2020 - What did you do to your wagon this week?

I figure other forums have this thread and it’s a good conversation starter so why shouldn’t we? Feel free to keep adding onto the thread.

Recently I pulled off and cleaned the throttle body. Small job overall but unbelievable results. My car was idling really low and sometimes shutting off when coming to a stoplight.
It also had a weird surge right at 50 mph. I previously replaced the PVC & grommet as well as fixed other potential vacuum leaks, but with no change in the issues decided I would delve a bit deeper. The thing was filthy! Used nearly a whole can of throttle body cleaner.
It clean up well though and works like a charm now. While off I also threw on a new air filter. Didn’t have the materials on hand to delete first base or to build a support for the air filter so that and a good engine bay cleaning will be my next step. Don’t worry, the cord holding the air filter in place is temporary! Haha

Your hood mount engine light is broken, mine is also. I do like that idea. Not many cars have one today.

Some years ago I bought new hood struts.

Your engine is missing the large roundish air damper silencer on the intake and the factory airbox.
I doubt those mods do anything performance wise.

I’m sure they don’t do anything other than make the motor louder which I’m okay with. I just like to see the actual motor. Hood struts normally work okay but this was a pretty cold day and I didn’t want the hood to fall on me so I stuck the 2x4 there for peace of mind.

sdowney717 wrote:

Your hood mount engine light is broken, mine is also. I do like that idea. Not many cars have one today.

Some years ago I bought new hood struts.

Your engine is missing the large roundish air damper silencer on the intake and the factory airbox.
I doubt those mods do anything performance wise.

I have engine compartment lenses, and entire lights.

sdowney717 wrote:

Your engine is missing the large roundish air damper silencer on the intake and the factory airbox.
I doubt those mods do anything performance wise.

Sure don't but that Home plate is FUGLY and the first thing that goes in the trash when I bring a wagon home. Same thing with the other ugly silencer. They were factory installed so Grandpa wouldn't be disturbed by engine noise while cruising in his barge.

I leave the stock air box though.

94Woody wrote:

sdowney717 wrote:

Your engine is missing the large roundish air damper silencer on the intake and the factory airbox.
I doubt those mods do anything performance wise.

Sure don't but that Home plate is FUGLY and the first thing that goes in the trash when I bring a wagon home. Same thing with the other ugly silencer. They were factory installed so Grandpa wouldn't be disturbed by engine noise while cruising in his barge.

I leave the stock air box though.

Some people like it quieter.
I own a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 truck 4x4 4 door with an 8 foot bed with a Cummins. Got it last year. PO removed the catalytic converter and stock muffler, likely they liked the engine being loud. But according to the Cummins forum it does nothing for MPG or hauling performance.  What I notice is it is very loud accelerating like up a hill or if I were to tow an RV trailer, I imagine I would annoy all the other campers and me too. I am planning to put a SS stock style Walker  54637 Muffler on it and move the existing straight thru MBRP SS muffler to be in front of it. Going  to use SS band clamps to hold the pipes together.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CXhbTKYdFpfVvmi9A

I was at a stop light next to a slightly newer Ram diesel truck, and noticed how quiet it was, and I thought why is mine so loud.

The sound of air going into a 350 small block is much different than the sounds of air exiting a 5.9 Cummins diesel. I don't really notice a difference with/without the extra crap on an LT1. The diesels are an annoyance though and I hate when the noisy bastards pull into work.

Sadly many Diesel owners fall into the same cycles of gas engine owners and start removing all the parts the internet tells them are robbing them of power. Especially the class 8 guys. They start yanking everything off, deleting this, bypassing that. Only to run into HUGE repair bills when their redneckery shows why it shouldn't be done.

For the last few weeks I've been working on replacing the front passenger window regulator motor (ended up taking apart the original and cleaning the brushes instead of replacing it - which worked great).

