So as I sip that wonderful and I mean so wonderful cup of coffee here in Russia, I am contemplating as it rains today what I have gotten done on Sammy the Volga and what I have left…
1. Turn signals are done. New system installed and working perfect…
2. Headlights are done. Rewired and happily lit with not any overheating issues from shorts in the wires. Even got the headlight angle adjuster switch to start working again…
3. Heater core installed, as is the new blower motor, plus found our massive (the culprit) short in the system that burned everything up…
4. Rebuilt and installed two new fuse panels, plus installed a new fuse panel for bypass operations also. Some areas of the wiring harness had to be isolated and redone…
5. Rebuilt ignition system and Sammy starts and runs perfect…
6. Installed new section of accessory switches. Replace what got fried by the huge short and replaced even switches that just too old…
7. Found new issues, such as alternator charging system took a hit and found a bad cable. So I had to rewire that system so we charged the battery again and rewired plus organized the under hood wires to look better and be safer. New fuse block under hood and all battery related cables replaced. Also traced and replaced with color coded wires for ignition…
8. ???
Now…
Sveta helped me to do detailed instruction translation for our new dash panel for instruments. This is going to be interesting and I have devised a bypass wire jumper system to allow us to ignore anything that no longer is on the original wiring harness…
The new panel for instruments is different than the original and due to a dead short that blew up the original, I have to make sure nothing will do the same to the new one. Therefore, it is tedious…
Once the dash panel is rewired? I then will be able to reinstall the whole dash and install new ignition start button system and a few new gauges if needed. We are debating installing a physically separate oil pressure gauge, the new panel does not have anything but an idiot light. All the panel has is a fuel gauge and temp. gauge. The rest are just idiot lights. We had to install bypasses for things we do not have such as ABS and EBD sensors and more…
Yes, Sammy is an old girl and does not have such new fangled modern tech… 😉
I see the end of the tunnel and soon the dash itself will be set back in place, wires tidied up and creativity will be called upon to finalize everything back into place and find new homes for new systems. Such as the new starter button instead of only key starting. It is going to be really neat and I know it will work perfect, for Sammy is already hot wired to use the new panel. I just have to wait to finish installing it…
Guess I will go get another cup of coffee…
WtR