Meet Mo . . . Mo Ron

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Amskeptic
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Meet Mo . . . Mo Ron

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:37 pm

That would be me.
Today's quicky little high noon road stop was on a dirt/fine gravel ranch road outside of Tucson. I thought it was time to remove the steering wheel and clean/lubricate the horn brush and ring, and why not re-grease the wiper and turn signal switches? It is, after all, my plan to completely refresh this car while still "new" by removing, cleaning, and lubricating every single wear item on the entire car.

Removed the steering wheel, cleaned the horn brush ring, re-bent the copper brush to have a new contact spot, and greased with DeOx. Polished the metal horn button rim so it will be tad shinier and plastic-protectant-ed the plastic isolator ring:

Image

Cleaned and lubricated the turn signal/dimmer switch, no problem. Cleaned and lubricated the wiper switch on the outside, then thought to disassemble the switch itself to get to those high amperage contacts. Oh man. Sitting on the quartz gravel sandy ground, taking in the low noon sun, I pried the little plastic tab to release the cover of the switch. Persploonk, we got three springs, a plastic gizmo, and a problem. Went ahead and cleaned and lubricated everything, then tried to stick that that that devil back together again. Two tough little springs have to be seated in the plastic gizmo upside, one light spring has to be held in the gizmo on the underside while holding the contact up against the spring, then the sandwich has to be negotiated at an angle to slip under the stalk's business end and into the switch housing whilst seating the other end of those tough little springs into their upside down divots on the stalk. A nightmare of sproinking springs and jamming gizmos. And the rivet that holds the cover onto the stalk's axis is getting loose and unhappy.

But wait, it gets worse.

After an hour of futzing, I have it all in place, a special contact holder (a 2.5mm allen wrench) to hold the upside contact and spring in place while getting those stupid tough little springs located was the trick.
But . . . but . . . but why does the switch have absolutely no detent action?? Hijo de p%#!@*!
Take it all apart. Look at it like a monkey trying to open a coconut.
This is not making sense. I see that the inside surface of the switch housing has bevelled "teeth" and clearly something has to detent against them, but what?

With dawning horror, it becomes obvious that some sort of something has to press against the bevel "teeth", something that had its own spring.
"You asshat, the switch was FINE before you monkeyed with it, you monkey." I am sure that it had to be a white plastic "button" that looks like all of the 16 trillion grains of white quartz gravel underfoot.

Being me, I thought it would be cool to actually find the damn thing, so I started a search party with quadrants and radiating gravel removal. After 30 minutes, I said, "let the kid die, I'm cold."

Now I have to figure out what to do. I am NOT having a detentless wiper switch in the BobD. As a matter of fact, I told myself I can sit out here and starve to death for all I care, I ain't leaving without a perfectly functional wiper switch LIKE I HAD WHEN I STOPPED HERE.

Went for a scavenger walk. Not three paces from the car, I spy a black plastic license plate frame fragment blown down from the interstate from some horrible crash in a windstorm, I reckon. Cut a reinforcement projection away from the fragment, and whittled a black plastic button with a spring seat even. Filed it down until it slipped into the end of the gizmo. Stole one of the tough little springs ("you only need one for the washer switch return, they over-engineered that thing" I tell my customer)
and stuck it down the hole at the end of the gizmo and crammed the license plate fragment black button-with-whittled-spring-seat in after it:

Image

Diagrammed, if the words are legible:

Image

So now I have to get:
a) upside down little spring + contact held with a 2.5mm allen wrench
b) remaining washer return tough little spring under stalk in divot
c) license plate button under tough spring tension compressed to fit
d) all in the gizmo, then
e) into the white plastic switch housing without pissing off the rivet.
. . . and press the side of the switch housing in so the cover plate can snap into the slot on the housing.

Only took seven tries. Wiper detent action is actually pretty much indistinguishable from the OEM button lost to the Arizona desert for eternity. And that is why I am not lost to the Arizona desert for eternity, a little bleached skeleton leaning up against an abandoned VW Bus.
ColinInTucson
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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vwlover77
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Post by vwlover77 » Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:56 pm

You've got the Arizona desert quartz excuse. I lose stuff like that right in my garage! :geek:
Don

---------------------------
78 Westy
71 Super Beetle Convertible Autostick

"When we let our compassion go, we let go of whatever claim we have to the divine." - Bruce Springsteen

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sped372
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Post by sped372 » Fri Nov 12, 2010 6:18 am

Someone, sometime years and years from now, is going to wonder why there's a fugly piece of black plastic deep down inside the guts of the assembly when the rest of the bus is immaculately OEM.

Did it come this way from the assembly line? Has the original plastic changed color? What the hell is going on here? Dang P.O.'s! :bom:
1971 Karmann Ghia - 1600 DP
1984 Westfalia - 1.9 WBX

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Hippie
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Post by Hippie » Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:14 am

Mr Ron, things with bendable tabs holding them together are supposed to be left together forever. :blackeye:
Having said that, I can't seem to resist taking them apart either.

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Sluggo
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Post by Sluggo » Sat Nov 13, 2010 11:10 am

I did this last Christmas with my switch. Took hours to get it back together and I had all the parts except one airborne spring. Ended up using a cut down retractable pen spring that barely fit until I bought another. NEVER AGAIN! If I had lost that tab I'd have been sunk.
:vwgauge420:

1977 Bus with Sunroof - "Lucky '77"
2000cc Type IV w/Dual Weber 36s,
Aircooled.net SVDA w/Compufire,
Redline Weber Fuel Pump,
Holley Regulator,
Half Ass Brush & Roller Rustoleum Paint Job,
Incomplete Custom Interior,
Dual Batteries,
Crunched Slider Door.
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aopisa
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Post by aopisa » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:12 pm

That little white plastic button belongs where it came from. I can picture a chain of events that lead up to the white plastic button falling into the wrong hands and playing a role in the destruction of the universe. You must go back and find it!

