Attic Electrical - Just adding a switch....

We have a foreign exchange student coming to stay with us for two weeks late in March (around J's B-Day) and we plan to have her stay in the extra room upstairs. Until now, the only light in this room was a pull chain in the center of the room. Well, when it's dark, it's kinda hard to find so we decided to put in a switch at the bottom of the stairs. Nice 3-way switch so you can turn on the light from the top and bottom of the stairs. Easy, right...?

Well not so much when your house is 87 years old with knob and tube wiring. If you don't know much about knob and tube consider yourself lucky, as it's pretty scary stuff. This particular circuit just happens to run up the south wall all the way to the peak of the attic, across the entire house and down the the outlet under the window. Along the way it somehow picks up the ceiling lights/fans in D's room, the bathroom, the hall, our room and the living room. We're not done yet... it also has the two outlets on the mantle (where our stereo is plugged in) and the only two outlets upstairs - well, that's a bit much - OY!


The logical starting point is the 2 foot wide section in the center of the ceiling. This was a real treat. Taking off the panels and exposing 50+ year old insulation. Yuck. BTW you should never, absolutely ever, insulate over knob and tube wiring.

I think J was getting a bit nervous when she saw the ceiling panels removed. One leg of the knob and tube wiring went to the left of the window and the other to the right so I decided that I had to expose the end wall too. Quite a mess!

What's left of an outlet that really didn't work anyway. See what I mean - scary....

D wanted to help during the reconstruction phase. She helped install trim, wire up the outlets and the dimmer switch and helped clean up a bit. She learned some basic home wiring and safety to boot!

The more I tear into the car the more I find to fix (go figure). I saw a hornets nest in the headlight bucket and the headlight was aimed a bit weird so I worked on it. All 4 screws broke off...... now I have to drill and extract them without damaging the body nut.


I've installed the new IPD timing cover with neoprene seal - very nice indeed. I'd certainly like to ensure that I eliminate as many oil leaks as possible before making this a daily driver.



Status so far...

* Replaced timing cover
* Started tracing out electrical issues and repairing as I find them. Mostly bad end and but connections.
* I tried to replace the oil sump gasket but I have to either remove the transmission or pull the engine completely out. I lifted it but the oil pump and the frame cross member prevents removal. DOH!
* I pulled out the front seats and started working on electrical under the dash
* While under the car I found that the suspension bushings are completely shot and some are missing... IPD to the rescue....
* When I bought the car it came with dual SU carbs installed. It also came with Stombergs AND with the Weber DGV kit (this kit is valued at nearly $600!). Since dual carbs can be a pain to get and keep tuned, I'll rebuild the Weber and install the kit.