A few odds and ends

It's a rainy Sunday and while the batteries are being fed, I'm doing a little "debugging."

I noticed that the most negative cable coming from the trunk rack is rubbing just a little on the steering column. So I disconnected and re-routed it.

I spent some time on my experimental passive cooling system for the Zilla. The idea is to reuse the heater core since it is right by the Zilla. First step is to use it as a reservoir and see if that is enough to keep the Zilla happy. Second step, if this fails, is to add a pump to create a little circulation. Either way, I'm going to need the temp gauge to work...

I did some extensive testing on my temperature gauge. It comes out it was the 12v lead going to the gauge that wasn't right - it showed 12v, but only until the key was on... I also found out you can't test the sending unit by heating it up with a soldering gun while it's against a heat sink. The heat sink soaks up all the heat - like I didn't know that... I ended up connecting a 12v jumper to the Iota and removing the sending unit and heating it with a solder gun and got the gauge to work. Instead of fishing for another 12v source on the instrument panel, I think I'll run a new wire, that way I'll know it works.

I also have to hook up the relay for the Iota with a new 12v lead off the key. That will make 4 devices off the key switch - the hairball, the vacuum pump, the temp gauge and the Iota relay. I think it's safe to say I need a fuse box. Found one on eBay that handled 4 fuses, looked good and was under $10!

Probably won't get a chance to install it until after new years...