What did you do to your Challenger today?

[itsamitsi]

Over the last month the pulsing pedal had gotten worse. It started some weeks after last pad change.Bit the bullet and bought another set of rotors and pads. Majority of the issue may have been a seized slide LHR but not sure. Front LH was a little sticky too. All new stuff in and smooth as the proverbial bum

[pb4x2]

NOT today but on the 31/10/2021 sold my 2012 4x2 PB Challenger with 92403km on the clock. It was the first new car I have had bought and we loved it but decided to replace it with a smaller city SUV which is more suitable for our use. I still have my MN Triton so will remain here in the background.

[Kingbrown]

During a recent trip to the northern Flinders, my PB's RH low beam headlight failed.
LH low beam was still working ok, implying that it wasn't the low beam relay or controls that were at fault.
There had been a flicker when I first turned the headlight on . . . then nothing.

Thinking/hoping it was just a bulb or a fuse that had failed, but that wasn't to be.
Turns out there's a broken wire (positive) that's down to ground (about 0.5ohms) on the load side of the break. Had it been just an earth fault without a break it would be fairly easy to nail down the location. Might try passing some current to ground through the wire and detect where the wire's field is present/absent using a magnet on a string, or a compass.
If I disturb the earth fault to use a clamp meter then there may be no way of getting current to flow.

It would be relatively easy to run a new wire from the fuse box to the headlight, but leaving a fault somewhere in the wiring/loom doesn't sit well with me.

[Kingbrown]

Great success here. Wiring fault was very close to the car's fuse box. Tracked it all the way using my magnet dangling on a string and a pulse of current through the wire.

Installers of wiring for bullbar appear to have stuffed up a joint, which had broken and shorted to ground (or vice versa perhaps).
Weakened wiring from their joint must have blown before any protective fuse.

Results of various tests all make sense now.

[Lakey]

Great success here. Wiring fault was very close to the car's fuse box. Tracked it all the way using my magnet dangling on a string and a pulse of current through the wire.

Installers of wiring for bullbar appear to have stuffed up a joint, which had broken and shorted to ground (or vice versa perhaps).
Weakened wiring from their joint must have blown before any protective fuse.

Results of various tests all make sense now.

Good result, it'd bug me as well knowing something was wrong in the loom (I once had to redo the ignition wiring of my Landrover on the side of the highway due to an earthing live wire).

What however is the magnet on a string trick of which you speak?

[Kingbrown]

What however is the magnet on a string trick of which you speak?

Quite simple really:

- Attach a small super magnet to a lightweight thread (cotton, string etc). My magnet was 10mm x 6mm x 3mm and thread was about 150mm long.
- Dangle the magnet in close proximity to the wire under test (try beforehand with the magnet and current that you are using to see how sensitive your setup is)
- Allow the magnet to settle and stop swinging, then repeatedly pulse some current through the wire. I was charging then shorting a large electrolytic capacitor as my source of current pulse.
- Current in the wire produces a magnetic field around the wire which interacts with the field of the magnet.
- The dangling magnet thus produces a visible kick in response to the flow of current in the wire.

The tech heads amongst us would know that the interaction between current in the wire, the magnetic field and the force between them can be predicted from 'Fleming's Right Hand Rule'. A mutually orthogonal set of the quantities (Force, Magnetic Field, Current) tells us what will happen when any two of them interact and results in the third.

[whereswes]

Brilliant Kingbrown. Never ceases to amaze me what I can learn in this forum.

Cheers
Wes

[itsamitsi]

Major service. I see the PS pump is wet but not leaking and appears to come from the front seal, anyone had to deal with that?

[Kingbrown]

Major service. I see the PS pump is wet but not leaking and appears to come from the front seal, anyone had to deal with that?

I haven't had to deal with a leaking power steering pump but concur with your assessment of a shaft seal on the way out. Unless the service person dribbled some oil on the pump. You could clean it up and then monitor to see if it gets any worse I guess.

Provided the shaft itself isn't scored/damaged, there's an overhaul seal kit available for less than $50, 4451A042

[itsamitsi]

I haven't had to deal with a leaking power steering pump but concur with your assessment of a shaft seal on the way out. Unless the service person dribbled some oil on the pump. You could clean it up and then monitor to see if it gets any worse I guess.

Provided the shaft itself isn't scored/damaged, there's an overhaul seal kit available for less than $50, 4451A042

Well if the servicing person spilt oil in topping it up I'll kick his bum...( ME!).. No I noticed about half the pump was wet last service but this one it is completely wet. It is down a fraction but not enough to worry about yet. I'll monitor it and get a kit and have it sitting here at the ready.

[Kingbrown]

Hunting down an issue with my horn not working.

Tested everything from clockspring and wiring through to fuse and relay. All ok in that department.

Then I removed the front grille to find BOTH horns broken away from their mountings.

I seem to have dodged puncturing either the aircon condenser or the intercooler, even though the horns had been bouncing around (only attached by their wire) and were found resting between a structural crossmember and the intercooler.

Time to check yours do you think ?

Followup:
The mounting arms had enough remaining material to drill new holes and remount the horns. Hopefully the shortened mounting arms will reduce the wobble of the horns and thus reduce stress and fatigue.

[hoit]

I finally got around to having a Kenwood head unit installed today. It was meant to be a lockdown project for me but I was always too hungover during the lockdowns ...

[Kingbrown]

With forward access to my cargo space being blocked by a cargo barrier and drawer system, I've sometimes wondered what I would do if the rear door latch failed to open .

So today I did something about it

Using a piece of fishing line, some electrical spaghetti and the head of a rivet I attached a release cord to the manual unlatching mechanism that's inside the tailgate.

When the tailgate is closed I can now release the lock from the outside by fishing for the loop that's on the end of the fishing line and giving it a gentle pull.

The spaghetti serves as a sleeve for the fishing line to run in without snagging or abrading. The hollow rivet fits into an existing hole in the release lever.

[ATTACH]39963[/ATTACH]

The worth of this simple modification was exemplified yesterday.

Friends who are on a remote outback trip (in a different make of vehicle but the same principle applies) have a rear lift up door that won't open. They're unable to access fridge, food, tools. Big problem!

[Lakey]

The worth of this simple modification was exemplified yesterday.

Friends who are on a remote outback trip (in a different make of vehicle but the same principle applies) have a rear lift up door that won't open. They're unable to access fridge, food, tools. Big problem!

Know what you mean. We had a flat in Melbourne and couldn't open the rear door but at least I don't have a solid barrier so I could climb over and open it. Fortunately our gear wasn't in the back so it was easy. At the time I was thinking about a cable pull similar to what you have only feeding back to the rear seat with something more like a bonnet or fuel flap release cable.

Even without a barrier I wonder how people would go with solid objects like draws/fridges etc mounted close enough to stop access to the release cover.

[Kingbrown]

To remove the front grille of my PB Challenger there's a single plastic clip that attaches a rubber strip to the underlying plastic part. It's directly in front of the hood latch.

It's a proper pain to release the tangs where they grip the plastic.

I've previously tried all sorts of tools, including angled pliers, round sleeve, thin plastic with a vee cut in it. None has been particularly effective.

Yesterday I used fishing line. I threaded it between the rubber seal and the underlying plastic and formed a loop/cinch around the stem of the clip.
I pulled the cinch tight so the tangs of the clip were compressed . . . . and the clip came out easily.

Will I remember the trick when I next have to remove the grille ?