Sunday, March 22, 2009

Installing Pumps and Cable Conduit

It's been a rough week. The kids and I all came down with a nasty cold/flu virus which knocked us out with fever. I missed three days of work and the kids missed school. Luckily for me, I was feeling much better by the weekend and got back to working on the car. While I installed the expansion tank for the vacuum pump, Evan who had recently returned from Florida focused on installing the power steering pump.

As seen here, the aluminum plate motor support provided plenty of surface to mount the power steering pump. A sleeve approximately two and a half inches long was cut from a metal electrical conduit pipe and used to feed through the long mounting bolt. The only thing left to complete this installation is to have the belt adjustment bracket milled a bit so that it can rest flush with the motor support. I will also need to shop around for a smaller/shorter belt since the original belt is now too long.



Below is a shot of the vacuum pump expansion tank which is made of three inch diameter ABS pipe approximately two feet long with end caps. On one end cap, three holes were drilled and tapped for two hose connectors and one vacuum switch. The tank is mounted to the front splash plate located behind the car's front grill by large hose clamps that are drilled right into the aluminum splash plate with self-threading metal screws.



Here is a shot of the vacuum hose connection to the brake booster. This hose also has a check valve attached (lower right hand side). I had forgotten to keep the original check valve before selling the ICE so I bought one from a local automotive scrap yard ($10).



The vacuum pump was then mounted on the aluminum motor adapter plate which also had just enough spare surface to fit it mounted at an angle. The reason I prefer mounting the vacuum pump here as opposed to the car chassis or firewall is due to the vibrations created when the vacuum pump runs. These vibrations will now be absorbed by the cars original three motor mounts (one of the many things I learned from Richard Lane).



It was time to also install the flexible 3/4" electrical conduit that will house the 2/0 main power cables running from the trunk of the car to the front motor compartment where the control board will be located. I wanted to keep as straight a line as possible between the front and the back of the car in order to facilitate fishing the cables through. I used the path of the old exhaust pipe which runs right across the middle of the car's underside (hump) leading straight into the spare wheel well. Using a one inch metal drill bit, I drilled two holes next to each other and attached two pipe connectors (females) specially made for the type and size of conduit I was using.

Here are two pictures taken from the top side of the trunk.





Here is a picture taken from the underside of the trunk.



I then fastened the conduit underneath the floor inside the hump or old exhaust pipe path using one inch metal and rubber clips with self-threading metal screws.



In a few spots, I used tie wraps to keep both lengths of conduit closely held together. Below is a shot of the conduit ends at the front motor compartment just underneath the area where the control board will be mounted.



Jim

1 comment:

Brian said...

Let me know if you find a source for those serpentine belts. I need a rather short or perhaps custom one made myself.