not my best day...

[gumpy]

So, I decided try to run some wire to day form my leveling valve switches and solenoids. Sounds easy enough. I needed to go from the left side of the entrance stairs to over the driver's window. So, I dropped the wires into the spare tire compartment, and across to the auxillary tank where I intended to go up the through the electrical panel and up the wall just behind driver, which will eventually be covered with a cabinet.

So I get to the aux tank, and there's no hole in the floor to get the wires through, and with the heater lines and main cables in there, and the aux tank below, it's very tight. I found that there was enough room to get a long bit through nex to the rest of the cables, so I drilled a small hole. Not big enough, and the aluminum plate was bound to chaff the wires, so I decided to open it up a bit. Well, long story
short, my larger bit hung up in the aluminum plate, and made a mess. I pulled it out, and could see bare
copper wire in the hole! What the hell??

You guessed it. I drilled right into my main distribution bundle!! Can you say pissed boys and girls?  Sure you can! 

This bundle must have 40 freakin wires in it, and it's so stiff, there was no moving it. To top it off, the damage was just below the floor, next to the aux tank, behind the external panel... in other words, it was completely inaccessible by any normal means!

To be continued....

[gumpy]

So, my first solution was a couple of these...


More to come...

[gumpy]

Now that I was in the proper frame of mind, I assessed the situation, and determined the only way to get to it was to remove the stainless panel below the electrical door.

Yet more to come...

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Craig,

Sorry that your day wasn't that good..  Maybe it's not as bad as you think?

Hope you have a better day tomorrow.

Nick-

[gumpy]

And here's the damage I found...

[gumpy]

It turned out to be only 3 wires that were damaged. Two of them I could have covered with liquid electrical tape, but the third one was nearly severed, so since I had to do a proper repair to it, I repaired all three. The repair was fairly easy, but now I have to order some rivets to replace the stainless panel.

Didn't get my wires in yet, either, but I sure feel good now. Must be the brews.

I'll come back tomorrow when I'm sober and repair the text in this thread. 

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Aul Mannn,

Thats a bad spot for sure!

Good Luck
Nick-

[plyonsMC9]

Craig, as usual, I appreciate your sharing - especially w/pix so we can learn.  Glad to hear repairs are underway, along w/ a plan of action.

I'm hoping things will look even better in the a.m.

Best Regards, Phil

[Dreamscape]

Craig,

That's what I like about you, even if you screw up you still share with us, that's some pretty big kahunas! 

Glad to hear it was not to bad. At least the brews helped out the situation a bit!

This is one story for the record books, a great read.

Paul

[gumpy]

Glad to hear it was not to bad. At least the brews helped out the situation a bit!

Well, any excuse for a few brews. They're my first homebrew, and quite frankly, I think it's the best beer
I've ever tasted! 

[Dreamscape]

Glad to hear it was not to bad. At least the brews helped out the situation a bit!

Well, any excuse for a few brews. They're my first homebrew, and quite frankly, I think it's the best beer
I've ever tasted! 

In that case I hope we meet up someday!  I really like the home brew much better, more flavor. 

Paul

[jackhartjr]

Craig, I did notice that it was a dark beer, we will get along just fine.
And thanks for showing us what happened, a lesson for all of us!
Jack

[belfert]

One day last summer I had a friend over helping with final demolition and starting to rebuild the inside.  The floor where the bathroom was had lots of holes so I wanted to cut that section out and replace it.

My friend was using the circular saw and I told him to set the blade just deep enough to cut through the plywood as all the tranny wiring was directly below.  Well, you guessed it, he cut right into the wiring bundle!  Luckily, he only cut three wires that I quickly spliced together and the tranny still worked.

[gumpy]

Craig, I did notice that it was a dark beer, we will get along just fine.
And thanks for showing us what happened, a lesson for all of us!
Jack

Yeah, it's a Honey Porter. Really nice. Only problem is I've shared it too much and it's almost gone.
I have another kit of the same, so will do that one when I next time it rains.

[NJT5047]

Hey Craig...we'll $#!+ happens.  If I posted all of faux paws I've done to the bus, I'd have to start another busnut site.
Glad the issue was resolvable without big $$$$$....that's how I measure my mistakes.  What is this gonna cost to fix now!  
BTW, interesting brew mug!  Holds about a liter?
I was looking at your pix...I believe my MC9 has 4 times the junk in the lower electrical panel in comparison to yours.   All sorts of wires and relays.
The uppper panel is full too??
JR