Something like that happened in Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan if I recall.
1977 Westy 2.0L F.I.

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. - Chuang Tzu

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glasseye
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Post by glasseye » Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:47 pm

When Frito fails to start due to a software issue halfway along Cottonwood Canyon Road, near the Pariah River Canyon next spring, I want you alongside. Or at least hovering over me in the azure sky, blessing, benefacting.
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sun Nov 14, 2010 7:10 pm

glasseye wrote:When Frito fails to start due to a software issue halfway along Cottonwood Canyon Road, near the Pariah River Canyon next spring, I want you alongside. Or at least hovering over me in the azure sky, blessing, benefacting.
Oh, I'll be there.
"Hey glasseye?"
"What?"
"The error code says, 'speed sensor'."
"What speed sensor?"
"The one on the differential."
"OK, now that we know, what do we do?"
"We cut the speed sensor wires off and run two wires up to the passenger seat."
"Why?"
"Someone has to play 'speed sensor'."
"How do you play 'speed sensor'?"
"You make and break a circuit by touching the wires together two times per revolution of the ring gear."
"How do I know how many revolutions of the ring gear?"
"Well, glasseye, your rear tires rotate about 700 times per minute at 60 mph, so DO THE MATH, we are going back to Canada at whatever speed you can make and break the ends of the wires."
"That doesn't sound fun."
"Oh, it is fun all right."
"I don't think I can do it, why don't you and I'll drive."
"I cannot pass up this opportunity for you to have fun."
"This doesn't sound fun."
"glasseye! You have a motorcycle in the back! We can tape the wires to the rear fork so that they are rubbing the wheel rims. We will electrical tape 90* arcs on the rims 180* apart and the wires will pass two signals per rev of the rear wheel."
"But it will drive through the dashboard and windshield."
"We'll put the bike up on 'jackstands'."
"Frito is going to fill up with motorcycle exhaust."
"The better which to enjoy the day."
"How do we synchronize the rear wheel of the motorcycle with the required speed sensor signal of Frito's differential?"
"We'll do the math!"

See, you would really have fun getting out of the Pariah River Canyon . . . .
Common Sense Pariah
:drunken:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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glasseye
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Post by glasseye » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:20 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
glasseye wrote:When Frito fails to start due to a software issue halfway along Cottonwood Canyon Road, near the Pariah River Canyon next spring, I want you alongside. Or at least hovering over me in the azure sky, blessing, benefacting.
Oh, I'll be there.
"Hey glasseye?"
"What?"
"The error code says, 'speed sensor'."
"What speed sensor?"
"The one on the differential."
"OK, now that we know, what do we do?"
"We cut the speed sensor wires off and run two wires up to the passenger seat."
"Why?"
"Someone has to play 'speed sensor'."
"How do you play 'speed sensor'?"
"You make and break a circuit by touching the wires together two times per revolution of the ring gear."

But wait. It's not a make or break situation like them breaker point thingies in YOUR truck. On a Mercedes, it's 'way complicateder than that. It says here on my laptop that the speed sensor is a Hall Effect unit. We'll have to better than just two wires joining and un-joining.



"This doesn't sound fun."
"glasseye! You have a motorcycle in the back! We can tape the wires to the rear fork so that they are rubbing the wheel rims. We will electrical tape 90* arcs on the rims 180* apart and the wires will pass two signals per rev of the rear wheel."
"But it will drive through the dashboard and windshield."
"We'll put the bike up on 'jackstands'."
"Frito is going to fill up with motorcycle exhaust."
"The better which to enjoy the day."
"How do we synchronize the rear wheel of the motorcycle with the required speed sensor signal of Frito's differential?"
"We'll do the math!"

OK, wait. I've been online again. Here's the math:

For a simple metal where there is only one type of charge carrier (electrons) the Hall voltage VH is given by

(funny looking math symbols deleted) (for clarity)

where I is the current across the plate length, B is the magnetic flux density, d is the depth of the plate, e is the electron charge, and n is the charge carrier density of the carrier electrons.
The Hall coefficient is defined as (complex mathematical equations deleted ) where j is the current density of the carrier electrons. In SI units, this becomes (more complex math stuff deleted)
Shit, man, this Fatherland stuff is HARD



"Amskeptic, Do you have any smokes?"

But, of course. I enjoy inhaling combustion products. That's why running the bike inside Frito won't be problematic. Besides, we can run with the doors open. All of 'em.

OK, gimme two pieces of tin foil from your smokes. Maybe we can make a Hall Effect sensor outta two pieces of cigarette tin foil and put it on the bike wheel. One piece on the wheel, one piece on the swingarm. Exactly five point o two microns apart, according to my research.

You can sit on the bike and watch Frito's rear wheel out the side door through your digital camera in movie mode and that way you can match the motorcycle speed with Frito's speed. Right?


Right


OK. I'll drive Frito, you drive the bike.



See, you would really have fun getting out of the Pariah River Canyon . . .

Yah, but we left the BobD back at Cottonwood Canyon Road and it's three days to Canada, ay?

.
Common Sense Pariah
:drunken:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:32 pm

glasseye wrote:
It says here on my laptop that the speed sensor is a Hall Effect unit.
but we left the BobD back at Cottonwood Canyon Road, ay?[/b]
Well . . . . . . . we had to steal the Hall Effect unit out of the BobD's distributor. After all, the BobD can't carry a piano.
:flower:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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glasseye
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Post by glasseye » Sun Nov 14, 2010 9:00 pm

Amskeptic wrote: After all, the BobD can't carry a piano.
:flower:
:cheers:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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