An interesting electrical problem. [now with Wet floor fix!]

[freestyler]

So, a quick update. When I get the pics off my camera I'll give a more in depth one.

Met with Jay and Christine (pre-PS: you guys rock, I had an excellent time) with Felix who was building a bed... and ripped out most of the center console while using Jay's Electromagic Amp Gauge Whatnot (over the course of the eve, many new terms were coined). Surprisingly, nothing obvious was found... However the bird-noise thingy was solved by simply disconnecting it. It was the Door/Headlight/Backup beeper behind the steering column. Jay believes it was on the out-n-out and could be the cause of the dead bats.

Problems that were also found (and hopefully solved).

Wet Floor syndrome - a potentially different versions than the quarter planned issue (pics will come)
Removed Misc/Extra wiring (random wires simply started and ended into nowhere)
Removed alot of the insulations under the carpet in the front (prevent rotting through water retention)
Heat gunned the front bumper's plastic, back step, and mirrors to black (super easy... basically just like spray painting)

More will follow soon.

[impalator]

Now that is a useful thing to know... the heat gunning kinda thing... I have applied "back to black" and "plastix" onto the rear step and the front chrome bar black plastic housing (for a lack of better name) and the darn things would miraculously go straight back to being pale grey... I will definitively give this stuff some heat gun treatment...

How close do you go? is there a risk of melting stuff down when doing it?

Sorry - I'm being a maggot here... rather than providing electro-tips, I am using up heat gun information...

Cheers, Chris

[freestyler]

So, here are the pictures...

We started the evening with the simple stuff... by using a inductive amp meter (?) we tried to find how many amps were being drawn out of the Batteries in various situations. Turns out that the max draw for my little problem was about 0.03 amps with everything off (which is normal, as the stereo requires a small supply to keep the memory settings)


- Testing the Amps, Yo!

That didn't stop us... as there was still the question of this weird bird-like noise. So we went to remove the various bits on the dash: Glove compartment, front panel molding and stereo


- In the process of removing all this Jay showed me the place were all lost things go in Delica's... this slot goes down behind the glove box and upon removal, I found these:


- Blank workorders (I think)


- Japanese Learner's test for driving (I think)


-Japanese Learner's test for driving (I think) Same as above... there was 8 pages in this foldout sheet


- And a Remix tape. Sadly the bottom has melted, so it's unlikely to rock out again.

Trucking along, things started to come apart:


- Front bits removed, here's what behind the Stereo and glove box looks like.


- Specifically behind the stereo (bad pic sorry)


- Stereo Wiring harness with the adapter to North American wiring

With all that removed we ripped out some miscellaneous wires that were around and disabled the bird-noise: which ended up being the backup, lights and key warning beeper; behind the left side of the steering column on the front wall. I couldn't get a picture of the bastard, but there is one already on the forum (I've seen it), but the link escapes me at this time.

Here's the electrical victims:


- Not much, but everything helps!


After somewhat solving the original problem, obviously more work needed to be done. It seems that I became the proud owner of a Van with "wet floor syndrome". BUT knowing that I bought this off Mardy and that he does good work in specifically taking care of these issues, I assumed that there was something other than This problem going on.

Jay then found this:


- This was taken facing the top right corner of the Van on the passenger side, where the 'gutter' meets the body.

The driver's side (same spot) had the exact the same thing going for it. Apparently when you leave it outside in the rain the roof collects the water in the gutter and funnels it to these cracks. Water then proceed down the chassis to the floor and comes out right by the Gas pedal (same relative location on the passenger side... just behind the windshield washer fluid container), which explains why the front foot wall was bone dry yet the floor had a puddle.

Cleaning it with Acetone the patch looked like this on both crack locations:


- Driver's side crack

Not pretty... but it gets the job done. I recommend getting the stuff listed in the link above, I'm using boat sealant (out of a lack of choice at 11pm on a Wed) but so far it's working well.

Drying to floor took awhile, but after literally ripping off as much of the insulation that I could, the which was directly attached to the bottom of the foot well carpet, the drying process resulted in this pile of rags and crap:

.
- More crap removed!


Not content with being done and calling it a night. Jay showed me the bumper heat gun trick. So off I went!


