L31 Extreme Budget Build

Supercharged111 said:

Cooper got bought out recentlyish, I believe by the Chineses. Hopefully they don't screw with operations!

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Goodyear bought them out.

I started on a bit more work getting this thing road worthy. I have had a heck of a time finding a decent ac condenser. I have looked high and low, finally stumbled across a Peterbilt unit that looks like it will actually fit. I ordered a test subject to find out. Basically I am changing stuff anyway, why not put an absolute unit of an ac condenser in this van and get the coldest ac I can.





Then I started working on wiring. Some people hate it, I really do not mind it. I just take my time, do it right and try to make it clean looking, properly secured and adequately connected and weather sealed. I started with the new alternator charge wire and its fuse link, the high blower relay power feed fuse link and the new body ground. I forgot to pickup 6awg in black for the body ground, so 2awg it is. The run is so short the material waste was minimal going with a ground that large. Tomorrow I am starting with battery cable routing and fabrication. Then on to the C100 plug to get this thing running off its own electical system and the ignition key. I am setting this one up for a 24F, can easily trade the battery out with one of the Nissan products if need be that way, plus I am not a side post fan.

L31MaxExpress said:

I started on a bit more work getting this thing road worthy. I have had a heck of a time finding a decent ac condenser. I have looked high and low, finally stumbled across a Peterbilt unit that looks like it will actually fit. I ordered a test subject to find out. Basically I am changing stuff anyway, why not put an absolute unit of an ac condenser in this van and get the coldest ac I can.

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I am impressed by your Can Do attitude when it comes to A/C performance.

You are determined to find/fix/overcome the original system performance
bottlenecks methodically, using theory to drive empirical testing, and feeding
the results back into your theory data set.

If any of the young dudes are reading along, *this* is how you get really good
at something. Anything, actually.

L31MaxExpress said:

Then I started working on wiring. Some people hate it, I really do not mind it. I just take my time, do it right and try to make it clean looking, properly secured and adequately connected and weather sealed. I started with the new alternator charge wire and its fuse link, the high blower relay power feed fuse link and the new body ground. I forgot to pickup 6awg in black for the body ground, so 2awg it is. The run is so short the material waste was minimal going with a ground that large.

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L31MaxExpress said:

You must be registered for see images attach

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My great Uncle Hank once told me that "Your Work is your Signature."

Even though you are 'just working on an older van', you are putting aerospace
quality work into it. That is some senseless beauty right there.
Effin' robust also comes to mind -- the chances of this failing in flight is nil.

Congrats, based on your body of work, if you were tell me that doing foo would
undo my engine bay enigma, even if I didn't understand why I would still implement
your recommendation without hesitation.

Nice work. Thanks for sharing excellence.

I have used that pseudo Magnabraid,the stuff that is tinned copper for ground straps. It comes in all the same sizes as the real stuff so you can use the larger stuff for heavy grounds. I wouldn't use for the main battery ground but for anything less than 200 amps it works good and looks right.

SAATR said:

Goodyear bought them out.

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You're right, straight from the horse's mouth.


This snippet is interesting, I wonder if there's more to be read into here.

Bringing Goodyear and Cooper Together is Expected To:

In China, the combination nearly doubles Goodyear’s presence and increases the number of relationships with local automakers, while creating broader distribution for Cooper replacement tires through Goodyear’s network of 2,500 branded retail stores.

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Scooterwrench said:

I have used that pseudo Magnabraid,the stuff that is tinned copper for ground straps. It comes in all the same sizes as the real stuff so you can use the larger stuff for heavy grounds. I wouldn't use for the main battery ground but for anything less than 200 amps it works good and looks right.

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I bought a similar material pre-fabricated ground strap for the rear of the engine to the floor pan ground because it needs to be thin and flexible. Difference between the new strap and old one is substantial. This van has been given the Big 3.

I am working on the positive battery cable now. About to route it, mount it securely, and terminate it. Then will start on the ground cable before finally moving to the fuse link connection between the battery and buss bar terminal. I will be using an OE clip inside the inner fender to support that fuse link connection and keep it out of way, it also holds the front headlamp harness but it is large enough to hold both.

Supercharged111 said:

You're right, straight from the horse's mouth.

Goodyear Completes Acquisition of Cooper-Cooper

This snippet is interesting, I wonder if there's more to be read into here.

Bringing Goodyear and Cooper Together is Expected To:

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Well there goes Cooper too,right off to China. This $hit is getting outta hand! Guess we can expect to get Coopers that are molded out of round too.

Scooterwrench said:

Well there goes Cooper too,right off to China. This $hit is getting outta hand! Guess we can expect to get Coopers that are molded out of round too.

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I agree it is rediculous. I was not even able to find some very simple things local here. To the jungle site I had to go!

Its stuff like this too. Hardware store and auto parts stores often cannot even get them. I bought them not only to use for this project to help organize and secure the wiring, but just to have them in my collection of spares as well. I cannot even begin to count how many times I see thse cut and harness hanging loosly across engines on stock vehicles I am maintaining that someone else, mainly delership mechanics working on them under warranty have cut. As such the Pathfinder needs a couple from when the heater manifold assembly was replaced when it was still under warranty.

One thing I see all the time with people doing their own Big 3 upgrades that I feel worth mentioning. They hang a welder cable sized wire off their battery, across their whole engine compartment to the underhood fuse block or alternator, connect it right up to their battery and call it good. Other pet peeve is people doing the same on amp wiring for sound systems. Punch a hole into some sheet metal, not a grommet or fuse in sight and feed the cable straight through unprotected. Anything I run through sheet metal gets a weatherproof bulkhead connector of some kind added. This is my battery to buss bar connection. It will also be loomed and it will have a couple of those christmas tree style zip ties to hold it in place. The core support and the battery tray already have some suitable existing holes.

When I do swaps and wiring like this, I try to make it look as much as possible like GM built it that way. OE wire colors even where possible. Just makes it easier on me in the future if I ever have to chase a problem circuit through the harness.

I tested the wiring to this point, couple of light taps on the ring terminal, no sparks and connected it for the pictures. About to throw together a couple temporary 14 awg fuse links with spades on the ends to connect to the C100 plugs two battery connections. Pin them into place, breakout the DMM and start double checking my pinout chart before I start wiring the rest of the van up.

However before that, time to put it on jack stands, get the battery cables finished and connect the ground strap into place under the van.