ALH into 95 Ranger 4x4

HoneyBadger

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Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
center console wiring, coolant routing

A heat wave came through so I decided to push off the welding until it cools down again. So I got to make some more progress on the truck.
1. Body mounts and spacers are installed. I did have to play with washers to get my driver door to shut without rubbing, but that's all done! Only took 2 weeks for a 4 hour job. That's never happened before...

2. I put the rats nest in behind my center console. Sorry I mean I wired up my center console switches and started verifying the ones that I could. I haven't fully figured out how I'm going to do the low coolant alarm, so I left that switch alone for now. It's about as pretty as it can get for trying to fit so many wires in such a small space.
The box on top of the fuse panel is a signal converter for the fuel level of the tank I'm adding. i could find a gauge to read the right resistance range, but not a sender. So it's hooked up between the sender and the switch and should work nicely with both gauges.

3. I did some fiddling with the coolant lines going to the heater core. They got real bent up in my adjusting it a little bit this way and a little bit the other way, but they turned out well enough. I'm curious how well they hold up to being cycled with the engine moving since they are pretty soft aluminum. But that's what the low coolant alarm is for right?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
This is the best picture I could get to show both lines. You can see the one leads down to the back of the engine. The other goes down below the washer tank and up into the EGR cooler.

For making a bead on the tube so that the hose doesn't slide off. I found a video that showed me how to make them, so if you're interested here's the video and picture of the ones I made. I ground mine down a bit more so that they would fit in the 5/8" tube for the coolant and power steering lines. But they worked well on the intake tubing as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVDUM2ZxoW0&list=LLP6BuVXOabvMN5SBojqTAPQ&index=23&t=0s
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Fluids in, LEDs glowing...

Today I did the maintenance things of flushing/bleeding the brakes and clutch. And while in there I noticed that I either have a leaking slave in the rear drum, or the axle seal is going. It wasn't a lot of dirty oil, but it was dirty and enough. So new axle seals and slave cylinders will be going on, along with new shoes and hardware.
I also started to check out my dash lights to make sure they all turn on. Well, they work too well. Some of the LEDs glow when off, so I need to figure out what's going on there. If any one has any ideas on what to check first I'd appreciate any suggestions. I mostly made the switch to LEDs for the glow plug light and check engine since they are being run by the ECU and I know it's not designed to sink the amount of current that the incandescent bulbs use.
I don't think a bad ground since that would cause the lights to never come on. I know some lights are switched on by being pulled to ground and others are supplied 12v. So I think I'm going to start by trying to figure out if there is a correlation and then to try and figure out why current is getting through.
You can see in this picture which lights are on, and which ones are glowing. The theft light is what I'm using for a glow plug light.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Well I haven't figured out why I have so many glowing LEDs, but I did discover that my Check Engine light does not stay on long enough. It should be on until the engine is started, and then turn on. Mine will flash on for a fraction of a second and then turn off (glow).

I also noticed that I wired up the glow plug (theft) light "backwards". The light should be supplied power, but the ECU pulls it to ground. This would need a transistor and some wiring to change that around, but with the Check Engine light issue and this, I decided to order one from fastforward instead. My biggest reason for this is that I need the check engine light to work in order to smog and register my truck.

I also couldn't find a whole lot of concrete information out there about how the ECU controls these lights in terms of power usage available. And maybe I'm getting anxious to have this thing back on the road and driving it again. I think I'm planning to ditch the LED cluster lights that are glowing and just go back to the incandescents for the time being. I thought maybe the glow plug light was being back driven making the others glow, but removing the light does nothing, so there may just be a floating ground at the end of these lights. They were designed for the higher current load, so I'll save myself the head ache and leave it up to future me with a running truck to deal with it if I so desire.

I also got coolant hoses and exhaust tubing and a muffler ordered today so those should come in later this week or next and I'll start putting together a new exhaust.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Well, the short cut I tried to take was a bust. They are out of stock until July, so I'll be making my own. Not a big deal, just another thing to do. I'll be using a PNP transistor to control my lights since the ECU pulls ground to turn on the lights. And a pull up resistor will keep the floating ground from being an issue.
Amazingly the exhaust tubing and muffle both already showed up today.
Nothing too exciting of an update, just putting my thoughts down. I'd read about Alchemist's circuit diagram for wiring up the lights, but when I found the diagram, it's not what I plan to do. I'm going to use a pull up instead of a pull down resistor, and my values will be different for my current needs, but this is the general idea for you guys.
 

