Tag: HVAC

Last post of 2022

(12/29/2022)

2022 will be remembered as the year I decided to finally tear into this pig. Now to keep the momentum going in 2023!

I finished the LEDs for the red part of the tail light and started working on the animation for the turn signals.

It’s time to pull coolant out of the car. I need to remove the heater core and I don’t have a good way to drain everything in the tight space I’m in. So, I decided to use an old garden hose and a small pump and suck all the coolant out of the engine. And it’s gross looking.

I finally won the battle with this HVAC box. I’m certain someone will email me and tell me that I’m ruining something special. That’s fine. The new setup will be under the hood and I can service it in an afternoon, not a month of afternoons.

Looks like the heater core was leaking anyway. Go figure.

So much more room for activities!

Wipers

(12/28/2022)

I’ve worked on many wiper motors in the past. All of them have had some sort of crankshaft like bar attached to a cam like gear on a motor. I have never seen anything cable driven.

I have to admit, I don’t think I hate this. Yes, I hate the electrical connector, but something about being able to remove an entire wiper assembly from the car in one piece is kind of refreshing.

I’ll give this one to Jaguar.

And here’s the terrible electrical connection:

I started playing with the instrument cluster. The four gauges in the middle will be replaced with a small LCD screen, but the speedometer and tachometer will remain. The tachometer will be changed to become a KWH meter. Looks like I can easily put a pulse in and control both gauges. Maybe someday I’ll change them to steppers? For now they work like this and still has the old-car charm of bouncing gauges.

And then there’s this. This is just part of the incredibly over-complex HVAC this car has (had)

And if my dryer at home has it’s thermostat go out, I can just grab this spare off a nearby Jag.

HVAC

(12/18/2022)

As this is being converted to electric, the heating will change from water to electric. Also, I need to make the AC electric as well. There will be challenges here…so where do I start? The display of course!

So in the Jaguar there is a trip computer that shows a clock, fuel used, etc. That isn’t really going to be necessary in it’s original form for the electric rebuild. Additionally I plan to completely use a different HVAC air box setup as the factory one is a bit more complicated than needed.

So, I started looking at gutting the trip computer to repurpose it to be a climate control computer. I plan to make it look stock, but function very different.

Lucas – We use wooden beads for PCB standoffs.

I really like these illuminated buttons, but I was quite shocked to find they were illuminated with an incandescent lamp! On the plus side, LED conversion is simple since the button is hollow up the middle!

I plan to use a 7-segment LED display, in green, to have the look and feel of 1986 electronics. Also something I like? No tail on the top of the 6. It’s a hold over from TTL 7-segment drivers and I’ve always liked it.