olympicorange
Active member
look'n great dave,....
-
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442 Refurbishment Project
- Thread starter DAVENET
- Start date
Chasing grounding gremlins. 
Maybe this will help someone in the future when they are pulling out their hair.
I wired up the headlights a few weeks ago and everything was golden. I added a horn back onto the cat last weekend. The original had been dispatched long ago. Instead of using the old horn relay that was firewall mounted, I used one of the new relays in the cam to power it. Should have been pretty straight forward, correct? (Even for an electrical idiot like me). Wire it, check it, test it, nothing. Check and verify I have done it correctly multiple times and still nothing. Relay wired wrong? Or bad?? I grab the old three prong relay and plug everything in to test. Now I'm thinking the wire thru the column has broken internally. Was about at my snapping point. Instead of using the horn button to test again I just grabbed a stripped wire to make the jump from internal wire to column. A slight beep then nothing. Wiggle the wire on the column a little and the horn works. Solution to others: When remounting the steering wheel, take a Dremel with a wire brush and clean all of the threads in the nut and on the column to complete the circuit.
Then I proceed to turn on the headlights. Nothing.
Swap the fuse, pull the switch and it immediately pops. Spend an hour trying to figure out how the horn work could have possibly affected the lights. Pop the dash panel back out to verify everything was still ok. Trace everything a third time. Stumped. Go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. Riding to work it dawns on me only spot that could be grounding out is by the lights. I'm not sure if every Tucker has this, but on my headlight / radiator support brackets I have positive and negative power contact points. They aren't 'powered', they are just contact points that are mounted on non conductive phenolic pads. Feed power to the top with the power lead for the light, use the bottom to continue the feed to the other side. I unscrew these and just attach the wires directly together to test. Lights work. Why did they work for 3 weeks with no problem and just quit? Solution to others: Even though screws going into those connections look OEM, don't assume that they are. The screws only have 1/4" of thread to keep from contacting the steel plate they are mounted on. One of mine was 3/8". It worked fine and wasn't a problem . . . until the vibrations from the engine running finally scrubbed away the paint to ground and short.
I did have a stiff drink last night to celebrate that mild victory over the gods of electrical currents.
Maybe this will help someone in the future when they are pulling out their hair.I wired up the headlights a few weeks ago and everything was golden. I added a horn back onto the cat last weekend. The original had been dispatched long ago. Instead of using the old horn relay that was firewall mounted, I used one of the new relays in the cam to power it. Should have been pretty straight forward, correct? (Even for an electrical idiot like me). Wire it, check it, test it, nothing. Check and verify I have done it correctly multiple times and still nothing. Relay wired wrong? Or bad?? I grab the old three prong relay and plug everything in to test. Now I'm thinking the wire thru the column has broken internally. Was about at my snapping point. Instead of using the horn button to test again I just grabbed a stripped wire to make the jump from internal wire to column. A slight beep then nothing. Wiggle the wire on the column a little and the horn works. Solution to others: When remounting the steering wheel, take a Dremel with a wire brush and clean all of the threads in the nut and on the column to complete the circuit.
Then I proceed to turn on the headlights. Nothing.
Swap the fuse, pull the switch and it immediately pops. Spend an hour trying to figure out how the horn work could have possibly affected the lights. Pop the dash panel back out to verify everything was still ok. Trace everything a third time. Stumped. Go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. Riding to work it dawns on me only spot that could be grounding out is by the lights. I'm not sure if every Tucker has this, but on my headlight / radiator support brackets I have positive and negative power contact points. They aren't 'powered', they are just contact points that are mounted on non conductive phenolic pads. Feed power to the top with the power lead for the light, use the bottom to continue the feed to the other side. I unscrew these and just attach the wires directly together to test. Lights work. Why did they work for 3 weeks with no problem and just quit? Solution to others: Even though screws going into those connections look OEM, don't assume that they are. The screws only have 1/4" of thread to keep from contacting the steel plate they are mounted on. One of mine was 3/8". It worked fine and wasn't a problem . . . until the vibrations from the engine running finally scrubbed away the paint to ground and short.I did have a stiff drink last night to celebrate that mild victory over the gods of electrical currents.
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Ok just making sure you are not one of those guys....
Took yesterday off to try to get the pontoons and tracks mounted before the 1-3 inches of rain that is coming tonight and the deep freeze that is following behind. I should have taken today also. It's obviously doable by one person, with the correct equipment in a day, but apparently not this guy, in the driveway, with a bottle jack (on the shortest day of the year). The 10 year difference in body aging obviously doesn't help either! I can still do it, just not as fast!
Anyway, pontoons are done and all four remounted. Two tracks pulled into place and hopefully getting strapped back together tonight. Hood remounted, so body is done (other than some reworking of the door paint in the future since my talents are more than lacking compared to everything else).
Anyway, pontoons are done and all four remounted. Two tracks pulled into place and hopefully getting strapped back together tonight. Hood remounted, so body is done (other than some reworking of the door paint in the future since my talents are more than lacking compared to everything else).
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luvthemvws
Active member
It's looking Great!
Your workmanship looks first rate to me!
