’s default search engine:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26971412/firefox-drops-google-yahoo-default-search-engine

Here is a link to an opinion piece on LinkedIn that discusses this further:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/googles-very-rough-transition-nicholas

Santa Cruz, travel, YouTube

Videos from Winter Storm in Santa Cruz. 11-DEC-2014

12 December 2014 David Leave a comment

Some video motoring around in Santa Cruz, CA. during our first real rain storm in years.
Sands blowing around at Santa Cruz Harbor.

Video action along West Cliff Drive that same morning.

Finally some rainfall upon our parched earth.

David DeMartini actual