Alberta 7.3

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Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
TDI
CBEA Ranger under construction
If the Pull up/down resistor idea doesn't work, you can always add a resistor in parallel with the LED, lots of times guys do that to correct "lamp out" errors since the computer, etc is looking for a lower level of resistance to ground than the LED provides.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
If the Pull up/down resistor idea doesn't work, you can always add a resistor in parallel with the LED, lots of times guys do that to correct "lamp out" errors since the computer, etc is looking for a lower level of resistance to ground than the LED provides.
That's a good point, I hadn't thought about the ECU sensing the amount of current being drawn. That would explain why it shuts the check engine light off after a few seconds and not until the motor turns on. Thanks for mentioning that.

If I want to use the theft light for a glow plug light, the transistor will be required because it needs a 12v signal to turn on instead of the ground the ECU provides, but I can use a different extra light if this doesn't work out for me.
 

Alberta 7.3

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Joined
Nov 11, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
TDI
CBEA Ranger under construction
Depending on the current capacity of the ECU output, you could use it to drive a small relay to run the light, although a transistor would be a nicer option without the clicking.
 

Baxter'sTDI

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Joined
May 5, 2011
Location
Colorado
TDI
'02 Jetta
Welp. I'm planning on doing just about the same thing. ALH in a '95 Ranger, 2WD. I didn't get to read all of your thread just yet but I like what I'm seeing! I'll start my own thread eventually when I get started but I couldn't resist posting something in yours. I'll be around!
 

RamblingswithRyan

Active member
Joined
Apr 29, 2020
Location
Ohio
TDI
Future Ranger TDI
Welp. I'm planning on doing just about the same thing. ALH in a '95 Ranger, 2WD.
Best of luck with your swap! Honeybadger is definitely the guy to model your swap after. He’s doing things cleaner than I am. I’ve been doing things more backyard engineering in my swap, but his is much more legitimate engineering.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Baxter welcome to the group! I look forward to seeing how you do your swap, definitely start a thread when you get into it!

I've got drawings to remake just about everything I've made for this truck, so if you're looking for short cuts let me know, we can work something out. Same for you Ryan and any one else. If there's interest I'll set up a vendor page and be legit about it. Otherwise just feeling out if there is any interest.

Unfortunately, work and a 5-speed swap have kept me from touching the truck for a while. It's so close I can feel it, but life is setting the priorities at the moment. I'm hoping to have it on the road end of Aug. but we'll see if everything else in my life will let that happen.
 

RamblingswithRyan

Active member
Joined
Apr 29, 2020
Location
Ohio
TDI
Future Ranger TDI
If there's interest I'll set up a vendor page and be legit about it. Otherwise just feeling out if there is any interest.
I’d be interested to see the plans of some of the things you’ve designed and built. Particularly your throttle pedal mount and your air plenum block off plate. I made my pedal mount a bit less pretty looking than yours. I’m super stoked to have my swap done as well. It would definitely be cool to meet up and compare rigs/swaps, but that might be difficult seeing as we’re on different sides of the continent.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Well more than a year of no activity on the truck, but I'm back at it! Life happened and I got too busy to work on this project, but things are settled down for me again, so I hope to post regular progress on the truck until it's driving. Here's what I've gotten done in the last month since I've been back working on the truck. I have to say it feels really good to be working on the truck again. I've been dreading not being able to work on it for so long.

First: I got the CCV tube made to go from the CCV to the intake. I thought about just using a hose the whole length, but didn't like that with the exhaust right there. So, it's Aluminum and has a tab to bolt in place to the engine.





And a little port welded onto the turbo inlet to connect it to
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Second: I got all the coolant plumbing done!

After some practice and experimentation, I was able to weld on a little nipple, I guess you'd call it, for the coolant bleed lines. Here's the final result

I ended up welding the piece on, and then drilling the hole through the pipe after using the smaller piece as a drill guide. then cleaned up the burrs by hand.


The upper tube had to be two pieces to make it possible to remove. In the orientation it sits in the truck the two ends point at each other, which would make it impossible to install after welding it up. The break in the middle allows it to be removed by rotating them apart.


The lower hose was hard to photograph, but fits in there really well. I'm not sure what to do to make it easier to drain the coolant though. Right now the drain is right above the frame rail, so it will be a giant mess when I flush the system for the first time. If anyone has any ideas of something I could weld onto this tube to make draining easier, I'm all ears! The tube sticks out over open space, so something on the bottom would be easy, and it's the lowest point in the system.



These two show the bleed lines I made. It was too dark to get any photos of the port on the back of the engine that they both connect to. All connections are the same as stock, so hopefully the system will bleed well. My heater core is significantly higher though so I've been debating about putting a bleed spot up there too if I can figure out how to fit it into the lines.

Next up is the exhaust. I'm planning to remove everything I just finished so that I have space for my hands to reach down and work near the turbo. It'll also give me a chance to get the wiring cleaned up and held out of the way.

