Sunday, October 7, 2007

A few more steps forward and maybe one back...

Well it's been over a month since I last wrote a post, so I would like to take a moment to explain where I stand with everything.

At last post the axles had been removed and the t-shooting of the lights was next on the list. At this point right now, the brand new axles have been installed and 95% of the lights and misc. electrical are in full working order. EXTERIOR ONLY, just legal stuff. The interior is a whole other ball game.

Last week Sean and I installed the new axles and took a close look at the wiring. After installing the axles we wired up the electric brakes and gave them a full on test. Everything passed with flying colors. I was also able to install the reverse lights and the brake/turn/parking lights. All that was left was to get the license plate light, the marker lights and the emergency brake away switch wired up. I was hoping that the rest would fall right together.

Today we both went up to put another full day into the old girl and unfortunately thing did not fall right together. I began the day by installing a 12 volt battery in the camper. No fuses blew...that's a good sign. I checked to see if the wires that feed the emergency brake away switch had power and what do you know? They did! Next I shorted the +/- and the brakes did lock up. This is the good part. After this test, I decided to get to work on the marker lights. This is where the day took a turn for, well, not the worst, but more of a challenge of sorts. Immediately I realized that 3 of the 12 markers did not have power. So I knew that some t-shooting would be involved. I began with the 3 markers on the rear end. these were not so tough and after an hour they were done and working. Very quickly I found that the few that did not have power were going to be a real pain.

Long story short. I did a lot of trouble shooting and wire pulling. Mice had eaten at wires buried in the ceiling of the camper many years ago. I managed to drill out rivets on an interior ceiling panel and fish new wires to the locations in need. At the end of the day, all but one marker was complete. Next Sunday I will mount the freshly balanced wheels, fix the one remaining marker and install the break away switch. As far as I can tell, after these three projects, I can move the trailer safely and legally.