Ukraine Refugee Assistance

(Eeyore voice)  Bad news everyone...  Truck broke down at the car wash

(singing) at the car wash, yeah!

Ok, here goes.  It starts off easy enough.  I have to get that cap bolted up for 2-reasons:

1) to get it water tight so I can remove the tarp

2) we're moving next week and I cant have the cap flying off on the highway.

So I figured I had a little time to spare before I really needed to do the things I was supposed to be doing (like packing, cleaning, and working on the new house...) so I went out with my sockets and did it all up!

Honestly, that took way longer than expected.  The threads on the bolts AND the holes are getting old and temperamental.  The next time this comes off, it might be time to run a thread brush through and replace some hardware...  Not now though, I'm in kind of a hurry.

After I got that good and tight, it was time for the driver's side door card.

Mrs. Hungary took this off when the window glass fell down to the bottom of the door frame, and I haven't put it back on yet... 

Did that, easy peasy.  Just a matter of stabbing in screws...

But the window is back to not working though.  That kind of bothered me...

I figure since it's both front windows it must be a fuse or a CB, so I'll get to it later.  All this means is I cant drive it to work as it's a pain to have to open the door when you go through the guard shack.

Next up was installing the rear seats!

Again, it took a bit longer than expected (I had to crawl under the truck) but 4-bolts later all was said and done.

All that was left was to clean out the inside of the vehicle with the shop vac (which I did) and afterwards I decided I'd toss in the new air filter since that was bound to be easy:

it was.

but seriously, we gotta do something about that engine bay... 

I dont have a pressure washer so I decided I'd try driving it to a local car wash that's about 4 blocks away.  Even with the battery's dead cell, it started right up, so away we went!

 

Holy smokes.  I've never spent so much at one of those coin operated car washes in my life!!!  I was out nearly $30 when all was said and done!

I cleaned the outside, I sprayed the undercarriage, I sprayed the engine bay, I sprayed the wheels, I sprayed the engine bay again...  No matter how much I sprayed, more and more dirt was found.

I'd like to say that the installed cap did a good job of keeping water out of the interior, but it didnt...

That leak was way worse than it looks in that picture.  It was pouring in when I was doing the washy washy.

I think I traced the leak down to that pinched wire there on the third light from the left...  Ah well, two steps forward and one step back.  I'll get it eventually...

being all done though, and I was not gentle at all with the spray in the engine bay either, it was time to fire her up and head back to the house.  I really do have stuff I'm supposed to be doing...

...

...

cept it doesnt start.

just crank crank crank.

I get it to hit once early on, but then nothing after that.  I know my truck so I'm not going to crank it until I kill the starter (or the battery).  There's definitely something wrong, so I decide to have a look.

Aside from steam coming from everywhere in the engine compartment (just from the water), I can't see anything out of the ordinary.  Something must have gotten wet and not liked it, and the first thing I'm thinking of is my ignition system (distributor, coil, igniter).

I check connections, and crank it again. 

nothing

Going back under the hood, I pull the coil wire out of the dizzy cap, and set it in a way that I should see a spark jump the next time I crank it.

no spark.

Bleh!

Ok, well this kind of kills my afternoon, but it's not that bad.  I try to push the truck but the beast absolutely just does NOT budge...

The wash bay slopes back at the front to keep water from escaping the wash bay, and it makes it an uphill fight for me to get this thing out...

No problem though, I just put it in low-range, stab it in first and start whirring my way up the slope with my starter motor.

Easy money.

Problem is, when I get it up the incline enough to push the truck again, the battery has near completely exhausted itself.  Nothing to do now, but park it off to the side a bit and walk home.  I do give the starter a bump in neutral just to make sure we have enough juice to spin the engine and it does.

(she LOOKS good, but she's not movin :P )

From there I walk home, grab my spare ignition coil, and some tools and it's back to the truck.  With the new coil in, I'm ready to test but now the battery decides it's done doing anything productive.  No matter what dances I do, I cant coax enough electricity out of it to spin the engine even once...

And that's all she wrote folks.  Time to call the tow truck

Back home I charged the battery for 30-minutes on my tender and ran a spark check

I have video but it looks sporadic because of the frame rate.  Instead, here's a photo:

I turn the key and it cranks for about 3 seconds without any hint of firing.  I let of and with the last bit of momentum, one of the cylinders touches off and the engine coughs to life.

It's still not perfect though.  There is a definite low-end bog, but whatever was wet must have dried out enough for us to get this far, so I better make the best of it.

I check the new PCV hose for leaks and find none, so I took a can of brake clean and just started spraying stuff.

no change...

