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I can just see the reactions when you drive up and other folks on the trail are just confused even further... 
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Jul 3, 2021 21:51
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Ha ha, that already happens. I need to take this thing to the Gambler 500 next year.
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Jul 3, 2021 22:36
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 Sienna Handbrake To Do 1) Design mounting plate for handbrakes. 12mm thick aluminum plate attached to the unibody with rivnuts. Some kind of mechanical lockout on the brake levers, like this. Also maybe some flourishes: I'm thinking of getting the mounting plate anodized blue, then running it through the cnc machine a second time to cut the SIENNA emblem out of the blue background. Or maybe anodize it beige to match the interior? What is the pantone code for Toyota's beige carpet? I also need to think about some kind of center console / cupholder thing. The brakes will block the stock foldout cupholders, so I want to 3D print something that can hold cups, and maybe also a fire extinguisher and some ham radio gear. This is more of a future project, so for now I'm just including some threaded holes in the mounting plate and maybe running a duct for electrical wiring into the engine bay. (Yes, it's an offroading minivan, of course it needs cup holders. I want a cupholder that can hold a quart of gatorade.) 2) Find a place to run the 4 bulkhead fittings through the firewall. Lead contender is directly forward, behind that lower dash compartment/vent below the radio. I'm hoping that I can avoid pulling the intake manifold to access the engine side of the firewall, but that might need to happen. 3) Making brake lines. Bending tubing and such. I think this is the easy part? It's a lot of drat brake line, though. I'm adding something like 20 ft of new line and not removing any old line. 4) Braided brake lines? I guess now would be the time to do it, since I have to bleed the system anyway. But other than that, there is no commonality with the main handbrake project, which doesn't touch the calipers. I'm not sure if pedal feel is something I care about in an offroad minivan.
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Jul 4, 2021 01:40
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This rules. Talk about an inspirational test-fit.
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Jul 4, 2021 03:02
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You are going to need to paint those things beige or buy more racer red stuff 
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Jul 4, 2021 03:13
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That's loving awesome. Can I suggest making the cupholders large enough to hold a 1L nalgene bottle? It drives me nuts that almost no cars will hold mine.
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Jul 4, 2021 03:42
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Omg it's better than I had ever hoped. Godspeed.
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Jul 4, 2021 03:53
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ryanrs posted:Hydraulic Handbrakes This is so awesome I'm glad I could help.
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Jul 4, 2021 04:14
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This. Is. Amazing!
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Jul 4, 2021 15:40
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OK! Today is the day I pull the battery (because of airbags), take apart the lower dash, and probably don't run the van again until the handbrake project is done. But before I do that, I took a few pics of the bumper situation to email to my fabrication shop.    
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Jul 4, 2021 22:27
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Someone make a Red Dress / Blue Dress meme with Bender Rodriguez caught between them
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Jul 4, 2021 23:22
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This job is like an unholy combo of rear bank spark plugs + heater core replacement. The hardest part is probably going to be getting to the drat firewall.      Where's the loving firewall, Lebowski? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZSRkuhPzuI
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Jul 5, 2021 18:45
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  Day 2: Screwdriver Remorse Gonna push through it, though! I might have pulled out more dash than was strictly necessary, but it has helped a lot in planning this out. If I can go through the firewall up high, then I won't need to gently caress around deep in the engine bay. But to get to the top of the dash, you have to pull out a ton of crap, even on a 20 year old car. I can't imagine what it's like on a new car. I figure if I can get it put back together by the end of the week, I should be able to remember where most of the screws and wires go.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:02
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ryanrs posted:I figure if I can get it put back together by the end of the week, I should be able to remember where most of the screws and wires go. But it’s always going to rattle now.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:04
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Krakkles posted:If it’s anything like my experiences, you’ll get it back together regardless of time. Also with a handful of extra hardware, and at least one instance of putting the long screw in a short screw place and having a short screw that doesn't reach somewhere else.
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Jul 6, 2021 20:07
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Krakkles posted:But it’s always going to rattle now. And speaking of extra hardware, my 3D printed polycarbonate bulkhead-fittings-holder arrived today:  
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Jul 6, 2021 20:50
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Krakkles posted:But it’s always going to rattle now. Nahhhhh there's a fix for that. Amazon a couple rolls of felt tape. put a little bit on every plastic to plastic junction where the two different parts meet. Its what oems of luxoshitboxes do.
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Jul 6, 2021 21:47
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The 2000 Sienna used little incandescent lights to light up the dash, gauge cluster, etc. About 1/3 are burned out on my van. Do I replace with OEM bulbs, or are there good LED conversion kits out there? I don't care about RGB colors, etc. I should probably just keep using tungsten bulbs, even though they feel positively primitive in 2021.
