Packing the bearings…Feb. 2010 – Mazatlan, Mexico

When I got in Mazatlan, I needed a mechanic to check and pack my front wheel bearings. Because of the topes (speed bumps) all over Mexico, and because I’d hit some of them at relatively  high speed I figured I’d better have my bearings checked. The rears were replaced a couple years before so I wasn’t worried about them. Plus I’d always been able to slow down a bunch before the rears went over the topes. Asking around at the RV park, my neighbor introduced me to his favorite mechanic and gave me plenty of reasons to hire him  so I scheduled him to inspect and pack my front wheel bearings and to fix my plastic front fender which was starting to come loose from the front chassis.

Ready to remove wheel.

First problem he had was he lacked the tools to remove the lug nuts from the passenger side wheel. He had had his truck stolen a couple months before and he only had the barest of tools replaced. The nuts were torqued on at 475 ft-lbs and would require proper tools. I had a lug wrench the right size, 1 & 1/2 inch, but lacked a breaker bar for it. The mechanic borrowed several tools from friends and soon had a wheel off. The picture above shows the only tire tool I got with the RV, that black bar there leaning up on the wheel. It’s an extension. One end fits on the lug nut, 1.25″, then the other end is a square 1″ socket for a breaker bar. Then the other tool was borrowed by my mechanic from a friend of his. It was hardened and looked like it was hand made at a forge to both make the right angle and hammered at one end to fit a 1″ socket. Which it did well.

Then I have a pipe that the mechanic used to give himself enough leverage to get the lug nuts off then back on when we finished. I liked that tool enough that I bought it from his friend for $400 pesos ($32 US). After removing the passengers side wheel, we notice the brake pads were really close to scraping on metal. After pulling the pads off that wheel assembly, off we go to find replacements. We have to go to five auto parts outlets to find the right pads. He has me pay for them so I know exactly how much they cost. I tell him it’s normal for a mechanic to tack a little onto the price of a part to pay for his time and wear and tear on his vehicle. He doesn’t think he can do that and make a living from tourists. I didn’t think that was right and hand him $100 pesos ($7.75 US) for gas when we stop at a station. After we get back to the park with the new pads, he starts to remove the wheel from the drivers side. I happen to walk over there while he’s jumping on the breaker bar…turning the nut the wrong way…this rig has left hand thread on the drivers side. So it’s ‘righty loosey, left tighty’ on the drivers side of my rig. After I inform him of that little fact, it only takes a couple minutes to get the wheel off. Thanks to fate he didn’t break of a lug.

Then he spends quite a while cleaning, inspecting, testing, and re-greasing the bearings. I remember Dad and myself doing that job when I was a teenager, that’s how long it’s been since I’ve done that, so I was happy to let him handle the decision process. Turns out, he says, they are fine! No rough  or flat spots in the bearings or metal fillings in the grease at all. What a relief. I’ve already had to replace one spindle on this rig for around $2500 and certainly didn’t want that expense this time. Saving big money on new bearings or a new spindle makes me happy. Saving money on a brake job makes me happy too. After the brakes were replaced and the bearings checked and re-greased, I had him reconnect the plastic wrap around bumper. The lower ends of the plastic cover shown in the above photo had shaken itself loose from the rusted brackets make to hold it in place. There were plenty of other screws holding it in place so there was no danger of it falling off the rig for a while but I didn’t like the thing vibrating in the road wind.

On to the drivers side. Just getting set up.

See the plastic wheel surround above? That’s the piece, I guess there are two, one on each side, that was loose near the bottom where the support metal had rusted out. The road wind would vibrate it rapidly and over time shake it loose from the frame.

He had a friend bend up some thick sheet metal into U channels and force fit them onto what was left of the original metal framing, over lapping by several inches where appropriate. Then when the plastic panels were screwed back on, they had plenty of metal to hold onto. Problem solved.

After all that work, the cost was only $1100 pesos ($88 US). Then the parts cost was $825 pesos ($64 US) for a total of $152 US. Not bad for a brake job, front wheel bearing inspection and re-packing, and body work that probably would have cost me over $1,000 in the US.

My new favorite Mexican mechanico...

I did provide so many necessary items to help the job along that he designated me an honorary Mexican mechanic. Someone who can do anything with nothing.

