A Leslie Wong Blog

Five years ago, when I had our BMW Bavaria‘s radiator re-cored, the radiator shop said a two row core would be enough. I’ve never had any cooling problems.

Instead of replacing the water pump mounted cooling fan, I bought a Flex-a-lite 116 Trimline Electric Fan. It’s a 16″ fan that is 3.5″ deep. The airflow is 2215 CFM (62747.8 LPM) and it draws 11A.

Flex-a-lite says there should be “at very least 1″ from the closest part of the fan to the radiator“. Because I didn’t have that much room, I mounted the fan in front of the radiator, as a pusher.

To switch it on, I mounted a thermostatic switch (61 31 1 364 872 82D) on a bung on the radiator lower hose connection. The other part of the switch was connected to a relay for power.

Because the climate is cool here, the fan rarely switches on. But yesterday when it switched on, I heard a grinding noise. I was hoping a leaf got stuck in it.

I had to pull the radiator to remove the fan. It made a grinding noise when I turned it by hand. I disassembled the motor by removing a couple of Torx screws and a pin retaining the motor shaft to the case. Inside I found a DC motor, not unlike the ones I used in my slot cars, except this one had 4 magnets and 16 poles. I have used Koford quad magnets in my slot cars.

One of the permanent magnets had become unglued from the case. The armature’s poles had distorted slightly from turning against the loose magnet. I used JB Weld to glue the magnet back onto the can and a large screwdriver to straighten out the armature poles.

When I pulled the armature out of the casing, the four brushes and the springs shot out. While wondering how I was going to hold four spring loaded brushes in at once, I noticed two holes at the end of the brush holders. I put a piece of copper wire in each one so I could reseat the armature end bearing and connect the brushes.

After I reassembled and tested the fan, I ordered a new one. I figured $100 USD for a new fan is better insurance for preventing an engine meltdown, even though a 5 year life span for the old motor seems just OK. Maybe when I get the new fan, I’ll put some dielectric grease between the motor covers and the casing to seal it a little better from moisture.

Jon & Mary Shirley and their 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta get a confetti shower after they won the Best of Show at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Autoblog has some nice pitures of the winner.

This isn’t the first time an Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B has won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. In 1988, John Mozart’s 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Spyder claimed the title.

The black 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Spyder at the right belongs to Sam & Emily Mann. They showed it at the 5th Annual Louis Vuitton Classic Car Show at Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2000.

Wikipedia has an entry on the Alfa Romeo 8C, with its various iterations through the 1930′s. About thirty 8C 2900Bs were built for road use and bodied by several Carrozzeria (coachbuilders). The Best of Show car’s body was done by Carrozzeria Touring of Milano.

Ralph Lauren has a nice Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 built for the 1938 Mille Miglia in his collection.

In 2005, Christie’s International Motor Cars sold a nice 8C 2900 for $4,072,500 USD.

(Touring Berlinetta photo used by permission of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. All rights reserved. I took the piture of the 8C 2900B Touring Spyder my own self)

Every year, the Blackhawk Collection sets up their tents on the 9 hole Peter Hay course at Pebble Beach, during the week leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Their auction wares are right out on the fairways.

I happen to ride my bike past the course this afternoon and this photograph shows a pretty typical gray summer day around here, mostly cloudy, with high temperatures around 60 F (15.5 C). If you’re lucky, it’ll be sunny.

I bought a Surefire 6P to house my Malkoff Devices M60 drop-in. You have to be kind of a flashaholic to understand that sentence.

Surefire describes the 6P as a “Compact (pocket sized), high-intensity incandescent flashlight for tactical, self-defense, and general use. (It) produces a smooth, brilliant, pre-focused tactical-level beam with three times the light of a big two-D-cell flashlight.”

The 6P’s stock lamp assembly is a P60 incandescent lamp. You can stop right there and you have a great flashlight that puts out 65 lumens.

The Malkoff Devices M60 drop-in uses a Cree XLamp XR-E LED (Q5 bin) as a replacement for the incandescent lamp. In addition to being more rugged, it puts out 235+ lumens. Gene Malkoff, the creator of the M60 says, “It will easily illuminate objects at 350+ feet and will blind opponents within a 100 foot radius.” That’s what we want.

Naturally, when I get something new, I take it apart and think about how to mod it. My new Surefire’s switch seemed like a good candidate.

The Surefire Z41 tailcap is standard on the 6P. It has a momentary option by pushing the tailcap switch. Rotating the tailcap will turn on the light for constant operation.

Most of my flashlights use a forward clicky switch. A slight press of the switch (before it clicks), will momentarily turn on the light and a full press (when the switch clicks), will latch it on. I’ve put the McClicky switch in seven or eight of my flashlights and thought it would work well in the Surefire 6P. I could have bought a Surefire Z59 Click-on Tailcap Switch, but it’s more satisfying making my own.

I yanked out the insides of the existing switch and unscrewed the retaining ring. Sometimes the retaining ring is glued. I’ve put the tailcap in a ziplock bag and boiled it hot water for five minutes and the glue will release.

Since I only had a plastic retaining ring to hold in the new switch, I soldered a piece of brass to the McClicky switch so that it contacts the inside of the switch housing. I put a dab of solder on the contact on the other side so the retaining ring would seat the switch flat inside the tailcap.

If you have an aluminum or brass retaining ring, there is no need to solder a tab – just screw it in. You must be careful about the inner part of the retaining ring contacting the positive connection on the raised plastic below the contact spring – it will short out the switch and be “on” all the time. A piece of shrink tubing or electrical tape wrapped around it will prevent a short.

Using that piece of brass also meant I had to remove the anodizing from the inside of the housing so the brass tab makes electrical contact with the side of the tailcap. With one mod that I did, I lost the lock out function, which “prevents accidental activation of light during tactical engagements, transportation, or storage,” according to Surefire. On another mod, the lock out still worked. In my case, I’m very unlikely to have a tactical engagement, so I can remove the batteries for transportation and storage.

To bottom it off, I replaced the black rubber push button cover with a Glow-in-the-Dark Silicone Tailcap…maybe a not too tactical feature.

ladyada has updated her Mintyboost battery pack and charger with a higher output step up converter.

She writes, “The upgrade was necessary as the latest Apple products really need a lot of current to charge and hopefully they will work better now!” The Mintyboost uses 2 AA batteries and an Altoids tin for a case.

I’ve built two V1.0 kits and used them to charge a cell phone and my iPod. The Mintyboost is great because it’s small and will give you the additional juice to keep your phone or iPod running when you need it.

You can buy the kit and get technical information at ladyada.net

I had some extra Cree XLamp® XR-E LEDs (P2 bin) when I upgraded some flashlights to Q5 bin LEDs.

When I found a LED circuit board that had an input voltage of 4v-18V, I thought it would work well as a driver for an automotive LED bulb. The circuit board uses a Micro Bridge Technology PT4105 (PDF specs) step down LED driver.

I took an 1156 bulb to use as a base for the circuit board and LED. I broke out the glass and filament and used JB Weld to glue the components together.

The LED was brighter than the 1156 bulb, but it had a noticeable hot spot, even though the Cree LED has a 90 degree viewing angle. Heat doesn’t seem to be a problem; the Bavaria’s light socket dissipates the heat well.

Joe Weir, on the Senior Six Mailing List, suggested using a diffuser lens. I’ll have to find something then report back.