First Jedediah Smith Trail 1822 — 1824

Day 8: August 23rd, 2009 Pittsburgh (Car Work)

Today I wake up with heavy headaches. I simply have eaten not enough yesterday. So I turn around and try to relax my muscles. Then I fall asleep again. When I am really awake again it is already eight in the morning. Helen has already left for breakfast. Damn, exactly when I don’t want to sleep in, it happens. So I must have again breakfast alone. But because I have eaten yesterday almost nothing, I put three eggs in the pan. Then I write my diary which also takes an hour. Finally I check my emails, then I drive to David. This time I don’t need anything from Cranberry — hopefully!

First I start with wiring up the fans. In the beginning I really have a hard time with getting the wires through the firewall. But by using my Silicone it works pretty well. Then it’s time to wire up the switches and I must search for the ignition wire. It must be one of the wires where there is already a splitter. After a little bit of searching and measuring I find it. Now I must pull the wire and can do the first test. Everything works and it is even wired up correctly by having the engine oil fan to the left and the transmission oil fan to the right. All is perfect!

Next task are the gauges. There I must first think about on how to place them. It is not easy to find a good position. Finally I decide to place them next to my inclinometer. Now it’s time to route the wires. There I have no luck to route them on the right side. Even with Silicone I am not able to get them through. Therefore I must route them once again on the driver side where also the old wires went through. It seems there is still a lot of space. With patience and silicone I am eventually able to route them through.

Now I must connect them, take the lighting from the other splitters and the wiring is finished. Finally I connect the gauges and install them. Of course I forget to put on the mounts before I connected them. Therefore everything must be disconnected again. And because this was so much fun I have to do the same once again because I assembled the mounts in the wrong direction. But the second gauge was then done correctly.

To avoid that the wiring doesn’t look so chaotic, I wrap some plastic isolation around it. When I have done half of the job I discover that it might be a good idea to also run the wire for the third gauge within this wire harness. Therefore I must unwrap it again and put the third wire in. The other end will stay loose in the driver legroom, which will not bother me behind the cover.

Then I have time to think about what I will install there next year. Probably it will be a transmission temperature gauge for the outlet when I change the whole radiator. I only have to check if I can cut the axle from the main fan when going to an electric fan or if something gets damaged by doing so.

After I have installed everything I start working on my laptop power cord. It is a bit tricky, but I make it. The original wire has a shielding and is pretty thin. It’s a miracle to me how there should travel 10A on this wire!

After this is also finished I start working on my tripod. Unfortunately, the mount doesn’t fit and I must build a headless screw from the car pod to the video head. The only bad thing is that the video head has changed the lens direction by 90 degrees! But I have no other choice.

In between David shows up and asks if I am getting everything done. We chat a little bit and I tell him my return date for our good–bye dinner. Then we say good–bye for another month. I finish my mount work, then I start to clean up. Again, time is slipping away.

My recently bought winch will not be unpacked. I don’t have the time for this. I put everything in my trunk and move the tools out of the way. Finally I change the oil filter. This makes again a real mess because there is still some oil on top of the filter. Finally I screw in the new filter with the extended life time and that’s it.

In the meantime it is already half past ten when I leave the garage. I drive back home and Sam greets me with loud barking. I still try to be quiet anyways and jump under the shower. After this I quickly make myself a sandwich. Then I go to bed. It is again already past midnight!