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Jul 6, 2021 22:02
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I much prefer the look / brightness of LED, and there's a number of good brands out there. My go-to (on a meatpimp recommendation) for external lights is Sylvania ZEVO, but I'm not sure if they'll make whatever interior bulbs you need. Top reviewed items on amazon have usually served me well, too. I'm also a fan of converting everything possible to red lights, to preserve night vision, but *shrug*
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Jul 6, 2021 22:11
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I replaced every single bulb in my Crown Vic with Amazon/eBay LEDs, and the only one that gives me trouble is the on lighting up the "LIGHTS" nameplate for the headlight switch, the irony. Going on 3, 4? years. I don't regret any of them. I'll replace the LIGHTS one eventually - I had to modify that one with longer leads, because its deep set into the housing. Currently it's just flickering a lot. Just look up on Sylvania's site what bulbs your gauges, etc. use, and buy a bunch of white ones if you want the stock appearance, or colored ones if you want a different color (or eliminate the colored socks, if that's what yours already has.) My Vic uses little 194s all over, so it's easy, but there's an LED version of everything, even the tiny little twist in T3 and T4 bulbs typically used in instrument clusters.
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Jul 6, 2021 22:32
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Absolutely upgrade to LEDs. Go with Sylvania over whitebox branded ones. I've had some that were hit or miss and the dimmer doesn't work quite as good.
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Jul 6, 2021 22:38
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Thanks for the LED advice. I'm not seeing Sylvania-brand 2721 LED replacement bulbs, only their tungsten bulbs. But there are loads of mystery Chinese sellers! Poking through the Amazon listings, it's clear that some designs contain bridge rectifiers while others say:quote:Easy to install, if the LED does not light up, simply Rotating it 180 degrees (reverse the polarity)." Not so easy when you're replacing dash lights.
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Jul 7, 2021 02:14
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They're in the little quarter turn sockets right? You'll probably have to half-assed hook it up to test, that does sound like a pain in the rear end.
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Jul 7, 2021 02:48
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Nah, I'll just by the ones with a built-in steering diodes. Kudos to the manufacturer for spending the extra $0.03 more so I don't have to take apart my dash twice. What do I do with this sound insulation stuff? It's thick and heavy, like tar paper but it's not tar paper. It's some plastic or rubber sound deadening sheet.   Do I plunge cut it with a utility knife, or take apart more of the dash until I can peel it back from the edge (I don't even know if that's possible). I want to peek behind it because I can tell it's not flat against the sheet metal. I may have to ditch the firewall bulkhead idea and pass the four brake lines through one big grommet. There just isn't a lot of free space to mount a line of bulkhead fittings.
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Jul 7, 2021 02:57
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Darchangel posted:I replaced every single bulb in my Crown Vic with Amazon/eBay LEDs, and the only one that gives me trouble is the on lighting up the "LIGHTS" nameplate for the headlight switch, the irony. Wait, that lights up? I guess I have ONE bulb out on my dash...
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Jul 7, 2021 04:58
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Well that escalated quickly. Man I hate taking dashboards apart. Bear in mind that the sheetmetal may not be a single layer and there's a high chance you're looking at the back face of the wiper linkage and hvac intake plenum area not the back of the firewall if you go through higher up. Check carefully before making holes, I'm sure you can avoid it easily enough... If you think to look at all. I don't think the previous owner of my truck did, the spot he ran his brake light switch wiring through is right where the wiper linkage swings.
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Jul 7, 2021 06:40
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For those rubber mats it depends on how miserable it is to get out. If it looks easy I'll poke a small hole and center punch through it so I can cut a hole out of the car and have it line up with where I drill. If it looks like a pain to remove or will get torn up in the attempt I'll cut a square out with a razor blade.
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Jul 7, 2021 14:16
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Some googling suggests it's made of butyl rubber. If so, then I can cut it up as much as I want and then glue it all back together with contact cement and more rubber, right? My 37 degree flaring tool arrived yesterday, so maybe it's time to shove some brake lines in, wherever I can fit them.
