Tony’s Cave

Current happenings in Tony’s shop

Tony’s Wagon Cave (aka the driveway)

Posted on September 5th, 2011

While this thing won’t be updated daily I will try to put those little things in it that really are not worth a write up of their own.  Lump them together, let you chuckle at my expense for the latest dumb things I have to fix.

Oct 25  Read more...

A Voltmeter or Two

Posted on September 2nd, 2011

By Tony K

Having a voltmeter in the dash was always a nice feature, much better than the proverbial idiot light that only reveals itself when it is pretty much too late to do anything about it.  But the factory gauge in the dash does have some drawbacks.  Having to turn the key on for a reading is a bit of a pain and just how accurate is the gauge.  And adding a second battery added even more complications.  But my biggest concern with the added battery was knowing just what condition each of the batteries were in.  All the factory gauge does is tell me the voltage while they are both hooked up in parrellel.  Read more...

Mechanical Oil Pressure Gauge

Posted on August 27th, 2011

By Tony K

Some really low readings on the stock gauge in my BJ got me worried and made me wonder about the accuracy of the factory gauge.  I had heard about the questionable nature of the stock gauge and this was reinforced by several mechanics that I work with.  They all said you can’t trust the electronic oil gauge.  My feeling is that most factory gauges are just idiot lights with arms…   The only way to be sure about the pressure is to check it with a mechanical gauge.  And what I found somewhat funny is that in the Factory Service Manual even Toyota says to hook up a mechanical gauge to find out what the pressure is.  Read more...

Adding Gauges

Posted on August 15th, 2011

By Tony K

Finding a place to add one gauge is pretty easy in our wagons.  But add more than that plus a few switches and it can get pretty frustrating.  I had already installed the air pressure gauge for my compressor set up but I recently purchased a mechanical oil pressure gauge and decided I wanted to add a voltmeter that I already had on hand.  This complicated things as there just wasn’t any extra room to be found.  So time to do some more thinking inside the wagon for a solution.  Read more...

Injection Pump Woes

Posted on June 23rd, 2011

By Tony K

Rig has been running great, but now there seems to be an issue with the injection pump.   Getting some pretty loud ticking that is rpm related and hearing what may best be described as gear meshing.  Read more...

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