From what I can remember, exhaust, wiring and fuel are all that I have left to finish before I am ready to test drive it.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
TDI
'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
CA Smog related information. To get this car to pass smog with a different engine than supplied by the manufacturer, all the original smog equipment must be on the vehicle (and functional obviously). And in the case of the Catalytic Converter, it must be located between 0 and 6 inches from the stock location. Said differently, it can be no closer than the stock distance from the exhaust manifold, and no further than 6 inches farther from the stock distance.

Do anyone happen to know what the stock distance is?
I doubt any one has this off hand, but it'll save me crawling under my Jetta to measure. Once the rain passes over here on the west coast, I've got an oil change to do anyway and can measure then and will post it up if no one else finds it before then.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
Location
San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
The distance between the turbo flange and the beginning of the Cat is ~19 in. It's hard to measure exact with the bends, but that is the approximate measurement I got. I couldn't find any documentation online when I searched in the CARB database for the approvals for the ALH engine for the 2002 model year. I ended up at ~22 inches, which should be good enough for the government if they look that hard.

This is the best picture I have of where the cat is. I got it close to where the Ranger one was I believe as there is already a heat shield for the cab right above it.


Everything went pretty smooth considering the poor access to fit check each piece before tacking it together. Until I went to bolt the flange to the turbo and tack the orientation. I go from a 2" opening which is close to stock, and then expand to 2.5" quickly because that is what the opening on the Cat is, and I wanted to buy all the pieces the same size if I could. This picture sums up the problem quite well. There is almost no room between the socket and the wall of the 2" piece.



The before:


And after I took the piece from the 2" side I cut off and welded it back on. It gives me just enough room to get a deep socket on two nuts that are close to the pipe.



The final result looks like this:



And this is the spacing with the transmission and frame rail:




Next is welding on a straight piece to the back of the Cat that will go into a muffler and then a side dump in front of the passenger rear tire. And of course some hanger brackets to support it all.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
The exhaust is done! And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This is the best view I could get looking down to show the muffler and Cat:


And from the side:


And where it spits out:


You'll notice the gas tank has been removed in the last picture. I've been spending time finishing up the wiring for the fuel tanks and tank selector switch.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Removing the pins on the fuel sender connector was pretty easy. I took the original ground for the level sender to use for the second tank sender, so I had to move the ground from the pump over to be the new ground.



Checking that the wiring is correct: Level sender position corresponds close enough on each gauge and the selector switch changes which gauges reads this tank. I haven't gotten all of the other lights to turn off yet though... that's still a work in progress.




And I got a new level sender for many reasons, but mostly because I didn't want to take a grinder to something that was soaked in gas and the old one was grimy.

I removed the in-tank pump, and replaced it with some steel line.


 

Alberta 7.3

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Nov 11, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
TDI
CBEA Ranger under construction
Dual fuel tanks? Putting something in the bed, or a behind the axle tank like the first gen rangers? I'd like to know since I want to have more than the stock 19 gallons for the ranger I'm building. Maybe I'm just being a dingus and failed to see where you mentioned it.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Duel fuel tanks is correct! Itll be a behind the axle tank like the first gen rangers. I cant remember exactly now, but I believe I calculated that about 26 gallons could be fit back there. That would give me a total of 40 gallons on the truck since mine is the 14 gallon tank.

I've got the switch and a second fuel guage wired in. This week I'm going to verify that I wired the tank selectors correctly and finish running the fuel line for both.

It may be a little while before I get to designing the tank and installing it, as I want to get the truck registered and start driving it first! But it will happen

Edited size of tank: I remembered that I could get 1200 miles of range assuming 30MPG from the truck with seems reasonable with what I've seen. So if the front tank is 14, the rear must be 26.
 
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HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
I think anyone who wants dual tanks is probably going to have the spare above the bed anyways. This isn't a heavy duty truck, so really going off road is the main reason people would do this. And at that point you don't want the tire under the bed in case it's not accessible when you need it.

I've been collecting pieces to build a bumper with a spare tire carrier for a little bit. It's been in the works, but low on the list since it's not very useful if the truck isn't running.


Fuel lines are all routed and even labeled. Though I don't know how long until the sharpie fades... But it's written there and a few other places as well.



Stock tank lines are run in roughly the same spot, and even connect up the the quick connects without any adapters.



Over all quite happy with how the lines turned out. It took a lot more clamps than I was expecting, but all of the lines are held firmly so nothing should rub.

 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
I ended up with 2 of these that I'll control together with a switch.

For some reason, I didn't look into the F-series selectors very hard. If I had, I may have gone that route. I just spent a few minutes looking, and I think it could have simplified my wiring, just a tad.

Maybe I'll check those out if the ones I got don't work well enough. I'll cross that bridge later, it shouldn't be hard to switch if I decide it becomes necessary.
 

Alberta 7.3

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Nov 11, 2017
Location
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
TDI
CBEA Ranger under construction
I ended up with 2 of these that I'll control together with a switch.