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Replacing the tires…Sept. 2009 I tried to make it back from Alaska on the Bridgestone tires I had on the rear since it appeared they had enough tread, and a tire shop told me they were fine. They had somewhere over 45,000 miles on them but I thought I could squeeze another 3,000 out of them safely. Somewhere in the middle of Canada, we were on a rough road before it had been resurfaced when we hit one of those extension/compression bumps at 45 MPH or so. That apparently split one of the rear tires between the treads, unknown to me. Three hundred miles later, we are driving next to a highway construction crew and they’re making lots of bang, bang noises. My brother, who’s along for this trip, makes a joke that I should pull over and fix my blown tire. Less then 10 miles later, I’m driving along at 55 and hear this lump-lump-lump noise. I pull over and find that one of my outer duals has gone flat. My brother jinxed me! Damn. So I pull into a farmyard and get permission to park there while I arrange for a tire guy to come out and change the tire for me. Takes around 2 hours for him to show up. That gives me time for lunch, checking fluids, and getting the spare out of the tire compartment. The spare really looks good, like it only has a couple thousand miles on it. But the date code is year 2000. Not sure that it’s going to get me far because of it’s age but it was the only spare I had. There was around 48,000 on the Bridgestones by this time and the tread was looking a little low so we got worried that they wouldn’t get us home. And who wants to buy in Canada, land of 150% markups? We were around a days drive to Prince George, BC, so I decide that I’ll just use the spare and keep checking it until we get there, then look for a used tire or two to get us to Walla Walla.

All ready for the tire guy...

The guy had all the right equipment (that doesn’t always happen) and was able to change it and torque it to 475 ft-lbs like it’s suppose to be and off he went. He told me that my roadside service insurance company would be billed $220. The insurance cost me just over $100.

Here's some local scenery. That's a trailer pad for the farmers son. He was getting married in a few weeks and the couple were building themselves a home.

After we got to Prince George, I did find a Goodyear shop that sold me a couple used spares. I was worried about it so I bought two just in case. While we were traveling from Prince George to Walla Walla, nearly everywhere we stopped I’d go put my hand on the tires to see how warm they were. The spare (some off brand) was consistently warmer then the Bridgestones. By allot as far as I could tell. So I lower the air pressure in the spare to try to take some weight off of it. That seemed to help as it’s temperature came to be around the same as the Bridgestone right next to it. So now that I’m in Walla Walla, I drive over to Milton-Freewater, Oregon and get a quote for 4 Toyo tires. Had them installed yesterday. Cost was $1175. That included some nice brass extensions so I can put air in the tires without have to screw around with the ‘too short & hidden’ tire valves that were on there.

Here's the new tires all pretty like...

This is how bad most of the removed tires looked. Changed them just in time.

Really glad I got these changed, it’s not that easy to see how bad of shape they were in when you’re on the road. After the shop took them off…whoa, look how bad it’s worn down. And there were cracks in the rubber between the treads all around the tires. When the spare I was using was replaced by the new tire, the tech found a sidewall blow out so it wouldn’t have lasted much longer and was no longer any use as a spare so I had them put the best of the Bridgestones on the spare wheel. I’ll look for a better spare as I travel around. Junk yards often have terrific deals on used tires since 19.5″ tires aren’t very common. A couple of months later I was able to sell the spare tires I’d bought in Canada on EBay for the same price I’d paid for them. So it only cost me $80 to ‘rent’ them and have them with me from Prince George to Walla Walla. One thing about the new Toyo tires. They stink. They smelled strongly of sewage when I bought them and months later they still faintly smell bad. Whenever they get warm from too much sun or hard driving, they stink. Bummer. It’s been 8 months since I changed the tires and the bad smell has finally gone. Weird.

Replacing bad Shocks

After driving around Mexico, I felt it was time to replace the shocks since I got bounced and banged around so much down there. I was having control issues as well. The roads down there aren’t the best with lots of potholes and steep edges. I also found myself on gravel roads with ruts or narrow roads with huge potholes and no way to drive around them. And riding on them was no treat. Got my teeth rattled many times. I checked the repair records and couldn’t find any record that the original owner had ever replaced the shocks, and I had over 122,000 miles on the rig. Most owners say that stock shocks are good for maybe 20,000 miles on a RV. So I did a search on RV.net and read the stories by others on the net about the best shocks and prices. I settled on Bilstein’s since I found so many stories about how good they were. They also have a lifetime warranty and were about the same price as the other brands. I ordered a set from eshocks.com for $299, including shipping. The new shocks were smaller diameter then the shocks I was replacing and the fronts are longer then the rears. $299 worth of RV shocks…with a lifetime warranty. I’m at my brother’s house and he has a compressor and impact tools so we decided to do the work out on the street. The street is very steep so I chocked the rig up good and raised and blocked the front. The weather shortly before we went to work…then the sun came out and it got hot.

