Is my wagon a wagon?

I cut a rectangle out of my headliner, today. Is the image showing up?

 

No it was red X'd.

 

That's what I was afraid of. I was posting pics from here in that German Daihatsu forum and nobody complained that they were also seeing red Xs, until way over 600 hits and numerous image posts. When I post images here from other American forums, they've all been showing up. They said that it was required to first be registered here, before one gets to view the forum-hosted images. Strange, it's.
I took off the lens from my interior lamp, to see where I could tap a constant plus. In the process, the brittle glue from the 20 year old bulb gave way. Since I didn't have a replacement in this unusual size and didn't feel like soldering it back together, I decided to add a lamp in a more practical location to where I could much better read a map. That's why the cut-out. The lamp will not be able to switch on or off, because I removed the innards and will connect the bulb directly to the original switch

 

I removed all unnecessary internal lamp parts (F) which enabled it to get turned on and off. Instead, I just ran two wires through the headliner and will operate the new lamp from the original switch.
(E) depicts the original bulb whose endcap glue crumbled upon attempted bulb removal. This bulb is unusually small and I didn't feel like attempting soldering the ends back on.
(H) is the switch of which I changed its polarity, in order to bypass the original bulb and then re-direct power to the new lamp (A).
From the square that I cut out of the headliner (K), I cut it into 6 pieces and glued 2 wafers of 3 together, in order to stuff them into each side of the new opening, to hold the headliner from giving way, when I insert the new lamp. (I) is the larger replacement bulb of which I have plenty of them in stock


The points of which I soldered the extension wires


The mounted lamp and the hanging mirror, waiting until the silicone holding the connection together dries

 

It's all done and put together. With that out of the way, I can lay the cable for the rear lighter and then bolt the passenger seat back on



It even functions

 

I found a constant + from a plug, at the right-side kick panel. It's difficult to see the wire sticking out of it for marking purposes



I used that wire and soldered together enough to reach the right rear panel. All electronic parts have been removed from the light assembly and the necessary bridges have been soldered in. I had to improvise the splicing insulation on the wire, because I've run out of heat-shrink tubing

 

The rear lighting is done and the panel buttoned up. The assemble is sticking out about an eigth of an inch. But, it's on the side that's not visible. The next time I'm in there, though, I'll bump out the sheetmetal, to accomodate

 

As I was removing the battery, the positive cable end fell apart and I found a harness mounting just hanging there (A). I suspect that part of the tray rusted off and the harness mounting was attached to what broke off. It looks like someone took a bite out of it (T). If I recall right, these Jap terminals usually have an outter reinforcing clamp.
I found out that my battery's 8 years old and the window eye is black, instead of white or green. Reason enough for replacement. I'm not so sure that a weak battery is good for the regulator. No false economy, concerning this charging system

 

Yeah, it likely finished up corroding out your terminal. Verify that your negative cable ends at the engine and body are good as well. No better time than when the battery's out.

 

The negative cable is made from woven steel with a steel terminal clamp.
I've never seen pure copper corrode through. That's why, I'm suspecting gross incompetence, on the part of whoever replaced the previous battery. I'm improvising a temporary outter clamping ring, until I find something better.
My neighbor says it's possible for a battery to still be good, at 8 years old. I've never kept track. That's why I had to ask I've now got this one on the trickle charger. If the eye stays black, it'll be curtains for this battery

 

The terminal clamp is made of bronze. Copper couldn't hold out the tension, at that thiness. I finished the outter clamping ring. I started out cutting sheetmetal to fit and then applied marker paste between the original clamp and the outter ring. I then spread the outter ring, in order to pin punch the middle of the embossment. Unfortunately for me, the paste decided to stick to the bronze. I still found enough shadow on one side, so that I could accurately pin punch it for drilling. I then clamped the assembly, using a vise-grip and then proceeded drilling through to the other side



I take it, the dot's green



A is where it's almost finished. X shows where I filed it down to fit

 

I wanted to place an order by Amazon. They'll send you your stuff, without shipping costs, if you place your order for over 29€ value. So, I went to town. This time, when I added it all up, the shipping turned out costing almost half of what the merchandise did. This is because the now are in the matchmaker business, selling you stuff of which they don't need to get their hands on. The stuff they ship themselves is shipping cost-free, if you reach the 29€ mark. So, I abandoned the order, for now, and ordered my filter from the local parts store. I've had good luck with them, in the past, as far as getting parts displaying professional quality. This time around, I got a filter in Blue Print box. The company is a subsidiary of Bilstein who sell suspension parts. There was no country of origin printed on either the packaging or on the part. The only hint I got was from the international bar code which is deciphered to represent Great Britain. For all I know, that's probably only where the packaging originated. Blue Print was printed on the filter element. After setting the filter into the housing, I noticed that the corners of the plastic housing didn't line up with those of the filter to the point where I could be assured that debris would not bypass the filter. I then decided to apply silicone to these corners, for extra measure



I saved the old gasket, because it felt more elastic than the new one. However, while attempting to replace the new with old, I noticed a tear on the side and then ended up discarding the old gasket

 

There was oil leaking down to the bell housing. I suspect that an o-ring or whatever other seal mounted at the end of the distributor's at fault. So, I got out the wire brush and brake cleaner. After softening up the gunk, I drove to the quarter car wash which uses coins adding up to more than 4 quarters each and hosed off the grime to where bare aluminum showed up. One's really not supposed to hose down engines equipped with electronic fuel injection. So, I tried being carefull as to where I was pointing the gun. I had removed the main coil wire and then wrapped the distributor, the best I could, with a small plastic bag and a rubber band, before hosing down the engine compartment and wheel wells, in order to use up my expensive minimum coin. After having attempted drying everything off the best I could, I proceeded to install the coil wire and just the found what looks to be a slit. It doesen't resemble a weasel bite. But, rather a cut performed by some sort of blade. This is probably why it was running rough, after starting it up on a moist morning

 

Yep, that'll do it. If you can get someone to help you, you can wrap it in a few tight layers of black vinyl electrician's tape (hence the extra hands). It'll hold back the moisture enough to allow you to get to the point of replacing it.

 

I've gotten a new wire, on Tuesday. I didn't want to mention it, before I got around to photograph it in detail. Like Joe likes to do, you also caught me with my pants down again The thing about these ignition systems is that if there's any minimal voltage loss, the computer notices it and adjusts the fuel injection accordingly. I long for the good old days when you could fry yor ignition wire on the manifold and the engine will run like new, once you mount the wire back into its place