(Your cabinet appears to be missing a Speedway Motors sticker, though. So it is incomplete.
)
Your workmanship looks first rate to me!
(Your cabinet appears to be missing a Speedway Motors sticker, though. So it is incomplete.
)
Well, after a decade plus 2 I am 99.98% done (need to switch out 6 emergency spare rollers with some NOS that are coming from the west coast buried bunker). The job certainly could have been done much faster, but having started this when the kids were young and in school, the family stuff takes precedence. Also, having a true shop to work in instead of the side yard would have kicked the speed up a bit. I pretty much wore a trough walking back and forth getting other crap I forgot in the garage working on it any given day. Anyway, it's back together and made it's first tracks this past weekend.
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Congratulations Dave! You did an awesome job on your Tucker!
It's been fun to watch your progress as you tackled the various aspects of the project, and persevered through many adversities to triumph!
It's been fun to watch your progress as you tackled the various aspects of the project, and persevered through many adversities to triumph!
1boringguy
Well-known member
I'm excited for you. Make a lot of tracks, and a lot of smiles 
Sno-Surfer
Well-known member
Just went through the whole thread to remind me where it all started. Really nice work and a hearty congrats to gettin er done. Hope you enjoy the heck out of it and hope to see it in the wild sometime.
Bennyboy1337
Active member
Phenomenal job, you inspire me!
Well, since Mr. Redsqwrl corrected (edumacated me) my thinking on the 30 grouser club, I had to get some west coast (parts) and east coast (fabrication) help to make it right. With my additional grouser to get my R/H rear corner back to a full compliment of 31, I finally got crazy and started the transfer about a month ago. Had the old girl down in the driveway so I could be on the flat and work in the sun. Jack the rear up, drop the drive shaft, hammer the end adjusters back in to shortest setting and start the link bending process. That's good fun. 
Getting toward the end of the process, with maybe 3 links left to bend and not really thinking too much (or at all?), I grab the extra grouser and connecting links. I'll just pop those in, bend the last few links and readjust the tension. And then it hits me -- there's no way I'm taking up 6 inches of slack. After scratching my head for a few minutes I catch the problem / solution. The other three tracks have half links installed to reduce the extra slack by 3 inches. I have plenty of full links for spares, but no half links.
So, the Tucker is blocking my driveway and I can't get the track hooked back up since everything has been bent and shortened. And I'm running out of daylight. After strapping it together with multiple tiedowns I creep it back up on the hill. Then it was time to start gathering materials to build parts that are no longer made. I'm guessing the last owner ran into the same exact issue, and after he couldn't source half links, he just tightened it up with 30 grousers. I will say that like every 'sidetrack' project similar to this, I gain a new appreciation of just how many man hours had to go into producing a track. Times four.
Getting toward the end of the process, with maybe 3 links left to bend and not really thinking too much (or at all?), I grab the extra grouser and connecting links. I'll just pop those in, bend the last few links and readjust the tension. And then it hits me -- there's no way I'm taking up 6 inches of slack. After scratching my head for a few minutes I catch the problem / solution. The other three tracks have half links installed to reduce the extra slack by 3 inches. I have plenty of full links for spares, but no half links.
So, the Tucker is blocking my driveway and I can't get the track hooked back up since everything has been bent and shortened. And I'm running out of daylight.
After strapping it together with multiple tiedowns I creep it back up on the hill. Then it was time to start gathering materials to build parts that are no longer made. I'm guessing the last owner ran into the same exact issue, and after he couldn't source half links, he just tightened it up with 30 grousers. I will say that like every 'sidetrack' project similar to this, I gain a new appreciation of just how many man hours had to go into producing a track. Times four.Attachments
Why didn't you just go to napa for the necessary parts. tuckers are great, "you can get everything from napa". that quote is only repeated by new owners and non-owners. I am in amazement at all the repairs and patches on these machines, I build replacement rear diffs and a lot of the fixes are quite impressive.Well, since Mr. Redsqwrl corrected (edumacated me) my thinking on the 30 grouser club, I had to get some west coast (parts) and east coast (fabrication) help to make it right. With my additional grouser to get my R/H rear corner back to a full compliment of 31, I finally got crazy and started the transfer about a month ago. Had the old girl down in the driveway so I could be on the flat and work in the sun. Jack the rear up, drop the drive shaft, hammer the end adjusters back in to shortest setting and start the link bending process. That's good fun.
Getting toward the end of the process, with maybe 3 links left to bend and not really thinking too much (or at all?), I grab the extra grouser and connecting links. I'll just pop those in, bend the last few links and readjust the tension. And then it hits me -- there's no way I'm taking up 6 inches of slack. After scratching my head for a few minutes I catch the problem / solution. The other three tracks have half links installed to reduce the extra slack by 3 inches. I have plenty of full links for spares, but no half links.
So, the Tucker is blocking my driveway and I can't get the track hooked back up since everything has been bent and shortened. And I'm running out of daylight.
Wait till some one sees this post .... " 1/2 links work " and then put them on the older sprockets that have skip tooth engagement. gas wrench adjustments will be made!