United Pilot Cancels Flight Too Upset To Fly, Ever Heard of Road Rage?

OK so it's been quite a while since my last post. I know a majority of the posts on this blog are related to projects, this is just a little rant about a news item.

Link to USA Today Article.

Apparently everyone boarded up and was ready to go from Salt Lake City to Denver. The captain had been up in the gate area having a heated discussion with some fellow pilots on his cell phone. From what I understand the other pilots were not happy that he decided to wear his hat to work.

You might say "WHAT? WHO CARES!?"

Well it's a little more complicated. See pilots are unionized which means they are told to do certain things to show solidarity to management. The idea is if management sees the pilots sticking together on something small it means they won't be afraid to flex their power in other ways like strikes for example.

The United pilots decided to not wear their hats as a sign of solidarity. Management would plainly see how many pilots were not happy with their actions ( United management stock reward ) . Apparently this guy in Salt Lake was one of the pilots who liked wearing his hat and continued to do so. This upset his fellow pilots and apparently were arguing with him on the telephone.

According to the story the pilot gets all worked up and goes down to the airplane to tell the passengers he was too upset to do the flight to Denver. Pilots are required by the FAA to declare themselves unfit for flight if that is the case. Now are there pilots who fly even though they are upset? Yes I'm sure there are and you might ask yourself why. Well there are a lot of pressures on pilots to not only complete flights but also to complete them on time. The airline loses money when flights cancel, obviously this upsets management and can result in consequences.

Does that mean the pilot will be fired? No it doesn't, that would be much too easy for the FAA or the union to track. Most likely the pilot won't get fired but he will be asked a lot of questions about calling in "unfit to fly". Depending on the airline the pilot might have to fight for his pay, deal with a meeting in the Chief Pilot's Office, and have an inconvenient schedule.

The passengers on this United flight may have been upset about the cancellation but they often don't consider that they are traveling in an aluminum tube at 500mph. The passengers on that flight should have thanked the captain for being up front and taking a stand against what will surely be some type of backlash. Irregardless of his opinion on management vs. pilots this guy took a stand.

Do you want someone preoccupied with mental stress driving you around at 500mph?

Adding Power Seats to Your Jeep Grand Cherokee

My Jeep didn't originally have the power seats but it appears to have the wiring at the fuse box. According to Jeep owners some Grand Cherokees came from the factory pre-wired for extra options. If your Jeep happens to have wiring for these extra options consider yourself lucky, my Jeep unfortunately was not pre-wired for any options. To check for the extra wiring look under the carpet under your seats for the power seat harness connectors. If it looks anything like the picture below then you don't have the connector, it is normally taped to the harness.

Since I wanted the power seats to work in my stripper Jeep I started some detective work. The first step was to begin searching at the fuse box at the passenger's side of the dashboard. Looking at the fuse box I could see the wiring going into the slot designated for power seats and wiring on the side exiting the slot.

There is 12V at one side of the connector in the fuseUsing my multi-tester I found 12 volts on one side of the fuse box and a solid red wire leading out of the other side. I traced the red wire to a connector on the driver's side of the dashboard. It is a large connector above the brake pedal on the firewall. Here you can see both sides of the connector. The female side is attached to the firewall and the male side is what comes from the fuse panel.

Once I found the connector I backprobed the wire I thought to be the correct one for the power seats. In order to determine if it was the correct wire I put a fuse in the slot, set my multimeter to show 12V, and removed the fuse. As soon as the fuse was removed the voltage disappeared. This indicated that I had the correct wire.

Since my Jeep was missing the rest of the harness I needed to build my own to get power to the seats. Rather than deal with inserting wires into the female connector I tapped into the wire coming from the fuse box. Taking the 12V from that point using the correct gauge wire I ran it down to underneath the driver's seat.

Mimicking the factory wiring I then took the 12V wire over to the passenger's seat. The power seat circuit is normally protected by a 25 amp automatic circuit breaker (ACB). An ACB is convenient because they will automatically reset if tripped. Say for example both seats are moved all the way back at the same time, once the seats reach their stops the current through the circuit rises sharply. If a fuse was used it could blow and the owner would be without power seats until a fuse was found.

Unfortunately for me I could not find an ACB, I have been using a 25A fuse in it's place and carrying a spare just in case. So far after 6 months the fuse has not blown. The seat wiring is grounded to the body of the vehicle just below the seats in the same way the factory did installed their harness. The diagram below gives a detailed explanation of the wiring harness and how everything is connected.

