Electric Water Valve, Bracket and GM Weatherpak connector

(Author: ikom September and October, 2005, Sep,04,2005Sep,04,2005

September and October, 2005

September and October was a bit of a bust for working on the ULTIMA because of numerous other commitments and a lot of other real work.

In any case I did manage to spend time on the build to install the electrically operated water valve and its associated wiring using GM "Weatherpak" connectors to extend the original very short harness that is supplied with it.

The water valve is a substitute for the manual heater valve that is standard fare on the factory ULTIMA and which is operated from under the dash via cable and located in the side storage bin next to the driver. I was a little disappointed with the quality of the factory valve - a made in Mexico inexpensive metal ball valve affair made for cheap domestic cars according to my NAPA parts guy - and which is located in a vulnerable (IMHO - storage bin) part of the car.

In contrast, the electrically operated water valve can be located anywhere in the engine bay and remotely operated via an electrical pot, which I clustered with the other HVAC related knobs under the dash. The other advantage of the electric water valve is that it does not require the use of the factory supplied "H" connector to enable the engine to pump heated coolant through a loop without it seeping past the manual valve and into the heater core.

The electric water valve requires a custom fabricated bracket which I made using the ever useful metal bend brake. I actually ended up making three versions and finally settled on a simple bracket that I "Rivnutted" onto the rear engine bulkhead.

The water valve wiring harness was extended and the whole system tied back into the factory harness and fuse box at the switched +12volt Accusump green connector and tested.

I also emailed the factory to enquire where the radio switched +12volt connector is piggybacked onto the factory harness and Ted confirmed that the unconnected factory white/pink radio wire should be piggybacked onto the green wire at the fuse box alongside (the green wire for) the Accusump connector.

Once this was done, I tested the radio and it works like a charm. The CD player on the Alpine unit is accessed by a motorized inclined faceplate and I was concerned that it may interfere with the operation of the newly positioned water valve control knob, but everything clears nicely including the CD eject function.

The 6" MA Audio speakers sound really good too, even though they are mounted in free air under the dash. I plan to supplement them with a nice pair of 4" JL Audio speakers, which will be located (as per the factory CD build pictures) in the fiberglass of the engine bulkhead at each doorjamb.

The wiring for the radio, speakers, antenna etc. was neatly labeled - I want to be able to sort things out in the future and fumbling under the dash looking for the correct wire is not my idea of fun, hence this bit of forward planning.

The other item that needed to be taken care of was the overhead monitor, reverse camera and the overhead interior light wiring.

I wanted the overhead monitor and reverse camera to be powered through a dash mounted switch connected to a switched +12volt power source. This meant integrating my four-circuit relay harness into the factory harness. I accomplished this by running a wire from the accessories connector of the factory ignition switch into a relay and using this relay to control the entire supplementary four-circuit harness.

The supplementary harness will now only come on-stream when the ignition is turned on and in turn the reverse camera and overhead monitor can only be activated if switched on from a separate dash mounted switch. The video signal for the reverse camera is routed through an RCA connector, as are the headphone audio signals, which I intend to connect to the stereo system.

Testing of this wiring yields great pictures on the overhead monitor as the reverse camera is pointed at various parts of the garage. Success!

Next was the wiring for the overhead interior light - fortunately the light came equipped with a three-wire harness, a switched +12volt wire for turning on any of the map lights or the main light at the fixture, a constant +12volt wire to be connected to a door trigger and a ground wire.

The switched +12volt wire was connected to the factory fuse box green Accusump wire. The constant +12volt wire will be connected to the factory door trigger wiring later, so that the light comes on when the doors are opened.

Testing of this harness was also successful and everything works as intended.

I turn my attention to the worrisome jumble of wires on the signal stalk assembly and carefully strip, and add connectors to them. The special 3mm bullet connectors were ordered from the UK (at great expense) so that I could connect them to the factory harness without modification. I also label them - thanks to BigAl1 who provided the information for this endeavor, gleaned from his experience on his own build. I plan to test the signal stalk assembly next time