Sound, lights, action!

 7:25 am - Wednesday -April 9th - TWW - 51° F, humidity 22%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were visiting the world famous "Horseshoe Bend" near Page, AZ.....

.....had to get within 3' of the edge of the cliff to get the full picture....no fences, or handrails back then.  TLE couldn't bear to watch me, so she faced the other way....lol.

Once again we had the best intentions to apply the second coat of paint to the greenhouse woodwork, but the wind freshened unexpectedly, making spray painting out of the question.  Instead I began the reassembly of the under seat fuel tank in our 1969 Jeep CJ-5.

First I set the fuel tank on the sawhorses and filled it with water to see if I had fixed the leak, and the verdict was 'YES!' I did fix the leak!  Once that was done and I had drained out the water, and given it the needed time to dry, I began the reinstallation.  Getting the tank back in place was pretty easy, but just like the removal, the reinstallation of the driver seat was a pain in the you know where.  Nevertheless, I was successful, so I moved onto the next project, and that was to install a switch to turn off the 'clackity clack' fuel pump, while I worked on getting the Bluetooth Pioneer radio to work.

When I crawled under the jeep to find the fuel pump I discovered that the line into the fuel pump was ALSO leaking.....doh!  One leaked fixed, and now another.  Fortunately, this repair was pretty straightforward, and very similar to the repair I made on the Yamaha Rhino the other day.  The only hitch in fixing it was the new hose was slightly bigger in diameter than the old hose, and would not fit through the tube in the floor pan.....

The pass through tube

.....so I had to cut out the bad part of the old fuel line, and splice what the good parft into the new fuel line.....it was just long enough to pass through the tube and connect to the fuel pump....

The splice

.....I'm out of the very small hose clamps you need for the fuel line splice, but for now it is not leaking....that 'wet' spot you see was from the Vaseline I applied hoping I could push the new line through that tube, but it didn't work.  Once that was done I traced the wiring for the fuel pump to a place under the dashboard where I could insert the ON/OFF switch, and then drilled a hole in the dashboard to install it.....

The ON/OFF switch successfully wired, and installed

.....once that was done I got to work trying to figure out how to connect my phone Bluetooth to the Pioneer radio Bluetooth.  It took a while, including reading the online manual for the radio, but in the end I was successful, and have music pounding out of the 4 speakers, and the subwoofer.....yup, this Jeep is wired for great sound....

Success!

......we also needed to dump our black tank, refill our fresh water tank, and refill the IBC water tote Tuesday.  Once we had the black tank dumped, and the onboard freshwater tank filled, I left TLE to watch over the filling of the IBC tote, while I worked on the fuel pump switch, and solved the Bluetooth radio mystery.  By the time I had connected my phone to the radio it was time to put away all of the suction hoses we connect to fill our IBC water tote.....perfect timing!

I was well after 3:30 pm when we finished putting away the hoses, and time for TLE to prepare dinner (burritos and bacon wrapped, cream stuffed jalapeños), and me to put everything away, and clean up the trailer workbench.  We finally ate around 4:30 pm, and was it ever good!

By the way, the problem that was causing the hard start on the Jeep was not the battery....the battery is fine.  No, it was the crack in the fuel line right at the fuel pump that was allowing air into the line, and making it difficult to pressurize the fuel system that was causing the hard start.  In other words, it was a lack of sufficient fuel pressure that made it so hard to start. Now it starts immediately on the first crank, and runs so smoothly!

On another note, I've noticed that the price of a barrel of oil has now dropped below $60 for the first time in 4 years.....

....it won't be long until we will see diesel prices drop significantly under $3.00/gallon.....NICE!  By the way, in SoCal diesel is currently selling for as high as $4.95/gallon.  The local prices here in Northern Arizona are around $3.15/gallon right now.

Thanks for stopping by!