From this past weekend. Harpers Ferry WV as seen from Maryland Heights.
John Brown's "Fort" is the building just above where the left set of tracks enters Harpers Ferry. It was originally located 150 feet to the right.
Undervan storage box continued:
With the tire carrier removed this is the view of the underside of the van floor. You can see that the floor is bowed slightly downward. No doubt caused when the original owner used it to carry heavy building materials.
Here is the area where I want to relocate the emissions canister. You're looking at the underside of the van forward of the rear axle on the drivers side.
There is a fair amount of room here but finding just the right place for the canister turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. Here was the main constraint. Near the top of this picture you can see a rectangular rubber bumper. Directly below it is the rear axle. Under extreme loading or hitting a bump at hight speed these two points could come in contact.
There is six inches between the two.
The problem with mounting the canister under the floor was to find a spot where it wouldn't contact the rear axle if that axle was to rise six inches. That greatly limits the number of places the canister can safely be mounted.
I couldn't find a good way to plan out where to install the canister but to just hold it up in there and keep moving it around till I thought I found the best spot. It's a cramped and dirty space and trying to maneuver and hold the canister while checking the measurements was a real pain. I ended up not being as careful as I should have been.
Found what I thought was a good spot.
Used a cardboard template that matched the bolts on the canister carrier and used that to mark the underneath of the van.
Removed the wood flooring and the insulating foam layer then pulled back the rubber mat exposing where I was going to be drilling. Some of the matting and insulation had been held in place by double sided tape. Will have to redo that when I'm done.
Drilled the holes from underneath and then did a test mount of the canister.
Measured the canister in relation to the rear axle and found out that I'd messed it up. I didn't have the six inches of clearance. Time to step back and regroup.
When in doubt, paint. Broke out my can of Rust Bullet rustproofing and got to work.
As a side note you can see in this picture that I've replaced the original rear exhaust hanger with a generic version from the local auto parts store.
Grind off the rust from the canister carrier then rustproof it.
The carrier had a hinged strap that held the canister in place. It was so badly rusted I removed it and replaced it with three screw clamps.
Find a new mounting spot for the canister that will clear the axle.
This new location is closer to the front of the van so both the electrical and vent lines that run to the canister have to be rerouted. The electrical line was fairly easy. Just used a loop to take up the extra slack and zip tied it in place.
The vent hoses took some more work. I replaced and shorted the vent hose.
With the hose rerouting I need to create a 180 degree turn. Took a piece of vent hose to the hardware store and asked that they had that fit it. Bought two brass elbows.
Used some sealant and screw clamps to make the 180.
Here's the 180 installed.
Be sure to install the canister so that the purge valve is at the top.
Hook everything back up.
Patch up the extra holes in the van floor with fiberglass reinforced Bondo. Didn't worry about smoothing it out since it's hidden.
I'd like to write that I didn't have to do anything else with the canister after this but I'd be lying.
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