Volkswagen Passat Front End Clunk Fix

The 1998 to 1999 Volkswagen Passats had two different sway bar linkages up front. Volkswagen changed the design some time in the middle of the 1999 production run. Given that they changed the design there was an obvious problem with the original linkage setup. I started to get a clunk when going over bumps and the car had a tendency to wander at high speed.

The front suspension on a Passat uses four separate aluminum control arms each with a ball joint at one end and a rubber bushing at the other end. If installed incorrectly the rubber bushings can wear out prematurely but that's a whole other subject for my blog. To determine if your bushings or ball joints are worn out you'll need to jack up the car. Make sure you are being safe when jacking up the car....

Please read this article from Automedia.com for information on jack safety, also refer to your Bentley or Haynes manual for tips on jack safety for your specific car.

Grabbing the wheel and checking for looseness didn't come up with anything. I grabbed a crowbar and tried moving the control arms at the bushing end, the bushings didn't have any play at all. The rear bushings did squeak a little bit but other than that it was fine. The upper link bushings also didn't look torn or damaged.

To differentiate between the early and late model Passats they are referred as the B5 and B5.5. B5 is the designation given by the factory to the platform the Passat is built on. The B5.5 links use two rubber bushing on either end of the link with the bolt going through it rather than the dual ball joint setup. The B5.5 links were MUCH more stiff than my car. It could be a function of age but the B5.5 seems to have much more stiffness there.

Updating is nothing more than ordering the parts. Be sure to shop around as dealers can set their own price markups.

8D0 411 317 D (left)
8D0 411 318 D (right)

Nuts: N10332001 or N10286102 (depends upon VIN#????)
Bolts: N10425301

You'll need 4 nuts and 4 bolts.

The links are 42 dollars each from Liberty VW, I believe the bolts and nuts total up to 8 dollars.

The installation wasn't a big deal at all. Use a 16mm box end wrench to remove the nuts on the original links.

These are the original ball joint style links.
Jack up the suspension until you have enough room to pull the link out of the boss on the control arm (the strut will be in the way otherwise). Remove the clip on the boss and toss it. Replace with the new parts and you're good to go.

This shot shows the old parts vs. new parts. This is the driver's side new link installed.
I can honestly say the links made a HUGE improvement in my car! The high speed wandering is greatly reduced and the stability in turns is much better. It isn't as darty but I definately like the handling improvement, I have much better confidence in the car because of the stability.

Previously mid turn bumps would upset the suspension whereas now the car handles them easily. We have a few diagonal elevation changes on the freeways here that would cause my car to head for the next lane, this effect is greatly reduced by the new links.

The clunking noise is about 98% gone now. My tie rod ends are new so I'm guessing it is normal noise or a little wear in the four other ball joints. Of course this is in comparison to my brother's 2002 B5.5 so maybe the '99s just transmit more suspension noise.

Scotchbrite Wheels

This is a compilation of a post I made over at Pelican Parts.com detailing my work refinishing the wheels from a Porsche 911. I thought someone would find it an interesting process that can yield great results.

From a distance the wheels looked pretty good, the black centers were nice and the polished lips had a nice finish. The closer I looked the more I realized my wheels were in need of a refinish. The previous owner (PO) had repainted them with quite a bit of gloss black and didn't do the best job of masking. Even the lug seats had been painted which is a big no no because the lug nuts can loosen over time.

I completely stripped the wheels and sanded a bit to remove imperfections. The scotch-brite part of the job wasn't difficult at all but the masking for paint took a long time. Oh and paint stripper burns like you wouldn't believe when it gets on your skin!

For supplies you need to have the paint stripper, I used Aircraft Paint Stripper from the hardware store because it is safe for use on aluminum. You also need Scotchbrite pads, these are also in the paint section and come in various levels of coarseness. The red pad is the most coarse, then grey, and finally the white pads.

Basically you take your scotch-brite pads and start with the most coarse working down to the fine pads. You can make a uniform finish or a random finish. My wheels ended up with a uniform finish which you can get by keeping your scotch brite action going one direction.

Once you have the supplies get a little helper to monitor the progress. Make sure your little helper does not get near the paint stripper or any dust from your Scotchbrite process. My helper's name is Bentley, he's a puggle.


This is how the wheel started after stripping off the paint with a chemical stripper....
Follow the instructions for your specific paint stripper. On my bottle it said to put the stripper on very thick and once the paint bubbles you can remove the old paint with a plastic scraper. Wear some thick and long gloves for this process, the paint stripper really burns if you get it on your skin!

