Since last time!
I discovered an annoying bit of corrosion on the radiator
Thankfully, this shouldn't cause any leaks, it's just a structural concern, but I'm confident I can fix it. Radiator is currently sitting in the back of the workshop for now, swaddled in cardboard.
I spotted why this tool locker likes to fill up with water
Another thing that shouldn't be too hard to fix. Also low priority for the time being, but I would like to have it sorted before the truck next has to start living outside.
I found my tin of black paint!
And fought one hell of a paint skin...
Paint-skin battle won, the brush-waggling can get underway.
I've set myself the goal of having the engine back in the truck before September, which gives me a clear list of priority items, mostly prep-work in and around the engine-bay. Generally, stuff that will be significantly more awkward to do with the engine in the way.
Wiring cleanups
While I was in there, and with some extra working room thanks to the removal of the radiator, I thought I'd pick away at the wiring a little more; tidy up some of that horrible temporary stuff that was accumulating behind the dash. (Rotten, rained-on choc-block terminal strip...)
And that vantage point really shows off how varied the corrosion is in the truck...
Top of the driver's side footwell, and cheek vent:
I think this should be relatively painless to clean up, paint, and call good.
Top of the passenger's side footwell, and where the cheek vent used to go:
This side, however, is going to involve some CAD work and a grinder.
Wiring Additions!
I also spent some more money (ow) and got a nice big length of battery cable to run to the rear of the truck, to supply power to my trailer relay box.
That's mostly complete now, though I still need to fit the little load-sensing trailer indicator warning thing. I also don't want to fit it as is, because it's supposedly designed to be wired inline with the feed out to the socket, yet they've chosen to build it with hair-thin wires. Not the most confidence inspiring. (It's a Ryder TF1152.)
Shown here, the relay box hiding in the back of the chassis, and the oil leak from the winch that I am currently ignoring because fixing it will be a nightmare of a job.
shudder
In better items, the main distribution block is coming in quite handy. I've got a little bag of midi fuses for it, and also a length of copper bar to make up the tiny little bus-bars that connect the bottom terminal of the fuse, to the post where the cable connects.
This distribution block is from a BMW X5, and if you decide you're going to grab one for power distribution purposes, make sure you get the little dog-bone bus-bars because they are not built in, like I assumed they were.
So that's why that cable jumps right to the centre of the block, onto the same terminal as the fuse, for now.
Crossmember!
Moving right along, next is the removal of the radiator support & front crossmember, for the dual purposes of both improved access (no more trying to fold myself in through the rad support opening), and painting aforementioned items. Of special interest -- and I don't recall if I mentioned it last time I took it apart, but if so then here we go again -- are the nuts that hold the front crossmember in:
They're a strange thing: double-height, conical seat, 9/16UNF nylocs. The crossmember has little chamfers to accept, and locate on, the conical bits of the nuts.
Painting ensued. Naturally, it kept sprinkling with rain as the day wore on, but I managed to get enough done to call it a productive day. Radiator frame fully painted, front crossmember fully primed and half painted.
Additional thanks go out to the kind gentleman from a couple of units down, who donated a tin of UPol Zinc-182 primer. It's all the small things...
Return to the wiring
Wherein I once again get overly excited and stuff wiring in before being totally finished with everything else! I do like a good bit of wiring.
That's the ECU loom stuffed through its grommet (mostly so I can stop tripping over it in the workshop), and the funky little relay setup that will provide power to the ECU, wideband controller, ignition coil, and injectors. Thanks to a quirk of the MS2-like controller, I have to make sure I don't provide power to those latter two items until the ECU is fully booted and the engine is ready to start, which is achieved through a pair of relays set up to self-latch at the appropriate time.
I am going to have a fun time drawing up schematics for all of this...
The first relay is triggered by ignition power, providing 12v to the ECU & wideband controller, as well as forwarding the power feed to the second relay's terminal 30. The second relay is triggered by the starter switch (terminal 50, if you will) and latches itself on, providing power to the injectors and ignition coil. The whole mess releases itself upon the ignition being turned off, and there are diodes to prevent it backfeeding & holding the starter engaged.
If you're thinking that's an awful lot of wire, you're not wrong! Enough for various sensors, an idle control valve, 3
injectors, and the 3 coils (with capacity to convert to individual
per-cylinder coils if desired later.) Good job I like wiring!
(If someone asked me to come up with a wiring harness for their truck,
I don't think it'd be to quite this level of excess, to be quite
honest. There's a lot of stuff that's changed as I was doing it, which
has lead to some vestigial weirdness, and also I just ... enjoy wiring
things. For one, the sensible option would be to just buy a trailer
relay box... 
Crossmembers! No, the other ones!
Having come to a stopping point on that, the next item on my priority list is that offside cab crossmember. So up comes the cab...
I remember lifting the nearside with the farm-jack, but for some reason I couldn't manage it this time without hitting everything, so instead I settled on this... uh. work of art
Thankfully, the driver's side floor is less teabagged than the passenger's side was; but it's still going to be a good bit of work!
And the only way to make progress, is to find a bit to start with...
That's better!