Here's what it sounds like:  You tip in throttle, get a much of boggy intake noise, and then it revs

 

Not sure what to make of it, but I have a troubleshooting list going

And speaking of lists!  It looks like I got something done today after all!

Good times!

Start with the airflow meter. It could have gotten water in the connection to the wiring harness, or inside the harness, or even inside the AFM itself if, as it typical, some DSPO got into it trying to improve on the factory settings. Evidence is usually in the form of a big, boogery smear of silicone bathroom caulk around the lid.

EDIT: OTOH, that typically controls fuel, not spark...

It's entirely possible you got water into the distributor or upset a feeble connection around the coil or the igniter. We're crowding 40 years here and the sealing components aren't what they used to be. But I'm assuming you have plenty of dielectric grease to seal things up after you dry them out.

Did you try turning it over in the dark and see if you have an spark to ground or across the distributor cap , 

Also the inside of the cap could be arcing....

 Been there. , done that !

In reply to DarkMonohue and Californiamilleghia:

I think we're all tracking the same through process.  We just had a 20,000km African run followed by a trip to Dnipro, and I was pretty gratuitous with the high pressure spray back at the car-wash (I knew I was taking my chances), so I figured water got in there somewhere.  You guys remember I changed the coil and the truck started.  That's gotta mean something, but last night I made a list to keep me on track today:

Regardless of list order, adjusting the TPS was #1 for me to tackle, and after that I'll check timing while I'm there to verify it's still within spec.  So that's where I started today.  Fortunately for me, I have a spare throttle body (complete with TPS).  Unfortunately, it looks like a little dirt got in the throttle body so I decided to take that apart or a quick spray with brake-clean and that made it infinitely easier to do the TPS adjustment:

Ok, that checked good with the FSM but if I'm completely honest I could do a bit better with setting my gaps for the resistance measurements.  Short story long, I currently have it darn close, but a micro adjustment is necessary if I'm going to call this 100% (to be accomplished tomorrow).  Timing is spot on at 5-deg BTDC with the required pins jumpered (per FSM).

From there, my brain wanted to have a look inside the dizzy.  My plan was to check the cap, rotor, internal hall effect sensor, measure the resistance of the plug wires, and so on (spark check again...  spark plug gap....), but once I saw how clean the stuff was inside the cap (I was expecting to see dirt-filled components), I thought better of it. 

Instead I hooked the suspected bad MSD coil back up, and ran it again.  This time the throttle response was almost instantaneous!

Now, full disclosure I did see Dark's telltale signs of silicone (indicating AFM abuse), so that's going to be my next check. 

The Engine is running lots better, but there's still a...  well, I don't want to call it a "dead spot" in the RPM's, but I don't know how else to describe it.  With part throttle, and being under 3500rpms, the truck doesn't make as much power as it should but it's not bad...  If it was a carb, I'd say the mixture just seems a bit off in that range.

If you floor it, it clears itself immediately and runs like a stabbed rat.  And if you floor it above 3500rpms, it's like you gave it a shot of nitrous!  So there's something that needs to be turned, I just don't know what it is yet.

But right now I'm realizing just how many KM's I'm putting on this and I think after the AFM check this thing is due for a good ol' fashioned tune up.  I was already thinking the plug wires might be worth a look at night time, but I hadn't thought about internal shorting in the cap...   I think that cap, rotor, plugs, wires, filters and maybe a valve adjust are all going to be thrown this way come payday.

Either way.  After the little bit of work today this thing is on the road and running!  I even drove it to work (windows down, Motley Cure turned up).

Good times.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Now, full disclosure I did see Dark's telltale signs of silicone (indicating AFM abuse), so that's going to be my next check. 

That looks like the factory applied sealant. Not to say that the contacts inside don't warrant inspection and cleaning, but hopefully we can rule out amateur modifications.

With that sudden jump in power, it sounds like the ECU is getting some bad intel, likely during closed-loop operation, and then reverting to the base map when it goes into open-loop mode. So tracking down that bad input is a priority. 

Got any exhaust leaks upstream of the o2 sensor? Those will invalidate the o2 sensor values. 

I think we have discussed, but is coolant reaching full temperature?

Definitely get the TPS adjusted by the book.

Don't modify the AFM, but as stated, a good internal cleaning and verification of the integrity of the guts, and of a smooth swing, wouldn't hurt.

Maybe also take a look at the wires on the distributor pickup and make sure the insulation is not compromised, which would make it very susceptible to moisture problems. 

Fun stuff ... but usually rewarding. 

