Trial and Error

16 Comments

Today was a long day of trial and error. Everything was ready, I thought, when I went to hook the battery back up. But then the starter began to crank when the battery cable hit the battery post. Later on I would find that this was because the starter relay connections were too close to (i.e. touching) each other and the starter was effectively being jumped.

Anyway, I got that sorted, but still, when I turned the key I got nothing. Voltage was flowing as I turned the ignition, but no cranking of the motor. Hours went by staring at wiring schematics, scratching my head, and wondering how something that looked so simple—hooking up a starter to an ignition—could have me so dumbfounded.

I eventually gave up and bypassed the starter relay solenoid completely, wiring the ignition directly to the starter. Turn the key, and presto, the engine starts.

I called NAPA and ordered a new starter relay, hopeful that the new one I put in was in fact a wrong one. It appears the part number was off by one. We’ll see tomorrow.

On the plus side, we can drive off if we want to. And also, everything else seems to be working—lights, wipers, and all the rest. I’ll be surprised if I don’t discover at least a couple of things down the line, but we are definitely road ready at this point.

We were reading in bed tonight when Ouest asked me, “Papa, what’s agua in Spanish?”

“Uh, agua in Spanish is agua, baby. Agua is water in English.”

Pause. “Are you telling the truth?”

Oct12-1 Oct12-2 Oct12-3

Inside that Aristocrat Trailer is a turquoise oven, the exact model as our non-fuctioning brown one. Not for sale.

Oct12-4 Oct12-5 Oct12-6

She has been dubbed Unicorn Sheep, for no other reason than kids just have a really, really hard time thinking of names.

Oct12-7 Oct12-8

This used to be a timid sheep, then Ali came around and started feeding it. It now follows her around like a puppy—and tries to drink my beer.

Oct12-9 Oct12-10 Oct12-11

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16 Comments on “Trial and Error”

    1. I have a 72 Winnebago, on the excellent Dodge chassis, and it also has two starter relays. The one on the starter motor itself is to handle the heavy current the starter needs for starting a mopar V8 in cold weather. Its control wire is fed by the smaller relay. The smaller one as shown in your picture is a safety feature. Its part of the interlock to prevent the starter from being able to turn the motor – unless the transmission is in Neutral or Park. It has 4 terminals. The smaller two go to the magnetic coil inside the relay. One of the terminals gets grounded when the ignition switch is turned to the ‘start’ position. The other small terminal is connected to 12 volts – via the switch on the transmission (a connection which is only closed when the trans is in Park or Neutral) and through a fuse (the same fuse for the horn on my Dodge based motorhome). The heavy terminals on that small relay connect the battery voltage to the control wire for the relay on the starter. The relay on the starter also has the job of pulling the gear teeth into contact with the starter ring on the flywheel just before it closes the heavy contacts to make the starter turn.
      The switch on the transmission has 3 wires to it, because it also supplies current to the vehicle’s backup lights. So with a shorted wire to the backup lights, it will blow the fuse when you put the shift lever into reverse. And after this the starter would not work until the fuse is replaced – or until you wire around the neutral-start interlock scheme – bypassing the smaller relay. So we used to tell folks whose Dodge based motorhomes whose starters would suddenly not work, to check if their backup lights were still working.

      1. Dave,
        Thank you for the great explanation! I am sure that Pat will appreciate this when he reads it.
        Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM)

  1. C’mnon pat, i think that sheep is asking for something, don’t be a beer hog! A Drunk sheep, now that would be a funny sight for your kids to see!:-)

    Did Ouest get a toy or reward for being such a brave big girl at the dentist the other day?:-)

      1. Me neither! I Usually only sterilize my teeth
        with surgical-grade iodine solution, then i just
        brush them a bit with my brush, i think that works
        better, surgical grade sterile is better than toothpaste!

        Still though, i have to go to the dentist to get out a tooth
        tomorrow, unless your a millionaire, you have to wait about 2.5
        years to get your teeth fixed in the public health system in Australia.

        I Am not a millionaire, so i just pay out what i can, but bloody teeth, they cause you and your family so much strife, it’s good that Ouest got something for her bravery, i bet that it was a pink toothbrush and floss! Maybe a red light?! 🙂

        Trent.

  2. When I saw the picture of Ouest with the fishing rod on her shoulder, I could hear the theme song to “The Andy Griffith Show” whistling in my head! 🙂

    Love reading about your adventures and watching your children grow free and natural.

  3. That place you are staying is a child’s dream. It looks like they could play there for years. Just looking at the pictures you could find a million things to do there and with the animals a million and one. I think you have referred to this before, but Lowe is all boy as he always seems to be in the dirt and have some dirt on his face. That’s the way I remember playing as a child and I always loved my uncle’s farm when we would visit. Ouest is a cutie too as she always finds unique things to do and this time she appears to be trying out fishing. I’ll have to say the fire issue may have been a blessing in disquise. Glad to hear the wiring is good enough to get you going, but I bet the kids will be sad to leave and maybe Ali too as she will have to leave another pet friend behind.

  4. That is too funny about the agua. My 5-year old is pretty obsessed with learning what things are called in Spanish. He never believes me when the word is the same in English. He can’t believe me that “No” in Spanish and English are the same.

  5. Trapped in friendly paradise…

    I’ve really got to look into this getting-the-better-of-capitalism thingy you are so good at.

    Be well, all.

    1. I admit that on day two I was staring at that mess of wires and thinking there was no way I was going to figure it out. In the end it was one of those projects where there’s nothing else to do but start somewhere. Once I started running the easy/obvious wires the rest just sort of fell into place (more or less).

  6. Hope you didn’t bypass the park/neutral limiter. One start in drive could be messy.

    Paul Thomas

    1. Until I figure out what’s going on with the relay I have indeed bypassed it. Thanks for the reminder though, I’ll be extra careful on that one.

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