After soaking with CR-2-26 spray lube, the impact wrench made short work of removing the nuts. But I don’t think it would have been a problem with a breaker bar and a ratchet. Since the old shocks were bad, there was no problem removing them since they were collapsed. One thing I noticed on the old shocks was that the neoprene was still soft and pliable. Good sign that the other rubber products on the chassis would still be reasonably good. Installing the new shocks was a chore since they are under pressure (350lbs I believe) we had to use a flat pry bar to get them compressed enough to get them on the mounting shafts. If I’d had the rig on a flat instead of a steep hill, that probably wouldn’t have been a problem since I could have jacked up the rig far enough that the extended shocks would have slipped right on. Top & bottom mounting of drivers side front shock:

There would have been plenty of room if we had removed the wheel but we felt we could get it done without doing that. We found that the flat washers wouldn’t fit back into the brackets with the new shocks installed, so we installed them just under the nut instead of between the ‘U’ bracket and the concave washers, which fit up next to the rubber mounting bushing of the shock. In a thousand or so miles, I’ll crawl under there and check to make sure the shock isn’t moving back and forth too much. If there is movement, I’ll just reinstall the washers. After we finished the fronts, we moved to the rears. No big deal back there except the transfer case is kind of in the way so we had to use long extensions and a wobbler to get on the nuts. On the passenger side, the bundle of wire and hose was right up onto the outer case of the old shock so we had to remove clamp bolts in order to move that bundle out of the way. Since the new shocks have less diameter, there won’t be anymore rubbing. Rear shock:

Once all the new shocks were installed, we did a road trip. I’m always surprised when I read or hear other people talk about what a huge difference new shocks make but I’ve never seen or felt much of a difference all those other times I’ve changed bad shocks. And since my expectations are low I’m never disappointed. This time was no exception. I guess I’d need a calibrated butt. I’d say that Perhaps I’ll see a difference in the ride when I get back down to Mexico. [On Edit, 11-07] The shocks did make a big difference in Mexico. The rough roads down here were not such a bother after they were installed. My arms weren’t sore and my teeth weren’t rattled by all the pot holes and road cracks. I probably saved $200-$400 by doing it myself. Easy job that would have been even easier if the rig had been on a flat spot. Could have used my creeper. ——————————————————

Road problems — April ‘06 I passed this volcanic rock field. Kind of interesting but no cinder cone or caldera: After this, I passed through Barstow and onto Hiway 58. The 4 lane section. Around the middle of that section, I hit a pothole that rattled my teeth. Right after that, I’m hearing a loud thumpa, thumpa, thumpa. Sounds like a flat so I start to pull over. I stop at a pull out and check all the tires. No flat and no tread separation that I could find. And no dead animals stuck between my duals. But whenever I move, a loud noise from the front end. I think I’ve got it localized to the left front, I call service and they dispatch a truck to tow me back to Barstow for service. While I’m waiting, I lift the rig on the front leveler and discover that the noise is coming from the right front wheel. And it’s loud too. While messing around with the tire, I find that 4 of the six lug nuts are loose! So I call and cancel the tow but ask for a tire truck (big rigs use them when they have a flat on the freeway-they have the tools and a compressor and can fix any tire problem without towing). The same outfit says they’re still coming out and can do the work. Meanwhile, I’ve tried to tighten the nuts with the tools I have but this is a 19.5″ tire so you need to apply around 200 Ft/Lbs to these nuts. I don’t have the strength. The tow truck gets there and I find that the guy has no idea about this big of a tire. Doesn’t even have a torque wrench with him. Not even aware of the tire pressures needed. Anyway, working together we get the nuts wrenched down tight and I head out. No more noise. Whee, another potential problem solved with a simple fix. I gotta tell you, the noise was so loud and so persistant that I thought that there was major front end damage to deal with. Here’s a shot of the wheel, the three bare nuts have their caps removed, they were loose:

You can see by this shot that I was able to find a nice pull off of the freeway in order to work on the wheel. And there is a handy turn around for the tow guy to head back to town right here too:

Note #1: Found out from the manufacturer and other sources that the torque needed for the lug nuts holding the wheel on is 450-500 ft-lbs. I don’t have the tool for that much torque but I’m looking for one.

Note #2: 5-’06 Update…I purchased a tool from Harbor Freight that is a ‘Torque Multiplier’ that should give me the ability to, using my torque wrench, get the nuts torqued to 475 ft/lbs. I’ve got the tool here with me at Lake Tahoe, and I’m ready to test as soon as the weather turns good again, and I find a pipe for leverage.

