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Hooked the crane onto the wiring harness in a Ford Taurus and this bundle of wire came free along with the computer and various relays.
My guestimate is that te pile weighs in the neighborhood of 50 lbs. Quit a few of the plugs have gold plated pins.
Pretty good day 6 cars 1 pick up truck.
http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/z...l/100_5998.jpg
Yup, you can do the same with a tow truck. So much easier.
My Palfinger crane has double acting cylinders, I can either push or pull with both the jib and main boom. Breaking out the front window and dash to get at the wiring was a snap, I would Like to see your tow truck accomplish that feat.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScrapperNJ26
I've been in this racket for years and as far as I'm concerned tow trucks are a lame peice of equipment when used for scrapping.
When I had my yard the excavator with a thumb was number 1 over the Michigan loader then came the crane truck that had an Atlas picker on it. That Atlas does't even come close in comparsiom to the Palfinger. Albeit the Atlas was a step up from the old Hiab cranes I've owned.
I loved scrapping the looms outta cars & trucks (trucks are soooo easy, big wires, most under the dash) I could do them with my eyes closed.
Well, practically I did, at night time, in a huge pile of scrapped car bodys.
4 sacks of looms cleaned down = 2 sacks of clean wire.
2 sacks clean wire = 1/2 sack squashed & burnt off copper wire.
1/2 sack squashed wire = 40Kg copper
40Kg copper = NZ$300+ (US$255)
Watching the scrap dealer guy try & pick up a sack of 40Kg copper wire thinking "It's just a sack". On the CCTV. Priceless.
Yup, thats the way to do it, remove front window glass & undo the bolts holding the dash in at the bottom of the windscreen & then pushing the dash backwards, gets you into the dash area & access to the looms & heater/aircon radiators too.Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuit
I always wondered about the Gold content in those car computers..... Mid 80's Jap cars contain the most looms, completley ridiculus amount of wire in there.
BMW's were the easyest, absolute God sent for scrappers.
Useing the crane I just lay it onto the window then crowed the jib in as it comes towards me it pushed the car to the ground then breaks eveythng in its path. The dash is mostly plastic with a few wimpy metal braces, no time for wrenches. and besides I'm always loosing them.Quote:
Originally Posted by eesakiwi
More gold than just the computer, try looking at the plug in that go to the electic door controls, the oxygen sensor plug. In other wods any connection that is likely to be near mosture.
I just took a tour of the factory that retrofits Palfinger Cranes ontp trucks and stuff. NIIICEEEEQuote:
Originally Posted by biscuit
Now that we all know who makes the best picker crane in the world I'll try to get this thread back on its proper course.
The fuse block came from that pile of wireing harness, it is multi payers of plastic with copper buss running though the insides of it. The little ice cube relays each have pecious metals contacts inside, I have disasembled one so that everyone could have a peek.
You can find as many as a dozen or more of these small realays scattered through out the car or truck your scrapping out.
Oh by the way the fuse block weighs in at 2.60 lbs, I used the grinder to remove sme of the plating to expose the copper underneath.
For those of you that like numbers, there was 6.4 grams of copper wire on the relay coil. It would take aproximaely 78.125 relays to recover a full pound of copper.
http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/z...l/100_5999.jpg
http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/z...l/100_6000.jpg
http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/z...l/100_6001.jpg
http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/z...l/100_6002.jpg
Something I have been wondering should I try to get the guys scraping autos here to recover wire harnesses and sell them to me? Or does every auto scrapper already do this? Is the fuse box something else I should consider buying?
This may be the the dumbest question I have asked but I have had no contact with the auto scrappers outside of this forum. Thanks, Mike.
If you blow the picture up full size you'll see that there is 8 layers of copper, the cube relay I opened up was one of the small white ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by miked
This fuse block was located under the dash there's another one in the engine compartment. Later this evening I'm going out to the shop to peel open all the plugs checking to see how many pins are gold plated. Maybe even crack a few of those electronic box's open. If I find anything of interest will post pictures.
Nice thread Biscuit, thanks for the info and pics.
Yea no problem, I've cut the plugs free of the harness, not a spec of gold. As soon as the wire dries off a bit I'll bring it in for weighing/Quote:
Originally Posted by happyscraper
You'll only find this amount of wire from cars that have power seats.
A bit disapointing, 27 lbs from the wire harness with all the plugs trimmed off along with excess plastic sheathing. Could have gabbed another couple of pounds from under the power seats.
Glad you all enjoyed the post.