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Jul 7, 2021 20:58
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Enough dilly-dallying, let's stick the utility knife in here: There's some clearance in this area because of a big sheet metal fold/weld just above. This area was filled with foam.  This is what it looks like on the engine side.  Because of the limited clearance under the dash, I'm going to put the 90 degree bulkhead fitting elbow-side in, with the long straight section sticking into the engine bay. I'm pretty sure I have enough clearance that the intake manifold won't crush the brake lines, even if the front engine mount gives up. kastein posted:Bear in mind that the sheetmetal may not be a single layer This is the case! But they're really close to each other, and flat. Before I install the plumbing, I'll thread some 3/8" bolts through the holes and crank them super tight, flattening it out even more. ryanrs posted:I'm not seeing Sylvania-brand 2721 LED replacement bulbs, only their tungsten bulbs. OK, I found the Sylvania T-10 / 194 LED bulbs; they look good. But I'm not seeing any name-brand T-5 2721 bulbs for the warning lights: check engine, low gas, oil pressure, etc. I only see no-name Chinese LED lights for the small size bulbs.
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Jul 8, 2021 03:40
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Can I daisy-chain two of these together, directly? I think the answer is yes, but the flare cones don't really look like precision surfaces. I can feel the circumferential machine marks with my fingernail. Is there really enough compliance in the steel fitting to create a seal just from cranking the nut down tightly? It kinda feels like there should be a crush washer or something in between. I'm trying to get a tighter radius on the engine side than I can get from just bending tubing.
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Jul 8, 2021 04:14
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You can but the more pressing issue is that with no soft metal in between, you aren't going to have much, if any clocking choice. When it stops turning that's where it lives.
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Jul 8, 2021 06:25
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The collar rotates on the fitting.
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Jul 8, 2021 07:21
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The taper appears to make that a JIC fitting. I don't know about the quality of the particular fittings you got, but its *supposed* to seal via the taper, so you should be fine.
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Jul 8, 2021 07:33
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Oops, yeah I forgot to mention it's a JIC / AN fitting, 37 degree flare, plated steel. Well this all sounds reasonable, thanks for everyone's feedback. Gonna start drilling some holes in my car tomorrow.
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Jul 8, 2021 08:15
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ryanrs posted:The collar rotates on the fitting. Jesus. I don't know how I missed that, it's visible right in the picture.
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Jul 8, 2021 20:01
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Bulkhead fittings are in   The fitting ends aren't well aligned in the engine bay because the firewall is two sheets of steel with some black plastic/tar stuff in between. This area of the firewall isn't flat, and I couldn't really make it flat because of the gunk. Oh well. One minor fuckup is the rivnuts wanted to expand between the two sheets of steel. I decided I didn't care rather than wait until Monday for another McMaster order. Those bolts are only to hold in the white plastic piece, which itself is just an assembly aid. Brake line routing plans On the interior, it's going to swoop down behind the A/C evaporator, behind the radio, and straight out along that clear strip of floor. I can't pull any of the A/C components without draining the refrigerant (even the blower!). But there's a gap behind the modules and I can see plenty of light. I'm thinking of wrapping the brake lines in plastic spiral loom to stop them from rattling against each other.  In the engine bay, they'll go through a 90 degree elbow, then along those other hoses to the ABS actuator near the brake master cylinder. I might not even need the elbow.   To Do 1) Finish designing the mounting plate. Waiting on a quick release pin that arrives tomorrow. I probably won't send it to manufacturing until sometime next week, then wait 2-4 weeks to get it made, depending on how much extra $$ I want to pay. 2) Make brake lines. 3) LED dash lights upgrade. 4) Install handbrakes, bleed system, check for leaks. 5) Reassemble dash/entire car. 6) Test drive? I really want to start putting the dash back together sooner, but I don't think that's a great idea.
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Jul 9, 2021 00:42
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Did you pick up those tubing bending pliers? I got some really nice tight 90 and 180 bends with them. The trick is to walk em down the bend as you go, don't try to bend the whole thing at once. Make four 22 degree bends instead of one 90.
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Jul 9, 2021 02:04
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StormDrain posted:Make four 22 degree bends instead of one 90. This guy didn't go to math school.  Kidding aside this has been a weird and fun read. Suburban Dad fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jul 9, 2021 |
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Jul 9, 2021 02:19
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Suburban Dad posted:This guy didn't go to math school. Round to the nearest even.  Yes I bought the pliers, but they're taking their time shipping it. It'll be a week or so.
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Jul 9, 2021 02:54
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| # ? May 25, 2024 13:35 |
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ryanrs posted:OK, I found the Sylvania T-10 / 194 LED bulbs; they look good. But I'm not seeing any name-brand T-5 2721 bulbs for the warning lights: check engine, low gas, oil pressure, etc. I only see no-name Chinese LED lights for the small size bulbs. I know the check engine light in particular has the possibility to piss off the ECU if it's replaced with an LED. On my 95 Civic, the CEL stayed dimly lit/flickering whenever the engine was running, but only when I had an LED in it.
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Jul 9, 2021 04:10
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