For some reason, I didn't look into the F-series selectors very hard. If I had, I may have gone that route. I just spent a few minutes looking, and I think it could have simplified my wiring, just a tad.

Maybe I'll check those out if the ones I got don't work well enough. I'll cross that bridge later, it shouldn't be hard to switch if I decide it becomes necessary.
Those don't look too bad, remind me of the ones I've see for 70's trucks. The 80s/90s F-series selectors are a little more tedious to wire, but not too difficult.
 

HoneyBadger

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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
I ended up doing about the same amount of wiring as it would have taken for the 80/90's F-series selector, just without the fancy connector and location. Overall not bad, but like any wiring job, the biggest part is knowing where the wires are supposed to go before you get started. I now hear a big click when I turn the key to ON in the truck, so I'm confident that they are working.

Wiring update (AKA boring no pictures update): I decided to use the O/D light instead of the Theft light for the glow plugs. Simple reason is that the O/D light is a pull to ground, and not apply 12V like the theft light. So my glow plug light now switches on and off as expected with no issues using a regular bulb.

I did discover that I stole the ground wire for the Tach to use for the glow plug light, so I'm a little confused why the tach still works.... but this may be my source of floating ground. I'm going to try and connect this pin to a different ground wire and see if that helps anything.


All that's left with the wiring is to get the Check engine light to function as required to get it registered. Once I have that, I'm going to pull the motor and do a final torque down of everything. This project has been on going so long I don't remember what I torqued and what I left thinking I was going to have to pull it off again. This will give me a chance to replace a few hard to reach hoses of the back of the motor and give me space to clean up the wiring mess above the engine.

Once it's all back together, I should be good to start doing some shake down testing and finally check the serpentine belt tensioner that I made oh so long ago. I'll find someone local to make me a high pressure power steering line as well. Then it'll be ready to move under it's own power!!!
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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San Jose, CA
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
Alright, I'm realizing that its hard to test when the check engine light shuts off after start up, when there are things disconnected from the ECU that it wants. So new plan is to get everything else buttoned up on the truck then finish getting the MIL light to operate properly. I'm also tired of the white smoke every start up because I haven't been able to warm up the motor and adjust timing.

New course of action is check the torque on all the bolts and get this thing running. Then I can check my coolant lines for leaks, and properly time the fuel pump once the motor warms up. Then get all the codes to clear on the ECU and then finalize the MIL light.

I got a PNP transistor hooked up, and with a 10k pull up resistor on the ECU line, the light went off for a few seconds after the motor started. Then it came back on, which I suspect is because there are codes and not that it's not working. But until the codes are clear and theres coolant in the motor, it'll be hard to know.
 

HoneyBadger

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Dec 25, 2012
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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
I had the motor out so I would have room to clean up everything around it. I also connected all the hoses in the back of the motor and torqued everything down on the motor.

Fuel lines routed to the filter:


Wires are tucked up out of the way:


Slotted the motor mount to fit new rubber mounts:


Fuel Filler opened up for a diesel pump:


Exhaust is wrapped to help keep the heat off the starter:


I've got the motor back in the truck and now it's time to connect everything up. I've got the power steering hoses figured out, and I'm putting it all together. Once I get air and vacuum connected again i'll be ready to start the truck
 

HoneyBadger

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'02 Jetta 5 spd, 03 jetta auto, future ALH Ranger
For the power steering, I reused the ranger return from the steering box. Just a new rubber hose and it fits nicely. The thread is a 5/8-18 thread for anyone who finds this thread looking for sizes.


The pressure side was a bit more complicated. I found a collection of AN fittings to make my own hose. The pressure side of the box is 1/2-20 fitting, and the banjo on the pump is an M16x1.5 thread banjo.



The blue is the 16mm banjo to 6AN fitting. The smaller bolt is the VW one, the red is the one sold with the fitting. Fitting I bought is thinner by ~3mm than the VW one. This also makes it so that the bolt bottoms out before clamping the fitting with the washers.
The red bolt has threads that are way too long to seal the fitting. I decided to order thicker 2mm crush washers instead of trimming the bolt threads down on the red bolt.

Not the best picture, but here it is together. It just needs thicker crush washers and it'll be ready to put together.



I also realized I should have connected the feed hose before setting the size of the pressure hose because they are about the same length. So I zip tied a piece of hose on so that they wouldn't rub too much.
 

PickleRick

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Nov 29, 2017
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Greenville sc
TDI
05 GLS BHW sedan 5 speed conversion. BHW Carver SantaCruz in progress
Have you looked into custom ac lines? I am putting together a similar high side power steering line using aeroquip fittings and 6 an hose.
I found they have ac lines and rated reusable fittings.

Cheaper than using the local hose shop
 
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