And of course once the door panel was off, I couldn't just leave it alone, so I added Dynamat, new speakers, and now I'm waiting on some styrene sheets so I can fix the back side of the door panel where the retainer clips attach before putting it all back together.

I drove it back and forth to work. I really should wash it.

Dusted mine. Prayed for a warm dry day.

I drove it two blocks to Home Depot last night, lol.  
Needs a wash and wax, and the following parts sitting around to go into it

1. Etch US Doublie din kit and new pioneer head unit and 4 speakers
2. 9C1 front sway bar
3. monroe ss shocks front and back
4. crown vic rear bar
5.  new front fender off my wreck and power antenna (need to paint fender first)
6. 3.08 posi rear laying around my garage
7. T56 6spd swap laying around too (not until the automatic dies).

that's just off the top of my head lol

Hey Henderson Racing - those hood struts are on upside down. The big part needs to be UP and the piston needs to be DOWN otherwise they will fail in a week. Been there done that.

sherlock9c1 wrote:

Hey Henderson Racing - those hood struts are on upside down. The big part needs to be UP and the piston needs to be DOWN otherwise they will fail in a week.  Been there done that.

Mine have been on for over a year "upside down" - Will need to check the 94 as I'm sure the PO never removed them/changed them.

Worked on both cars this weekend...

To the 96, the accelerator pedal was kind of cobbled in place.  Moved more up/down than forward back and you had to pull your foot back a couple inches to reach the accelerator pedal when transitioning to the brake pedal which is kind of awkward and un-natural so I decided to fix that.  Not a particularly difficult job, but tedious.  At least 84 times back forth from under the dash to the bench/welder.  It's not pretty, modified the 2012 bracket with scraps that I had laying around and stacks of washers welded together, but it is functional.







Paint makes everything look better  Fits like a glove and the transition from brake to accelerator pedal is right where it should be and natural feeling.




Also drilled an extra hole in the hitch ball mount so it fits much closer to the bumper - still plenty of room


Too far out


Much better



Lastly on the '96, pulled the tone ring off one of the front rotors so I can find a way to get 33% more teeth on it.  Looks like a powdered metal part.  Hoping I can find someone/somewhere to wire edm one out with more teeth.  Else see if I can find one with the right number of teeth and modify/adapt it to work here.  It's a simple enough part, could probably laser it out too.  It came off much harder than I anticipated - Quite a bit of torque on the 2 jaw puller plus lots of heat from the torch before it finally popped, then a steady (hard) pull the rest of the way off.



On the '94, I hit a deer on the way to the shop this morning - ruined a perfect grille, hood, hood ornament and antenna .  I unplugged the power antenna motor before turning the car off so hopefully I can find a new mast and the motor/cable/etc is still good.  Stupid deer...



Proceeded with an oil change and coolant flush.  After 5) 3 gallon fill/flushes it was mostly clear/murky water coming out so called it good enough and filled it up with 2 gallons antifreeze and ~1.3 gallons of distilled water.

I washed it yesterday.

It is getting a break from DD duties this week though. Got a free Camry over the weekend for our son. He needs more seat time before being turned loose so I'm using it right now

sherlock9c1 wrote:

Hey Henderson Racing - those hood struts are on upside down. The big part needs to be UP and the piston needs to be DOWN otherwise they will fail in a week.  Been there done that.

Interesting. Pervious owner must have done that. Hopefully flipping them will stop it from falling when it’s cold outside.

I squeezed both cars into the garage and flew off to SC for some warm weather and different scenery. I wasn’t sure if I could get them both in there but peace of mind to have them locked up and out of the snow.