The process for refinishing the wheels begins with rubbing them down using your red scotchbrite pad. The red pad is the coarsest of the pads and will help get rid of any imperfections in the surface. Be sure to only use the scotchbrite in one direction, don't do circles or random directions unless you want that kind of finish.

This next photo series shows the wheels after the center is done with scotchbrite and after the entire wheel has been done.









The wheels will now begin looking pretty good. Just like any project it is good to have your assistant check your work.


Inspector Bentley says the wheels are ready for masking. Masking is the most difficult part of this project. It also adds important detail to this wheel design and I think it really punctuates the raw metal finish of the wheels.

Originally when Porsche Fuchs wheels were painted at the factory the entire wheel was dipped face up in a big barrel of black paint. Depending on the depth that the wheel was submerged you either had an all black center or you had exposed petals. Upon learning this I realized that the lines around the petals were never meant to be perfect.

Masking the lips of the wheels is not difficult, I used blue painter's tape for this section. For the area around the petals I used electrical tape because it stretches very well around compound curves. Special tape is made for this purpose and is probably better than electrical tape.













Once the wheels are masked double check all of your tape before spraying. I used Rustoleum Semi-Gloss black spray enamel and it has held up very well. The paint sprays easily and has excellent adhesion. I will take some pictures of the completed wheels by Tuesday for everyone to see.

A lot of wheel refinishing options are available, Harvey Weidmann and Al Reed to name a few. They do absolutely awesome work for reasonable prices, based on how long I spent refinishing my wheels it is well worth the money. I like the Scotchbrite finish but it does take some maintenance, I wouldn't recommend it for a daily driver just because the factory anodized finish is so low maintenance.

Automobile Aerodynamics and Equivalent Flat Plate Area

Today I'm all wound up in numbers. I read an article in Flying magazine today by Peter Garrison called "How Clean is Your Car?". The discussion was mainly geared towards the differences between aircraft drag and motor vehicle drag. I found his discussion about the hp required to overcome drag at certain speeds.

Try to stick with me on this one...Every vehicle has a certain amount of drag and we want to equate it to a number that we can apply to hp. These calculations negate the drivetrain friction, we are looking at the purely aerodynamic drag. First we need to take the flat plate area and the drag coefficient to get the equivalent flat plate area.

To get the flat plate area you can find the information online like I did at MadAboutKitCars.com . If you want to do it by hand take a head on view of a car and lay grid paper over it, fill in all the areas occupied by the frontal view of the car and that gives you the flat plate area in square feet.















The coefficient of drag (cD) for your vehicle is a characteristic amount of aerodynamic drag caused by fluid flow. This number is fairly difficult to determine on your own but the website I mentioned before ( MadAboutKitCars.com ) has cD for quite a few vehicles.

Now that you have these two numbers you can determine the equivalent flat plate area (EFP). This number is used as a way to equate vehicles of different sizes. One thing a lot of keyboard cowboys like to point out is how a 2004 Dodge Durango (cD=.39) and is more aerodynamic than a 1986 Porsche 911 (cD=.40). We have all seen someone park their ginormous SUV next to a 911 and noticed how huge it is by comparison. The Durango may have a flat plate area of 30 square feet whereas the 911 has a flat plate area of around 15 square feet. The SUV may be more "streamlined" but it certainly has to push a lot more air than the 911. So the flat plate area is taken into account to give an accurate representation of the total aerodynamic drag load for a given shape.














Multiply your flat plate area by the coefficient of drag and you can determine the aerodynamic drag load. The equivalent area for a Durango is around 11.7 square feet. Given that information and the fact that the air pressure on a flat plate at 60mph is 13psi the total drag load for the Durango is 152 pounds. For the 911 at the same speed the drag load is 81 pounds.

Here are a couple of other calculations I did.....From the calculations you can see that the horsepower required to overcome drag goes up exponentially with speed. The actual function is that the horsepower required increases as the square of speed.

Why do I find this interesting? The Porsche 911 in it's original form wasn't known to be an aerodynamically perfect automobile, it was however fairly efficient. Despite it's aerodynamic efficiency the early 911s can only manage in the 15mpg in the city and mid 20s on the highway. As a result of engine technology the Prius is rated at 48mpg city and 45mpg highway.

