Keeping with my recent alterative fuels blogs, I came across a cool product I thought I would share. Its a Charge Controller for alternative energy.

When adding solar or wind power to your house, jacuzzi, barn, etc, etc, you have a couple of choices with what to do with excess power. 1. You can spend $3-5K on a regulator that will sell it back to the power company. Problem there is that you produce so little extra its not usually worth the expense. 2. You can pull up a chair and watch your system. Unplug it when you’re full and plug it back in when you are empty. Not exactly ideal.

The problem is that you need a power controller to control the excess power and regulate the system. Power Planted has developed an easy solution. A $50 or so Charge Controller that will solve this problem. For wind power, it will fill up your batteries, and when that is done, it will keep you windmill from spinning out of control by dumping the excess power. Same for solar, batteries get full, no dangerous excess power. So now you can buy a handful of solar panels, a battery and this setup and take a chuck of your footprint off the grid.

Check them out and give them a call. www.PowerPlanted.com They can help you build your system.

So I’ve gotten a few questions regarding the AC Compressor System Expansion Valve and how to repair it.

All ac systems have to have a place to release excess pressure. Many air conditioning compressor systems use an expansion device to release pressure in the atmosphere. This can either be an expansion valve or an expansion block, see picture for more on the difference. They are just different designs of the same. The valve has an external sensor arm while the block is pressure based.

So how to you repair an expansion valve? The answer is to buy a new one. You can clean it out and blow some air through it, but with prices of only $30-$60 for a new one, its just not worth the risk. Most expanison valves are mounted on the ac evaporator, which is inside the firewall. Replacing it can be 3-8 hours of labor because you may have to disassemble the whole dash. Whether you are paying someone for that or doing it yourself it is just not worth it. Buy a new one from a trusted source.

With just 4 weeks to go to the big auto shows, I’m curious as to what to expect from the event.

Already we have been hearing that there will be less people there due to the economy. This may be a good thing as it will be easier to get around and see what companies have to offer. It will be unfortunate that more people cannot attend, but that is the way it is.

What are you excited to see? Anything? I think we are going to see more integration electronics at SEMA. Such as bluetooth connected stereo to live traffic and weather, all connected through one system. Of course we are going to see everything ‘green’ under the sun. Appex will have lots of wild products that save mpg. Everything from lubricants to random engine enhancements.

Of course, we’ll be there, covering everything the show has to offer.

Check out these pictures of a Jeep Wrangler steering box. The shaft is clean broken off. This would make the car undriveable, and probably leave you out in the middle of nowhere.

Starting in about 2003, Chrylser changed suppliers from Saginaw to Mercedes. Saginaw had been the primary steering supplier to Chrylser going back to the 1960’s. When Daimler bought out Chrylser it tried to cut some costs and put a 140 chassis mercedes box on the jeep.

You can see that the box is not the same as the old design, so you cannot swap them over. That is unfortunate. The Saginaw box is a bit longer and bigger, so you would need to do some modification to the steering gear or the steering layout.

I’m not entirely sure what the moral of the story is. Jeep Wranglers are still fun, so just something to be careful of. Someone will probably build a better system soon.

Seen me your comments or suggestions.

Chrysler showed off 3 new prototype electric vehicles today. A Dodge sports car, a Jeep and a Chrysler minivan.

All of the vehicles are due out in 2010, but did not say which will be first. All are expected to compete with GM’s newly released Volt. GM has said it may offer a sedan and sport car version of the Volt. Both designs have already been shown off. We have over 2 years to learn more.

The Dodge is completely electric, but the Jeep Wrangler and Chrysler minivan versions will have a recharging system, which GM has said will go on sale in November 2010. The Volt and the Dodge plug into a standard wall outlet and can go 40 miles on battery power alone, but then has a small gas to recharge it, giving it a few hundred mile range.

Below is a video from Cnet showing the new cars. Hit play, then give it a minute or two to load up before you start playing it.





I have to say I’m pretty excited. As much about the new cars and tech as I am about getting off of foreign oil. Your thoughts? Comments? Complaints.?

One of the most frustrating things about buying auto parts is getting the wrong part. If you buy furniture or electronics and its a little too big or too small, you can still use it. In car parts, you have to be exact, especially with an auto air conditioning compressor where there is no room for mistakes. Here are some tips.

First thing to do is to look at the picture of the ac compressor and print it off. Compare that to the one in your car. If it looks exactly the same, you should be good to go. If it is close, you may want to do a little work. Get a picture of your air conditioning compressor label. Like this one below.

You should also take a picture of the compressor in the car. This will help the part supplier double check with you. By itself the picture is useless, but combined with the label and the vehicle it can be helpful. If you have any doubt about getting the correct part, you want to call the supplier and email in pictures like these two. Just not worth getting the wrong parts.

Finally you can remove it from the car and take some pictures of it. The picture below uses a digital caliper, which is a great tool for being very exact. If you do a lot of things that require measuring exact numbers, this tool is very important. Here we get the length of the ac compressor clutch from the beginning to the center of the pulley groove. This measurement is important to ensure the belt lines up with the crank.

I’ve been talking about diesel engines and will get into more on them. I wanted your option first, please answer the poll.

I’ll get into bio-diesel vehicles later on. We’ll also look at working on bio-diesels.

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I’d like to welcome in the newest sponsor to the site, Diesel Parts Pro. They are a full service line of Diesel parts and can be found at www.DieselPartsPros.com

Having a discussion with them on a Diesel fuel injector, it became clear to me that I don’t know a whole lot about diesel engines. There is alot more things to consider when dealing with a diesel engine. They gave me a little help on this and some things to think about.

My main question was about the fuel system and the diesel turbocharger. Can these be upgraded? How do you improve performance. The answer is yes they can. There are high performance turbochargers available and they can get them for you. You should probably match these with a high output diesel fuel pump for optimum performance.

I promise to harass them some more into giving us some more info on diesels, so stay stuned. If you have any questions about this, please let me know those as well. I look into them.

So you need to replace you 02 sensors and you’re a bit lost. How often should I replace them? Where are they? Do I replace them all? What brand do I go with?

Oxygen sensors should be replaced every 60-90K miles. DO NOT wait until the engine light comes on. The Oxygen sensor ensures the correct air to fuel ratio. Having this ratio off, will cost you horsepower and gas mileage.

There is typically 2 sensors on vehicles before 1996. This is known as OBDC 1. There are 4 sensors on vehicles after 1996 and this is known as OBDC II. Usually half are located before the catalyst (catalytic converter) and half are located after. All of these are in the exhaust stystem just up from the muffler.

When you are the O2 Sensor, you should replace all 4 of them. Its just not worth getting in that far and not replacing all of them.

I usually recommend buying OEM brands, which is usually Denso or Bosch. There are a couple of good manufacturers of aftermarket ones, but there are some bad ones so be careful.

When replacing an AC Condenser there are lots of things to consider. First, you will need to pick out what kind of condenser you need. Second, what to know during install.

You may need to change your a/c condenser if your car is not blowing cold enough, is contaminated or is damaged. The first question is what to buy. The most popular condenser types are serpentine and parallel flow condensers. See the picture for more info. Really though any type will do, and unless you are picky, all will work about the same. Keep in mind, the better performing condensers are also the hardest to clean.

For install, you will need to service the ac system including replacing the ac drier and evacuating and flushing the system. Most people don’t know that the auto air conditioning system should be serviced every 60,000 miles anyway, so this is good maintenance and will prolong the life of your ac compressor. Most often the condensor is replaced because of contamination, so cleaning out the system is important.