Not so much what I did to my wagon but what I did with it.  I had the unfortunate need to go to Alabama from Santa Barbara California to lay my brother-in-law to rest and settle his affairs. (He was a veteran who took his life a few weeks back; he had been struggling for a while.  Very sad stuff...) I drove my RMW to Alabama in 3 days and then on to Florida to visit my wife's father.  Then back to Santa Barbara in 4 days.  5800 miles in 8 days driving over a fortnight.  Wagon was flawless.  Well the 'service engine soon' light came on twice but went back off again on the following day. Here's a pic outside the most important stop on a 12 hour driving day. The self-adjust air-suspension working wonderfully with around 600lbs of crap in the back. (I sense my love of the air-suspension puts me in a minority).

Sorry to hear you had to make such a trip under sad circumstances.

Good to hear the car ran well the entire time. I like the different darker wood grain you put on there, nice contrast with the tan paint.

rcktpwrd wrote:

Sorry to hear you had to make such a trip under sad circumstances.

Good to hear the car ran well the entire time. I like the different darker wood grain you put on there, nice contrast with the tan paint.

Thanks. Turns out that there is plenty of the original Dinoc available, but now only sold as an architectural application.  Lot's of cool colors.  I also had the mirrors and front roof section done in gloss black vinyl. I still need to hit the door-handle surrounds with satin-black...  I just posted my HID upgrade on a headlights thread, but I guess OK to show it here also. Sure came in handy on the Interstates.

Slow but steady progress on the 96

I started on the trailer wiring - Started at the back and ran the 7 conductor cable through the frame and popped it out up by the left front wheel to go up into the engine compartment. The 2012 underhood fuse block has separate relays and fuses/circuits for trailer connections so am taking advantage of those. That way if the trailer wiring shorts out or something it doesn't effect the vehicle. This will be a relatively involved project as there are 5 wires that need to go through the firewall and some of the dash will need to come apart again to access the BCM (I wish I had thought of this when I did all the rest of the wiring). In the end it will be good since I'll have extra "ports" for additional wiring in the future, but for now it's a bit of an overcomplicated mess for trailer lights .

Had some great help on the ring terminals in the back!


Also was able to put the better hood and grille on. It fits and closes with the hood liner installed, but it's really close under there! Just a random bit of trivia - they put the hood light in two different locations on the B-bodies. The original 96 hood liner didn't line up with the "new" hood's holes for the light. The 1996 hood had 2 sets of holes in it. Not a big deal, just drill a couple new holes, but was a bit surprising to me. Hood liners are different too as a result.

"This will be a relatively involved project as there are 5 wires that need to go through the firewall"

Why 5 wires through the firewall? The brake controller only needs the blue wire to power the trailer brakes. You can pick up both 12V power (from a high current 20 amp fuse in the dash fuse box) and a ground inside the car and then tap into the brake light switch, again inside the car. Thus only the blue wire needs to go back into the car.

Bill

The quick summary...To use the aforementioned separate fuses/relays for the trailer lights in the under hood fuse block, a few wires need to be run through the firewall.

Left and Right turn relay signals (grounds) come from the Body control module to the Underhood Fuse block, so that's two wires

There isn't a brake light switch, but a bake pedal position sensor, however there is a Brake signal specifically for trailer brake controllers, this signal comes from the underhood fuse block and needs to run to the trailer brake controller, so that's a third (not shown in below schematic).

The tail/running lights come from the body fuse block and run through the underhood fuse block so that's four

And finally, the blue modulating brake power wire from the trailer brake controller

Below schematic kind of sums it up

I put new/used struts on the rear glass...much zippier.

went to Milwaukee last weekend and did a bit of a test on some 3d printed items, I had a test strip I made of the material and it survived perfectly fine the trip to Milwaukee and then back to Stevens Point. So I have now a Buick insignia plug in the hole in the air intake tube left from getting rid of homeplate.