Is the Prius as fun to drive as the 911? Not unless you get your jollies playing the gas mileage game (some people do, really). Is the Prius more socially responsible? Yes on a daily basis the Prius is going to cause a lot less environmental damage. So have your Prius for daily driving if you want and your 911 for fun on the weekends.

If I was looking at the environmental responsibility aspect of this discussion I would ask the typical Prius driver how many cars they have purchased in the last 38 years. If you are buying a hybrid because it's fashionable then please don't claim to be helping the environment, you know you aren't going to drive it until the wheels fall off. What will happen is you'll drive it until the Prius isn't fashionable and buy something else. The environmental damage from producing a new car for people every two years is significant.

References:

MadAboutKitCars.com

Air load on a flat plate from NY Times Article Circa 1910

Jeep Power Steering Cooler Installation

Starting off with the first featured project is my installation of a Power Steering Cooler on my Jeep. A little backstory on the Jeep, my parents bought it new in 1993 when the Grand Cherokee (ZJ) first came out. When new the only options on this Jeep were the V8 engine, towing package, skid plate/foglight group, and AM/FM Cassette. Grand Cherokees were fairly expensive back in the day, this one had an MSRP of $26,000!

I was the first person in my family to drive this Jeep, I was 15 and the Jeep had 8 miles on the odometer. Approximately 200,000 miles later the Jeep was given to me. Now that's a lot of miles but the Jeep was in decent condition cosmetically. Mechanically it needed some work so it'll be featured here for quite a few projects. Remember as I said in the first post, I am not an expert just a guy sharing his projects, if you want to try one of the projects go ahead at your own risk. I suggest you buy a service manual for your vehicle as they have a lot of good safety tips.

One of my first projects was to add a power steering cooler. Grand Cherokees delivered in Europe were originally equipped with coolers for the power steering system due to the different driving demands European roads. Your power steering system is under high levels of stress when operating in high temperatures and parking lot speeds. At the speeds we drive in the United States (45-75mph) the system is not being stressed nearly as much. I guess the bean counters at Chrysler decided the coolers would be unnecessary for us in the US.

The power steering pump is mounted to the engine and raises the pressure of the power steering fluid. This fluid is sent in a high pressure line to the power steering box, inside the steering box this high pressure fluid is used to assist the steering for the driver. Raising the pressure of any fluid consequently raises it's temperature. Raising the pressure repeatedly (like rock crawling or driving in parking lots) will eventually cause the fluid to overheat and break down. The fluid also heats up when the pump is run at a high rpm for long durations. During the break down of the fluid the lubricating properties are diminished and wear occurs in the components. The power steering box in Grand Cherokees is already somewhat undersized. Depending on the type of driving you do the box can be worn out at 70K miles.

The ideal situation is to upgrade your transmission cooler to a larger aftermarket unit and at the same time install the OEM cooler over on the power steering system. I just happened to come across the OEM cooler from a wrecked Jeep for a good price. Considering that a good transmission cooler kit will run anywhere from $50 to $100 and a new steering box is $200 it's just good insurance to install the cooler.

Because every car I've ever owned has been equipped with a power steering cooler and most of the power steering components on a Grand Cherokee are located within one foot of the driver's side exhaust manifold I decided to research the install. According to my local dealership a kit was offered when ZJs were new in the mid 90's. The dealer also said the OEM cooler setup is no longer available as a kit. The parts guy did say that it looks very similar to the auxiliary transmission cooler installed on Grand Cherokees with the factory tow package. With that information I bought a used transmission cooler with the bracket from a wrecked Jeep.

The removal of the front of a Jeep varies by year but for my 1993 model the first step was to remove the fog lights. The fog lights are mounted to a metal bracket and quite simple to remove by loosening the bolt and they come off. The harness connectors may be behind the grill so remove the six screws securing the grill to it’s support behind. With the grill removed you’ll be able to remove the headlights. The headlights are held in by two clips. One clip is at the inboard top corner and the other clip is at the outboard bottom corner. A firm tug will pop the headlights out, be careful not to break the clips. With the headlight loose disconnect the headlight from the harness. The corner lights and turn signals are held in with screws located between the housings. Yes some engineer thought it was a good idea to hide the screws and make you force the housings apart to get a screwdriver on the screws.

The bumper cover itself is held to it's support with a couple of screws across the top and a few screws in through the bottom. There are also push type fasteners in the wheel wells which need to be popped out and will probably be destroyed in the removal. My local hardware store had a selection of the plastic fasteners, I was able to locate some that would work as replacements. With the cover and support out of the way the front of your Jeep will look something like this.....