Note #3: 6-’06 Update…Tried to use the $30 troque multiplier I bought at Harbor Freight. It was a 30:1 multiplier if I remember correctly and I tried to use it to loosen a lug nut that was tightened with an impact wrench using a source of air that was set to 130lbs. (Would that be 130 ft-lbs on the lug nut?). I inserted the multipliers handle into a 3′ pipe wedged onto the ground. Then I set my torque wrench to 12 ft-lbs and tried to loosen the nut. The handle of the torque multiplier busted before the torque wrench clicked. Took it back. I’ll have to find some other way I quess. I’d like to avoid paying $200 for a proper torque wrench if I can. A few miles down the road, this is the Mojave Desert:

I’m on the road to my brothers and I’ll try to get the nuts tightened on the way…if I find a tire shop…

Lashing the Awning—Preventing a disaster. These pictures show how I lash my awning after I’ve locked and clamped it in place before a trip. The added rod and bungee cords help prevent the wind from picking up the awning and unfurling it while traveling down the road, even though it’s closed and latched in the travel position. The installed locking mechanism sometimes can be vibrated loose by the road or by wind gusts and release when buffeted by a strong quartering wind. RVs that are unlucky enough to have this happen can end up in a ditch or can cause huge accidents. The awning can unfurl and flop over the roof or rip off and fly away or can act like a parachute and lift the RV up and push it over a lane or two, all depending on wind speed and direction. Not sexy. I had my awning unfurl about 12″ once while on the freeway not far from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. I happened to notice it happening just as I was slowing down to make an exit. After I quit screaming like a little girl, I got on line and did some research. I found on my favorite forum, Woodall’s, that this happens often enough, and is dangerous enough to make it a worry. One of the forum regulars had come up with a simple, inexpensive, and quick fix. I had the parts on board so the cost was $0. The following pictures are how I installed it. Since this works so well, I’m not certain I’ll do anything more for this potential problem. There are commercial products for this but they all start around $50 and seem needlessly complicated, often requiring the user to climb a latter to install the device. The method shown here doesn’t require climbing any ladders, uses parts (usually) on hand and is cheap. Here is the awning pull-down rod (comes with the awning) inserted into the hole in the end of the awning tube, and after the rod is lashed down, it prevents the awning from unfurling:                                                          

Here are the bungee cords that hold the rod and after being looped around the arm, they are hooked into the eye of the rod and then the bracket that supports the arm, they are 18″ long and have plastic hooks to prevent maring:

Here’s a side view looking toward the rear of the RV, note that neither the rod nor the plastic bungee cord hooks touch the side of the rig, helping prevent chaffing the paint or sidewall:      

Hopefully, this method will save my awning next time I drive around a tornado…

Update: I stopped using this method to clamp my awning because I lost both of my awning hooks when tree branches hooked them and pulled them out of the awning and they dropped to the ground as I drove off. I’ve since installed a gate latch that I can operate from the ground using my new awning hook.

Awning latch after welding on an 'eye'.

Attached to awning arm.

One hole was already there, it was for the screw that held the end cap on. I bought a longer one then drilled a smaller hole for another screw. Drilled another hole in the latching mechanism as well. That gave two screws to hold the latch.

When the awning is rolled up the latch generally lines up with the hole in the awning roller so it’s easy to put my awning hook into the eye of the latch and slide it into the hole. Sometimes it doesn’t line up and I have to unroll and re-roll it a couple times. The latch does a good job staying in place over rough roads, I’ve never found it bounced out of place.

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How I did the brake job… Well, I got the brakes fixed today finally. Cost me $534 for the master cylinder (new) plus all the fluid and stuff. They have been getting worse for a long time, meaning that over time the symptoms became hard to ignore. The first problem I had with them was the day I drove the rig off the consignment lot. The brakes ‘Stuck’. But it went away immediately after I stuck my foot under the brake pedal and pulled up. Months later I went into Death Valley using my brakes instead of downshifting, read about it here, just click the link: Link

After that little fiasco, I didn’t have much trouble until mid-October when in downtown Elkhart, the brakes just went down to the floor. Even then I had brakes but only manual, no power assist. Kind of hard to press them. So I was just very careful until I got here in Dos Cabezas, Arizona. About 400 miles before I got here, adding brake fluid to the reservoir didn’t seem to help any more. So, time to fix them. After getting here, I spent a hell of a lot of time just trying to find the part. Freightliner repair had them, but you had to buy both the master cylinder and the booster, $888. And for them to do the job? $2800 firm. NO WAY. So I spent HOURS on the internet trying to find a rebuilt or new master cylinder, based on the symptoms. The problem is that it’s hard to know exactly which part number I have for my RV and nearly all auto sales places insist that you select a CAR to order a master cylinder. I have a RV, not a car! Butts.