CanaveralSB wrote:

Not so much what I did to my wagon but what I did with it.  I had the unfortunate need to go to Alabama from Santa Barbara California to lay my brother-in-law to rest and settle his affairs. (He was a veteran who took his life a few weeks back; he had been struggling for a while.  Very sad stuff...) I drove my RMW to Alabama in 3 days and then on to Florida to visit my wife's father.  Then back to Santa Barbara in 4 days.  5800 miles in 8 days driving over a fortnight.  Wagon was flawless.  Well the 'service engine soon' light came on twice but went back off again on the following day. Here's a pic outside the most important stop on a 12 hour driving day. The self-adjust air-suspension working wonderfully with around 600lbs of crap in the back. (I sense my love of the air-suspension puts me in a minority).

Sorry for your loss. Truly sounds like a difficult circumstance. I hope everyone else is doing well.

What a trip though! Laid down some serious mileage.

More progress on the trailer brake controller wiring on the 96. Trying to find a spot to run wires through the firewall was tougher than I thought it would be. I finally settled on using the old throttle cable hole which will do a couple things - First and foremost, it'll plug a hole I forgot and should quiet things down a little bit more . Secondly it'll make it easier to clean up where the mouse chewed up some of the firewall insulation years ago.



I'm not super excited with how close to the turbo it is, but as mentioned before, not a lot of options...we'll put some heat reflective covering on it and it should be fine. It's the hole just above the braded line center of the picture.


I glued the nut to the firewall so I could get a good trace of what needed to be cut out - easy to see, but to get two hands up in there is kind of tough! I ran the two wires from the BCM across the interior while the glue was drying.


The hole needs to have a "D" shape to it so the connector doesn't turn - I traced the full perimeter inside the nut and was able to get a sawzall in there and cut about 20 radial cuts out to the line. Then use a pliers to break off the slivers that were left, then use a half round bastard file and smooth it out. Kind of a PITA, but came out looking better than I thought it might...


The connector chosen was a "24" series shell from Deutsch, Amp, Molex. This particular one has 23 size 16 terminals (DT for those familiar with Deutsch lingo), each rated for 13A continuous. There are several versions of this connector series that have more/less terminals of various sizes. I think upwards of 50 size 20 terminals (DTM) and ones with a mix of 20, 16 and 12 terminals (DTM, DT, DTP), so lots of options here should this particular one not work out for some reason.


Everything except the ground for the trailer brake controller goes through this connector. For power to the controller and power out to the brakes, I used a pair of 14 AWG wires for each circuit. This gives ~11AWG of copper (if there were such a thing - more than a single 12 gauge, but less than a 10 gauge) and a theoretical (conservative) 26A through the terminals along with a bit of duplicity which never hurts my feelings. Still plenty of leftover positions for future expansion as well.






All the under the dash wiring is done save for connecting the wires to the brake controller itself. I've still all the underhood wiring to complete yet next weekend.



On the 1994, I put a new thermostat in since the old one seemed to be stuck open - took forever to warm up and you could feel the air temp cool down when at a stoplight. Wouldn't get up to temp unless you were driving it non stop on the interstate for at least 45 minutes. Hopefully this fixes that. The old one was pretty slimy...The new one doesn't have the little pin-in-a-hole bleed so that should help too.


I should really figure out the wipers while all this wiring is exposed so I don't have to take it all apart again

one thing my mom has been bugging me to post up here about is that last Monday my brother needed to have his dodge ram moved, so we used a tow strap from the truck to my 94 rmw and I towed it from the side of the house out to the front yard, is there any way to host videos on the forum? as my mom recorded most of it, but sadly not me getting the truck tugged out of the ruts it made from sitting, but I don't want to post the video on youtube.

goldwolfnhn wrote:

one thing my mom has been bugging me to post up here about is that last Monday my brother needed to have his dodge ram moved, so we used a tow strap from the truck to my 94 rmw and I towed it from the side of the house out to the front yard, is there any way to host videos on the forum? as my mom recorded most of it, but sadly not me getting the truck tugged out of the ruts it made from sitting, but I don't want to post the video on youtube.

I think you would have to host it on another site and put a link here. Might be able to embed a YouTube video, but I dont know of any other way.