Good Morning!!!! 54F @ 7:45AM. Sunny to partly cloudy. High 72F. Winds light and variable.
With so many choices yesterday, the van won out. Dug around in the parts boxes and found the baggies where I'd stashed the little plastic screw in covers for all the threaded bosses that penetrate the cargo deck floor. Turns out there were two bags of 'em, a good thing because I was a couple short with the first one. Used Ducor as a sealant on the threads, and had to run a tap down a couple of them to clean out the rust. That done, I laid out six of the built up sound deadening sheets to cover most of the floor, just to get an idea of how much of it I'll be needing. Looks like I'll have plenty, at least for the flat portions. The glue I used to laminate the layers tends to let go on vertical surfaces, so I ordered a gallon of Barge cement yesterday to use on another batch. Once again Amazon wasn't much of a deal, but Google found a well rated supplier.
Then I finished installing the last piece of carpet, and now the driver's compartment looks pretty nice. Nice enough I wanted to get the cover on the console for the 4WD and locker knobs installed. Found all the necessary pieces, even the custom knobs I'd turned to replace the existing knobs that didn't match. But the holes for the knobs had been drilled in the wrong spot, an artifact of the "printed" history of that cover (the original had been smashed to pieces by the ex-mechanic). So out came the Foredom tool and a nice fine carbide burr, and wala, on it popped. Just had to get longer screws to hold it in place. The upper part of that panel holds a little diagram of the van, with an indicator light that is supposed to come on when the rear locker, front locker, or decoupler is engaged. I had to remanufacture that piece as well, and at least for the decoupler, it worked fine. I don't have a front locker, but the one for the rear locker wasn't coming on. Took a while to find the rear locker solenoid on the transaxle, and when I did, there was no wire going to the position indicator switch. Whoever installed the transaxle had left it off, just like they'd left off the backup light wiring. It's very close quarters under there, tucked up under the fuel tank, just in front of the starter. Impossible to see what the contacts look like on the switch, and no obvious wires nearby looking for something to connect to. The Bently manual, the bible of Vanagon mechanics, was silent on wire color, or even where the locker solenoid was located. Then I remembered a lead hanging down in the engine compartment back by the rear license plate. I found it, made a jumper between the two leads, and presto, the indicator on the console came on. Prolly that same somebody stuck that lead back there because they couldn't be bothered to figure out where it was supposed to go. Snipped a couple zip ties, fished it across the top of the engine, then poked it back along side the starter, and it was just long enough to reach the indicator switch. Almost like it was made for the job.
Back underneath, for the life of me, I couldn't seem to get the connector on the wires to mate with the one on the switch. I really couldn't see what I was doing, working mostly by feel. Even with a flashlight and mirror, I couldn't get my eyeballs close enough to see the shape of the switch connector. Then I tried one of the little flexible video camera/endoscopes I have, but the probe on it was too long to fit in the space and I couldn't get a sharp picture. I have another endoscope with a right angle mirror attachment, but the battery was flat, and frankly by that time I was tired, filthy, and and it was getting dark anyway. Stuck the connector on as best I could, put the other camera on the charger, and enjoyed the sunset on the back porch with a beer. Problem solved, at least for the rest of the evening. Hopefully the other camera will shed some light on the mystery today.
While I was sitting there, a small group of deer came browsing through, including a nice three point buck (Western count) that was so intent chasing after his ladies he didn't notice me watching. Typical teenager.:laughing:
Hope the weather improves for you easterners, and everyone has a nice weekend!
They're all late middle school to early high school age. None have ever harvested a deer and a few have never hunted before. The TPWD reps gave hunting safety presentations and rules of "the hunt" were discussed. This is a "doe" only hunt as we're trying to get our local deer population back to a better balance. Today ... we'll be smoking several briskets for the dinner this evening. 
