View from the Pit... and new Toy add-on in progress

[heinz wittenbecher]

You asked... and here it is, at least a start.

http://www.bytedesigns.com/gmc/viewfrom.htm

I didn't have too much time to spend as I was anxious to install Vaccum Pump
Kit (Leigh Harrison's). It went in smoothly in about 3 hours. There's a
couple of pics at the above URL as they qualify to be "from the pit"

This may be common knowledge, but just in case: Leigh suggested/recommended
that the Pump not be wired directly to 12 Volt via the ignition switch but
rather that a manual on/off switch is put in line. Leigh supplied a lighted
toggle switch in his kit just for that purpose.
The reason is to avoid the momentary operation of the pump that would take
place each time the engine is started and thereby increasing the life of the
electric pump. Once the engine is started the toggle switch is turned on and
the pump is "armed" and ready to go.

Should I forget to "arm" it I feel confident I'll remember where the switch
is even in a panic and it takes a mere 8 seconds to "pump up".

The other reason for not getting more pit pictures is that I've started to
install the newest gizzmo, the AV-10 Voice Alerting Engine Monitor.

http://www.bytedesigns.com/gmc/engine.htm

More pics to come, both from the pit and the AV-10.

Cheers

Heinz
'76 Transmode

 

[heinz wittenbecher]

>Thanks for taking those pictures from in the pit. You win for gizmos and
>gadgets. An A-10 is a warplane (wart hog) used extensively in the petro
war.

Perhaps that's why they called it an AV-10, i.e. equally important ( or did
I forget the V somewhere ? )

>What kind of wiring diagram do you have for all the switches and
accessories
>under the dashboard.

Unfornuately when it gets added little by little over 13 years it becomes
the mess it currently looks like.

While I was adding the latest I actually thought about redoing it some, but
only for a second or 2. perhaps at engine time.

Gotta have fun or all the working is really futile...

Heinz

 

[heinz wittenbecher]

Good point Emery.
I think this is going to one of those "as many answers as members of the
list thingies" and that's what's so nice about the list. Soak up all the
info and then make ones own decision based on a multitude of information.

Until the first time the BVD's get dirty I'm goint to try and add the switch
to my top-of-the hill checklist, i.e. tap the brakes, check the switch for
"armed" position.

Heinz

>

>
>the vacuum pump. If the engine stalls there would be no alternator
charging
>or oil pressure ant the vacuum pump wouldn't work.
>
>Emery Stora
>77 Kingsley
>Santa Fe, NM
>
>

 

[john wright]

A mere 8 seconds at 60 MPH is about a the length of 2 and 1/3 football
fields before you have breaking. At 60 MPH you are traveling at aprox.
88 feet per sec. I have mine direct wired thru a ignition controlled relay.

J.R. Wright
GMC Greatlaker
77 Eleganza II
Michigan

>

>
> > Leigh suggested/recommended
> > that the Pump not be wired directly to 12 Volt via the ignition switch but
> > rather that a manual on/off switch is put in line. Leigh supplied a lighted
> > toggle switch in his kit just for that purpose.
> > The reason is to avoid the momentary operation of the pump that would take
> > place each time the engine is started and thereby increasing the life of
> the
> > electric pump. Once the engine is started the toggle switch is turned on
> and
> > the pump is "armed" and ready to go.
> >
> > Should I forget to "arm" it I feel confident I'll remember where the switch
> > is even in a panic and it takes a mere 8 seconds to "pump up".
> >
> Heinz,
> Afraid I can't agree. If the vacuum pump was wired directly to battery and
> ignition in its original intended application (GM compacts with AC that needed
> additional boost), why won't it survive being used as designed in our GMCs?
> If by some strange chance this turned out to be a problem, I'd wire a relay to
> turn things on when the alternator started charging, or the oil pressure came
> up.
> As for the "mere 8 seconds", my vivid imagination pictures me careening
> down I70 from the Divide, approaching the sharp left turn 500 feet
> (vertically) above Georgetown, going "one one-thousand, two one-thousand,
> three one-thousand, four....." And we've got worse roads than that
> hereabouts! 8-0
> My vacuum pump is hard-wired.
>
> My .02, YMMV.
>
> Rick Staples
> '75 Eleganza
> Louisville, CO
>
>