- In the process of making the bumper new again!


- The final result.

You can do this to the back step and the top cover on the grill. Also, the top of the rear tail gate mirror, plastic holders on the side mirrors and the top of front dome mirror too!

Anywho. That's about it. The electrical drain remains a mystery at this time. The system is charging fine, the alternator is kosher and there wasn't any significant drain found... it could simply be a case of 'bad' new batteries, so the next step in this adventure (should it happen again) is to replace the Bats with new ones again and see what happens. If that's the case, I might move away from the 2 Bat system and get one ginormous one instead while installing an inverter and an outlet. hehe.

I hope this was infromative for you.. just be sure to check behind your glove box for loot! Many shout outs to Jay and Christine for their help! (and to too you Felix!)

Cheers,

Freestyler

PS: If someone can find that delica.ca link showing the black beeping box, I'll update this for completion

[impalator]

I like the heat gun job.... looks like new...

Will do that on ours too...

[dfnder]

Two things,

I'm thinking about my Dads old 65 dodge pickup which he used around his place. When I was going to college and didn't have a vehicle I would be allowed to drive this thing lol, my Dad isn't that mechanically inclined but he did manage to keep the bulbous wheel fenders attached with shelving brackets. Needless to say it was a rusty vehicle, it had a leak near the floor as well as one from somewhere up higher which dripped down and my feet would get wet when I was driving in the rain :) Anyway on more than one occasion that I went to a friends house, parked out front and proceeded inside I would later have someone arrive and say Pete your lights are on. I would go out and my lights were on but the switch was off. I would have to turn the lights on and off a few times and then the lights would turn off... for an hour or so lol. Maybe fixing your leaking problems will solve your short :)

About restoring the black plastic pieces on our Delica's I have heard from a reliable source that the most consistant/recommended way to recondition them is to use boiling water. I'm pretty sure which would be easiest, pass the heat gun lol

[freestyler]

*SNIP*

About restoring the black plastic pieces on our Delica's I have heard from a reliable source that the most consistant/recommended way to recondition them is to use boiling water. I'm pretty sure which would be easiest, pass the heat gun lol

I doubt that the leakly-ness had something to do with my battery drain... both times they were parked after at least 1 week of not being around water and both times they were parked undergound for at least 5 days. The most recent drain came before I even knew I had the wet floor issue, which is a pool of water that is quite apparent and not easily missed.

As for the blow-gunning the bumper, make sure you use back to black polish on it. It needs a protective layer on it, or else the UV will just end up doing it again. I haven't put any protectiveness on it for two reasons: 1) I'm lazy 2) I'm curious on how long it will take to lose the nice blackness (or rather gain a layer of gray).

[MardyDelica]

HI, good job,
its always something new. as for wet syndrome see little crack. this is new. the only way you can see this when its raining hard.
thats why i re-sealed all the front panel of all my delica to prevent it as the first step. to avoid this problem.
when you have time to come by we can put a urethane for you. its much better & strong than what you put there temporary.
keep in touch,
Mardy

[Luna-Sea]

Hey,

Looks like it was a fun Deli fix night for sure!
I think the sealant you used was probably Sica-Flex which is a very good
sealer,not the most fun to work with as you no doubt found!
It is hard to get that stuff to look pretty,it can be done though usually by an old salty bastard sailboater or fisherman (or woman)!

Mardy what kind of sealer are you taliknf about I am curious!
"uruthane" is a hint but a product name would be great!

Right on

[MardyDelica]

hi i used the black urethane that thye used in the windshield not the urethane that you can buy in hardware store. special urethane for glass & metal to hold the joint. very strong.
cheers;
Mardy

[danfromvan]

Hi Jay & Christine, or anyone else with one, where did you buy your heat gun? Make and model, approx. cost?

Thanks,
Dan

[TardisDeli]

Hi Dan, anywhere, ie Canadian Tire or Princess Auto, cheapest is best, they're all the same cheap things that will die. Just come visit us our house in Burnaby and use ours, then I can show you how to do it, and where NOT to overheat on the little circular spacers beside the central bambi bars. Sending you a PM Private Message with cell #. Or reply to us via PM. Cheers, Christine.