DarkMonohue said:

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Now, full disclosure I did see Dark's telltale signs of silicone (indicating AFM abuse), so that's going to be my next check. 

That looks like the factory applied sealant. Not to say that the contacts inside don't warrant inspection and cleaning, but hopefully we can rule out amateur modifications.

With that sudden jump in power, it sounds like the ECU is getting some bad intel, likely during closed-loop operation, and then reverting to the base map when it goes into open-loop mode. So tracking down that bad input is a priority. 

Got any exhaust leaks upstream of the o2 sensor? Those will invalidate the o2 sensor values. 

I think we have discussed, but is coolant reaching full temperature?

Definitely get the TPS adjusted by the book.

Don't modify the AFM, but as stated, a good internal cleaning and verification of the integrity of the guts, and of a smooth swing, wouldn't hurt.

Maybe also take a look at the wires on the distributor pickup and make sure the insulation is not compromised, which would make it very susceptible to moisture problems. 

Fun stuff ... but usually rewarding. 

Ok, good.  Sorry, I thouht that screamed "silicone" 

If it's factory applied, then that's good news.  I will clean the insides and check for resistance via the FSM (won't make any attempt to "clock" it).

No leaks upstream of the 02.  That beast is plugged right into the header and the only gasket between there is to the head (which is sealed and solid)

I forgot to mention that I checked the wires to the dizzy pickup, but they were good.  I did NOT, however, check the resistance curve of the coolant temp sensor.  I should do that.  But the truck's gauge does indicate that it's fully warmed up.

So what happend with the TPS was this:

I wanted to eliminate as many variables as possible so I backed off the throttle stop screw and removed the dash-pot.  I made all my adjustment with the throttle plate as closed as it could possibly be.  All checked good via FSM.

I drove it around like that for a bit and "dur!" realized that the throttle likes to stick closed without that set screw adjusted.  So I went back in with an allen key and cracked the throttle ever so slightly (and adjusted the idle down to match).  This stopped the throttle from sticking closed, but has now brought everything ever so slightly out of adjustment.  100% want it to be spot on though.

like you said, fun stuff (but very rewarding).

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Ok, good.  Sorry, I thouht that screamed "silicone" 

If it's factory applied, then that's good news.  I will clean the insides and check for resistance via the FSM (won't make any attempt to "clock" it).

No leaks upstream of the 02.  That beast is plugged right into the header and the only gasket between there is to the head (which is sealed and solid)

I forgot to mention that I checked the wires to the dizzy pickup, but they were good.  I did NOT, however, check the resistance curve of the coolant temp sensor.  I should do that.  But the truck's gauge does indicate that it's fully warmed up.

like you said, fun stuff (but very rewarding).

It's definitely silicone, but factory applied. If someone gets in there they usually do a really sloppy job of resealing the lid.

Speaking of the header, I don't remember whether that is a tri-y or a 4-into-1. The factory manifold and downpipe were probably tri-y, and that makes a huge difference in scavenging on a four cylinder. A 4-into-1 will typically cause a distinct flat spot in the midrange.

EDIT: I see now that it's a Thorley tri-y. If you have zero exhaust leaks (including no funny business from the EGR system), and no unmeasured air getting into the engine but not read by the AFM, then everything I said above about the header can be ignored.

OTHER EDIT: Might not hurt to run a bottle or two of the Hungarian equivalent of Techron or Berryman B-12 through the fuel system in case the injectors are gummed up.

One year... today... ONE YEAR 

The war came into the lives of millions of people 

Video caption(translation)

year of tears

year of courage

year of pain

year of hope

year of staying power

year of unity

year of indestructibility

the year that lasts

We stay strong, we stay power, we stay together !!!

We know that the victory is ours !!! Because Ukraine is our country, our home, our land!!!

I'm grateful to all people who help and support us 

Some good news 

The smiles on the kids faces are worth all the effort

Thank you for sharing that powerful video, Vikki. It's a year that never should have happened. May those kids only know a better future.

I just sold a vacuum to a guy from Mariupol who moved his family here from Ukraine earlier this month. He's trying to settle in, and still hopes to be able to move back sooner than later, but he wouldn't accept my charity... So there will be an extra $80 that I can't keep headed your way, Bill.

Bill my box is ready, but I didn't realize you needed special customs declaration paperwork. Who could've guessed you have to explain what you're sending out of the nation ? Not this dumbass, apparently! It'll be on it's way monday.

Are you still needing stuffed animals for the kids? I can work on that next.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

Bill my box is ready, but I didn't realize you needed special customs declaration paperwork. Who could've guessed you have to explain what you're sending out of the nation ? Not this dumbass, apparently! It'll be on it's way monday.

