Mama’s been sick for the past couple of days, so I haven’t had much spare time, but I decided to use Finn’s Friday nap to install my new speakers. I ran the included wire down the inside of the fenders and up the frame rails to the transfer case cover, then up under the dash to the Wal-Mart receiver. Everything is held together with electrical tape until I get a shrink-wrap kit and some time to tear the dash down correctly. I also still need foam baffles for the backs of the speakers and some cheapo grille covers to protect the tweeters, and I’ll use thicker wire when everything gets run permanently. But there are tunes! And those suckers are LOUD.

While I had the dash half apart, I replaced the bulbs in the two leftside gauge pods with new sockets and bulbs, which work much better. I couldn’t get the speedo pod out in time to replace those bulbs, and I still haven’t been able to reach the nuts that clamp in the switch labels (the clear plastic bars under the knobs) in order to swap those out.

Update: I did some sleuthing to figure out why my left indicator comes on and stays on when I turn the headlights on; apparently I have to do some work on grounding the light housings.

Peer Pressure is back in the garage now that the dumpster is out of the driveway, which makes me very happy. Chewbacca’s demise was hastened by being left outdoors in the elements, as well as exposure to road salt, so Big Purple will stay off the road as much as possible during inclement weather until I can get her undercoated and protected.

One thing that happened yesterday that I wasn’t expecting was a complete failure of the emergency brake mechanism. I stomped on the pedal as I parked at my destination and it just bounced back up at me. So I’m going to have to spend some time underneath with the cable assembly this coming week to see what’s going on.