What did you do to your SMB today?

[adventureduo]

Ouch!

[FISHBREATH]

Nice.............bondo works on wood too........





FB

[NRL]

For Us (Buddy and I).. It was about amp meters, shunts and Solar Panels this weekend.. Sent the Wife and Kids shopping and got down to business.

Added second panel and remount rewire.. Kyocera KC130GT (thinner then TM's)

Actually took 3 days with all the mocking up, up and down the ladders, marking, cutting, drilling, testing, b*tching, etc..


It was more like a re-do since we had to move the original one down to fit and fabricate a partial aluminum sub anchor frame to secure and lock everything down with new stainless steel bolts and nuts (all the way - removed and replaced original non-stainless Penthouse bolts and nuts holding the top - 10 of em long ones).

Without my Buddy's help, it would have been impossible.
It was a B*tch but it's done..

Amps: 14-16amps peak (12Volts) from those two Panels with the sun directly overhead.

[deminimis]

That's impressive. I'd like to do that, but think I'll whimp out and just buy a generator.

Last couple of days I've been working my my shock swap. Its coming along nicely.

[DUKCSUN]

Numerous projects underway were finished today:

As I posted a couple of days ago, I added dynamat and dynaliner to the fridge in the hopes of achieving both a quieter fridge and a better insulated one that didn't have to run as often.

I also finished my fly rod holder under the passenger side penthouse top channel. It works awesome. I've had it in a semi-state of completion for the whole fishing season so I figured I should take the plunge.

We installed not one, but TWO weather stations in the van. I put one receiver right next to my head on the drivers' side pillar and the other, more robust receiver back above the sink. I mounted one transmitter on the swing-away spare bracket like others have done. However the "big" receiver wouldn't fit there so I put it up and under the penthouse top right next to the thrid brake light bracket. That should get it out of the weather for the most part and not be TOO off from being so close to the inside. I wanted one that had sunrise and sunset readings for hunting season as well as an alarm clock, which is nice.

We also removed all the "goo" from the wheels that was left when I had the tires rebalanced. They had about 7 inches of weights on the outside trying to get them balanced so I finally got around to using a little "goo be gone" and took it off.

Next project, VOLTMETER! ugh.

[scatter]

Well, this wasn't really what I did today, but actually last Friday just before we headed south to Baja. I decided to change the filters on the transmission. The '07s with the diesel have two. An external and an internal. Simple job. The external is just a matter of grabbing a wrench and unscrewing the "can" that holds the filter, removing the old one, checking the O-ring, cleaning out the "can", dropping in the new filter and screwing the whole thing back on. My rig has 23,000 miles on it and the external filter was dirty! It was all black without a hint of pink from the trans fluid.
The internal filter involves draining the fluid (around two gallons), dropping the pan, pulling the old filter down, checking to be sure the seal came out with the filter (it didn't), and pushing the new filter in place. Also, clean out the pan and pull off and clean the doughnut type magnet around the drain plug. Mine was dirty with a few very small metal filings on it. The fluid was nice and clean in the pan. The gasket is resuable and you just bolt the pan back in place, add about 8 quarts of SP fluid and drive off. (Be sure to check the dipstick when it warms up)
As I mentioned, the external filter was dirty. Much more than I expected. I will be doing the external one every 10K as it's so easy.
Now the rig drives much better, shifts better and get almost 25MPG
Well, at least I feel better.

[deminimis]

Rear u-joints. Front u-joint u-bolts (on the rear driveline) were not real tight. When reinstalled, snugged them up better and used thread locker. Screwed up the rear u-joint (hung up on a needle bearing when assembling). First time I even buggered up one of those. So, front u-joint is new and rear is 3/4 new (grabbed a cap and bearngs from another to get it going). Need to order up a replacement tomorrow. Whether there was undetectable play in the u-joints of the not so snug u-bolts, a slight vibration that had developed (noticabe at the Atlas shifter) has gone.

It is much easier to use a 6" C clamp to press out and press in u-joint caps. Easier on everything than pounding on it with a 3# maul. A 6"C clamp is a good addition to you van's tool kit, in my opinion....just in case.

[PeasBugs]

Changed the oil and filters today. I only found 5 lube points (zerks) is that right or did I miss some?

[charlie56]

Originally Posted by PeasBugs

Changed the oil and filters today. I only found 5 lube points (zerks) is that right or did I miss some?

That is all I was able to find.

[PeasBugs]

Thanks for the reply I thought I was missing something. It took longer to search for additional zerks than actually do the work. I also broke my cheap filter wrench which held me up for awhile. I managed to drive a screwdriver thru the filter and spin it off. Snap-on makes a good 1/2" drive adjustable filter wrench that is a good buy.