Staying grounded

There was a great poster I saw once, it was a poem by Robert Fulghum: "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten" In it there is a number of simple life reminders for us all, things that we learned as new kids in a new arena learning to deal with new problems. It's cute. Aside from #7&10(my favorites) line #11 is a staple for me, especially on this project.

Last friday, I took Fillmore in to Polar Mobility to have a mixing valve replaced in the front heater core. A simple job. I was second in line so they said just leave it here and we'll be done in an hour. So off to Greggs Distributing I went and then for a cup of dark steaming Joe. When I returned I wasn't sure wether I was happy or sad to see Fillmore still in the service bay but when I saw the three service tech heads inside Fillmore popping up and down like the  bad carny game "whack a mole"...I knew it was a bad thing. I immediately stepped in and quietly soaked in the scene to find out what was going on. The issue seemed to be power. There had developed an electrical issue, only partial power to some of the components seemingly in the front. Mid station heater core was working, sort of, and the rear system seemed to be OK. None of it made sense, and wasn't working like it should and he should know as he was the tech who put it all together in the first place.

  

They had been at it for a while checking and re checking connections and power supply. After a few minutes of grunting and groaning and colorful adjectives being expressed, the tech got up, looked at me dead in the eye and politically said.."what has changed since it was working last?". It took only a millisecond to hear the real question...."Alright I've checked everything over and all my ducks are in a row.....what did YOU do?"  I swallowed hard and said..."Well, I had disconnected the mid station heater core, both electric and coolant lines, to re-route them to a more favorable location."
...."Aaaand, I installed this!" I exclaimed as I lifted the floor boards on the rear passenger side to show off the new battery bank.
The tech said nothing, turned away and started again for the front . Abruptly he stopped looked up from his feet, and I kid you not, turned in a exaggerated slow mo pivot and locked onto my eyes. To me it seemed like I was stuck in a Clint Eastwood western, my mouth was dry and my face was hot. His eyes darted from the battery in the center isle to the new battery bank I had installed.

Without words I knew the problem, and a lesson from a few years later in my schooling was chanting in the back of my brain. Newton's Third Law:For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction



At time of the A/C installation the temporary house battery was simply plunked down at the back of the living space(above left). I then relocated the battery location when I created the new battery bank(above right)
You see, I was always intending on finishing the job, but I ran out of time. When I did install the new batteries I routed the main Pos+ and Neg- battery cables from the battery isolator.












But I didn't get around to running the A/C wiring to the new batteries, so before going to Polar I simple reinstalled the temporary battery for the A/C unit, with full intention of finishing the job.

#11 Learn some and think some...

Now put Newton and Fulghum in the same glass and stir...

When the A/C units were re connected to the temporary battery, positive and negative were reconnected. But as we know with 12V systems, sometimes we ground components to the frame, and typically the battery is also grounded to the frame at some point. But, the temp battery was not grounded to the frame....Get it Sir Isac? So we had power, but not all power. As I was coming out of my thinking blur I see the tech with a set of  jumper cables. He connected the temp battery to the battery bank.....and we have power. If you sit with your milk and cookies and think about it....it seems elementary, but somehow a small simple temporary issue can have an effect(or reaction) that can be all consuming.

So Randy diligently took on the job of re routing the appropriate cables and wires to their rightful new home.Cut, splice,fish in,out and under, drill, loom and re enter....done like dinner. As usual he made quick work of a job I would take forever to accomplish.

While Randy played with electricity, I played with water. I installed the new SeeLevel tank monitoring system by Garnet Industries a great way to install multi tank monitors to a common control panel.

I'm going for a break, it's afternoon nap time