Are you still needing stuffed animals for the kids? I can work on that next.

hahaha!  No worries!  We've got plenty of time, and that form doesn't need to be the most accurate thing in the world.

Stuffed animals are always welcome, and we always have room for them in the truck!  Thank you for doing all of this!

-Bill

In reply to VikkiDp :

Thank you for sharing those photos, Vikki!  It's absolutely wonderful to see how happy the kids are

Driven5 said:

I just sold a vacuum to a guy from Mariupol who moved his family here from Ukraine earlier this month. He's trying to settle in, and still hopes to be able to move back sooner than later, but he wouldn't accept my charity... So there will be an extra $80 that I can't keep headed your way, Bill.

Wow, that is incredible!
The way I see it, we're here to help Ukraine and that $80 helped a Ukrainian.  I hope he gets his wish and is able to move back sooner than later.

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Is there a funding status coming too?

Driven5 said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Is there a funding status coming too?

100%

Here's where we're at for the last week in Feb:

The pictures from Vikki are still coming in, but after such a successful run last month I noticed that things were much slower here in February.  I was worried about over-taxing us so late last week I e-mailed Mayor Kozma and let him know about fundraising for Dnipro in January and told him that we would be back in March.  I haven't heard back from him yet.

Our next Dnipro trip is going to take place towards the end of April, and I have yet to decide when I want to start the GoFundMe.  I'm certain that I'll wait until after our move (this weekend) but beyond that, I dont have a set date in mind.  It's always a tough call as I need to make the donation drive short enough that it doesn't get stagnant, long enough that we can have time to spread the word and get donors, and end it soon enough that I can make the orders for the items we need to deliver, and account for  any last minute delays or changes.  It's something I definitely spend a lot of time overthinking.

No changes with the truck.  I've been driving it all weekend and haven't made any more changes or adjustments to anything.  She's 100% capable of making the delivery in the shape she's in (even if she does look a little worse for wear at the moment), but with a little tweaking we could have her back to 100%.

All good times though, and I look forward to seeing more smiling children in those pictures

Hi everyone 

a few words in addition to the photos of the kids - all these words  and all wishes are to you all - we all made it possible 

-Translation -

Thank you so much, all the best to you all

-Translation -

Thank you very much, everything arrived

-Translation -

Good afternoon. Thank you so much for the gifts. We love the baby's dishes! they're so beautiful and hight-quality and our favorite colors

We're very thankful to you. Peaceful skies overhead(wish for peace).

The chocolates are so delicious. We'll eat baby's porridge from the new plates.

Note - this mom asked me to buy dishes for her baby girl 

- Translation -

Good evening! We picked up the packages - there were three boxes there! The whole box of sweets!

Five packs of baby food! Diapers!

The kids are excited and mom is so happy. Huge thank you from me.

It's so wonderful to feel support in such hard time.

I wish you health and all the best from all my heart. May God keep you safe.

What you're doing is invaluable. Thank you.

VikkiDp, those absolutely made my day.  Thank you for sharing them!

This popped up in my memories today:

1 year ago today I was returning from my youngest child's pre-school when I ran into an English speaking teacher that worked at the local international school.  She was a wreck and told me that yesterday the maintenance man from the building next door had approached her and asked for a football (soccer ball, to us Americans).  When I asked her "why" she told me he said:

"We have all these children that have arrived from Ukraine, and there's not a single toy in the building!"

I knew where she worked, so I figured I could find the building.  Luckily I drove that day, so I got there in short order.  Sure enough, the place looked like a bomb went off.  48 Ukrainian family members had joined their working husbands who were staying in the area.  The building was a former military barracks that had exactly zero facilities that could care for family life.  Most of it was under various stages of construction.  I remember the only cookware in the kitchen was a beer opener a pot, and a coffee maker...

I did the best I could to get a status report from those in the building.  Women, children, pregnancies, illness... All had arrived unexpectedly overnight.

My plan was to get our credit card out of the safe and max it out at the local supermarket.  I wasn't sure what step-2 would be after I did such a thing, but I figured I'd cross that bridge when I got there.  I made it to our driveway but my anxiety wouldn't let me move any further without making the above post to my private facebook account.  It could only help, right?  I got the phone out of the center console and started typing...

When I was done, I threw it on the passenger seat and ran inside and got the credit card.  When I got back to the truck my phone was already exploding.  The local community was trying to contact me by any means possible to get assistance to that building. 

Deliveries were made, we got children to the hospital (it was COVID), food was delivered, and 5-days later this thread would be started.