In this photo you can see the OEM transmission cooler mounted on the passenger side bracket. The empty bracket is where the power steering cooler will be mounted.

Now that the front of your Jeep is bare you can test mount your power steering cooler. I found that the bracket from the wrecked '97 Grand Cherokee would not fit my '93 model. In 1996 Jeep made slight changes to the front of the Grand Cherokee model, rather than modify the new bracket I just reused my original one. This photo shows the newer bracket, I later decided to use the original 1993 bracket.


The next task is to route your hoses from the power steering box to the cooler and finally return to the power steering pump. First remove the airbox for the engine to allow access to your lines and the pump. The high pressure fluid exits the power steering pump and goes down into the steering box. The fluid returns to the power steering pump through a regular fluid hose to the reservoir. This is the line we are going to intercept with the cooler. We want to take that hot fluid out of the steering box and cool it down before it goes into the pump.

This photo sequence identifies the hoses and shows which one to cut. An important point about the power steering reservoir, it is made of plastic. Because of that it is very easy to break the inlet nipple off of the reservoir, most likely meaning you'll need to buy a new pump or get really good with super glue. To avoid that mistake first cut the hose in the middle and then slice it down the middle after removing the clamp. You won't be applying any force to the reservoir and save the neighbor kids from learning new words.

Here's the shot showing the return line cut in the middle. If you accidentally cut the high pressure line it is only a $15 part, it's really not a bad idea to replace it any way. When that high pressure line starts to leak it has a tendency to spray on the exhaust manifold and possibly cause a fire.

Make sure when buying your hose that you buy about four feet of high pressure transmission return line. Do not try using heater hose in this application. Your cooling system operates at a maximum of 15psi, the return line on your power steering system can see pressures more than 10 times that amount. The line is not cheap but you don't want to skimp on something so close to the exhaust manifold.

The new return line will go from the power steering gear box to the inlet of the transmission cooler. I connected this line to the bottom nipple on the power steering cooler and ran the return line from the top of the power steering cooler back to the pump. As you can see in the photo I used rubber line entirely, I may fabricate some metal lines for the section that passes through the radiator support. There is a possibility of abrasion in this area and I don't want to lose all of my fluid due to a leak.

The power steering system will need to be bled after this installation. The procedure for bleeding the power steering system is to fill the reservoir and rotate the power steering pump (it will obviously be much easier to accomplish rotating the pump if you remove the serpentine belt). Your really don't want to rotate the pump by starting the engine until you have plenty of fluid in the system. As you rotate the pump by hand you will see air bubbles popping up through the fluid in the reservoir. With the cooler you have added fluid capacity to your power steering system so it will take a bit more fluid. Once you are no longer seeing bubbles get inside the Jeep and turn the steering wheel back and forth from stop to stop 40 times with the front wheels in the air. Yes 40 times! If you do not get all of the air out of the steering system you may end up with a noisy power steering pump. Top off the fluid to the COLD mark and start the Jeep. Make sure you keep the reservoir at the COLD level.

Your system should be topped off and running a lot cooler! Periodically check the fluid level and check for leaks.

First Entry!

Hello, this is my first blog entry obviously. This blog will chronicle my successes, failures, and attempts at different things in life.

I try a lot of projects, some turn out well, some not so much. My dad's comment a long time ago was "You know just enough to get yourself in trouble". Well that's pretty much true. I know just enough to try pretty much anything, sometimes with comical results. This tenacity is a personality trait I've always had so it isn't going to change any time soon.

I can remember taking apart my bike as a kid and repairing my remote control car with a soldering iron in junior high school. Throughout high school I picked up some automotive maintenance skills from my dad but was always discouraged from taking auto shop classes. The school counselors steered me towards engineering classes saying auto shop would be a waste of time. Really? Please give me a break. How many people don't know how to change a tire now? I mean I can draft up plans and really know how to use one of those eraser bags, excellent skills for the real world.

The first week after I arrived at college the alternator failed on my car, not a good start to school. The dealership originally told me the replacement cost would be $700 :( . They later were able to replace it for $350, still a huge amount of money to a college kid. After that little lesson I went to the library and started reading books on automotive maintenance. The alternator started my path of automotive projects which then led into a lot of other project attempts. I wasn't smart enough to know that I shouldn't dive in to something, just smart enough to know how to get elbow deep into a project.

I have a lot of projects I can share and hopefully I'll be able to make it entertaining. Feel free to make comments!