Spring has almost sprung
In less than 3 weeks we head to Disney. Excited? You bet your rear. Julia has a countdown going. I think we all do.
I’ve been completing some projects on Qubie. Yes, I know, it never ends. I can’t leave well enough alone!
Rear trac bar installation
This one shouldn’t be too surprising since I mentioned it previously. I ordered it, got it here and then waited for some decent weather to install it. I originally tried to do this at the old storage place in the gravel. That was okay, but I was unable to remove the existing bolts on the differential even with a breaker bar. Also, there was a bracket on one of the bolts I was supposed to remove which threw me for a while. I punted and contacted the manufacturer for a recommendation.
The following weekend, I brought her home to do the task in my driveway instead of in the gravel. This time I acquired help to get those bolts off: a 280 ft. lb. electric impact wrench. Crawled under her, got the impact wrench on the bolt, held my breath and pulled the trigger. Two seconds later I had the bolt out and in my hand. Booyah! The manufacturer recommended just doing the install as written, putting the bracket on the replacement bolt so that’s what I did.
About the only thing that was annoying was positioning myself to get access and leverage on everything amidst all the stuff. I came away with about five dents, cuts, and scratches on my unprotected noggin when all was said and done.
Chassis battery minder
Now that I have Qubie in the new storage I have electricity available. Not a lot but a standard outlet. I got an adapter and an extension cord and got her plugged in so that the house batteries will always be topped off by the built-in charger. Huzzah! However, the chassis battery (i.e. the one that starts the engine) doesn’t get charged by the built-in charger. During storage it’s not a giant deal since there won’t be a lot of draw. However, we also like using the dash radio when we’re parked at a destination. After a week to 10 days of that kind of usage, the chassis battery can get drained.
So, I decided to install an Amp-L-Start charger. It takes a bit of charge from the house batteries and keeps the chassis battery topped up. Perfect!
I got it installed no problem by attaching it to the battery isolator / emergency start relay in the fuse compartment. Now no more battery worries! Aside from making sure they’re topped up with water, of course.
Now we’re all set for Disney :).
Shallow Roots 