We found another village with arrivals expected.  With GRM members and Hungarian locals already assisting with the building we had, we started the thread here to raise money for the heating systems that still needed to be installed in Kisgorbo.  Perhaps the luckiest of all, the mayor of Kisgorbo spoke English!

5-days later, GRM would raise over 2-million forint and cover the complete cost of delivery and installation of every heat pump in that building.  Every month since you guys would send another half million to support the shelter and the refugees it housed.

and if you go back and read those first 3 pages, I was certain it would be a "one and done" thing...

Glad it wasn't guys.  Thanks for all you've done.  Thanks for all your doing.

I would just like to say - THANK YOU ALL 

All those people who support and help Ukrainians  - Bill, Sarah and hungarlings, GRM's guys and many others  

Could we imagine waking up one morning and the war would come to our home? never!!!

But this flow of aid and support from almost the whole world helps us to stay strong and not lose faith in the victory!!!

Thank you all for not being indifferent to the troubles of others!!!

Kindness and compassion will not let this world died.

Could Bill have imagined how many people he would be able to help? Could i have imagined it? Could someone of you...? not sure

But we did it and we're doing it!!!

I'm so glad and so happy for that!!!

Together we're so powerful - it's incredible!!!

VikkiDp, never in a million years did I think something like this could ever possibly happen in our lifetime.  This is something we should be reading about in history books from events that happened 100-years ago.  Not something we're seeing in "modern times".  We will get through this though.  No question about it.

It's Monday, and we're starting this month off on a good foot:

The Kisgorbo fund is being carried over from the month before.  This was a decision I made in an effort to keep us from potentially over-extending ourselves.  We did a HUGE amount of work in January, and we have another run for Dnipro planned in April so I thought it would be good to try to set a nice steady pace to keep us movin.

Speaking of "movin", the big move happened this weekend.  We are now living in a new house, and 100% living out of boxes.  All our furniture is taken apart, we're sleeping on the ground, the whole works.  It should definitely keep us busy for the foreseeable future.

As mentioned, our next run will be towards the end of April.  VikkiDp has reached out to the Prenatal Center and has already received a list of needed supplies.  So far on the list we have a microscope, a blood pressure monitor (professional grade), and UV lights for disinfecting (just like the ones we delivered to the rehabilitation center).

This is going to be a tough run as those items are about $1000 each and they don't take up any room at all in the truck (no fudging this one!).  Historical GoFundMe campaigns tell me that we're good for about $3000 on a normal day (the exception being the Christmas run) so we should be able to meet the needs given by the Prenatal Center.  With the extra room in the truck, I'm thinking we can get stuff together like what Girthquake has and fill space with items for our children in the area.  We've got his art supplies, we have a small box of baby blankets, I have some more electronic stuff I wanted to send Yaroslav (the 13-year-old boy who soldered together the LED Christmas tree for his mom), and of course we can always bring more diapers and baby food.   I figure more room means more opportunity right?

With that being said, I'll probably start the GFM a bit earlier than I usually do and maybe see if I can't work the keyboard and get us a little more visibility this time

In the background, we did do a bit of reorganization. We now have a specific account at our bank set up to receive GFM money.  Previously we had been using our own checking account, which worked when we were placing one or two big orders, but Christmas taught us that if we're making a bunch of small purchases for a LOT of people then things can get messy fast.  With this new account, we can spend our time focusing on buying what's needed instead of playing accountant all the time.  It should lift a big weight off our chest as we get ready for this run AND should allow us to make more orders earlier so we're not biting our fingernails off waiting for last-minute shipping.  Fingers crossed.

Good times.

Good good times.

Ooh!  Ok, we have the official request for the UV lamps!

9ea of the following:

And 47ea of the one below 

VikkiDp reports that this is a BIG center, and I believe it.  Either way, here goes nothin!

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

How much are they, in USD?

I'll be looking for stuffed animals on wednesday!

they don't take up any room at all in the truck (no fudging this one!)

 Ohhh! man, don't worry about it  i think we'll find something to load this baby 

we have a small box of baby blankets

We could add baby clothes to the blankets  - bodysuits, jumpsuits, pants, socks, hats for 0-3 months and 3-6 months sizes -

so eventually we'll have 20 baby gift-boxes  - it would be a good gift for moms and newborns 

What do you think?

The next part of baby foods and diapers has delivered and some sweets for older kids as well 

- Translation -

Good afternoon! Vika thank you so much to you and your friends for the such wonderful help to us.

Peace and God's welfare to all.

My daughter is very happy!!!