Anyway, it’s taken nearly a month to find the part number, find a place that sells them, learn all I can about changing them, ordering and installing the part, and then bleeding the system. I learned alot and I’m happy I had the experience, I just wouldn’t want to do it too often. Lucky that the weather here is so nice. 68F to 75F every day almost. So tomorrow AM I’ll let the gal that hired me to be a handyman know that I’m off down the road to Mexico. She really didn’t have the kind of jobs I wanted to work on after she stopped or didn’t allow to start the two jobs that would have been interesting. Both due to money. I quoted one job to rip out a ‘load bearing wall’ for more space in her living room at $1300. Really not to expensive. She freaked…ended up having her husband do it on his days off instead and only opened the space where a window had been (I’d told her that was a choice) instead of the entire original 12 feet width.

So it’s all rough looking and unfinished with wires hanging out but it’s open now. But no money for me. Here’s my story about fixing the brakes: When I got to Dos Cabezas, on Dec. 13th, 2005, the brake pedal had been sinking to the floor since late October 2005 in my ‘94 Fleetwood Bounder Class A RV, but by this time, adding fluid to the brake fluid reservoir and pumping the pedal no longer restored braking. So I did an internet search, asked questions on RV forums and read several automotive blogs about brake problems. At the end of that I had a pretty good idea that I had a bad brake Master Cylinder (MC). When I was driving around the country (Indiana to southern Arizona), I had some brakes and initially pumping the pedal would give me assisted brakes, but eventually I really had to press hard on the pedal. So I got in the habit of decelerating early. Not one time did I ever need to panic stop. And I avoided places in big cities or other areas where I may be put in a tight squeeze and need lots of quick braking action. And I had a fall back position. In an emergency, I could slam my shift lever into ‘Park Brake’ position, which would apply the drive line brake. The tranni doesn’t have a parking pawl. Never had to do this while driving but I did test it in a few parking lots and at some stop signs to check that it worked…it did. After I got settled in Dos Cabezas, where I might add there was a competent mechanic who offered to remove and reinstall my master cylinder, I checked with a local Freightliner repair facility (in Willcox, Arizona). They would only sell a new MC, no rebuilds, and they would only sell the MC with a power booster. This is a secondary part that attaches to the MC and using hydraulic pressure provided by the power steering pump, assists the braking action. They were asking $888 for the two parts. I also asked for a quote for them to do the job. They wanted $2800, which included the parts costs. Well, the mechanic at the ranch I was at could do the job plus bleed and refill the system. I offered him $200, and he accepted $20 down, pulling off the MC in about 20 minutes (this was after we tested and he found a huge leak coming from the junction of the MC and power booster). I wanted to avoid having to spend $888 so I spent many hours trying to find some business on the internet that would sell me a new master cylinder for a Freightliner chassis. Or a rebuild kit, or a rebuilt MC. The biggest problem is figuring out the correct part number for the MC installed on a RV. The MC in a RV is usually (so I was told) a custom part made only for that RV manufacturer. My MC is a standard part made by Bendix and there is just a Part Number chase that you have to do to figure out which one it is. And then there is the problem of the way most internet auto business are set up. They care about cars mostly so they don’t provide any way to select a part without selecting a car! But I found a place that had an ‘Ask the Experts’ email button which I used to explain my situation. After a couple of back and forth emails, getting the correct casting number and piston diameter and such, we had a Bendix part number and I ordered the MC. After shipping it came to $487. After brake fluid and such it came in at around $530.

About this time the mechanic I had lined up bailed on me…so I decided to do it myself. Since I’d only paid him $20 to remove the MC, I wasn’t out much. First: Bench Bleeding the new MC I bought a bench bleeding kit from CarQuest and connected the two plastic screw in plumbing parts, 9/16″ – 18 tpi and a 1/2″ – 20 tpi, into the front and rear ports. Then attached clear tubing from the hose bibs into the reservoir. Using an 18″ lever I was able to pump the air out of the MC. This required quite a bit of force, I think the lever gave me about 360 lb. of mechanical advantage. Second, Cleaning the Booster: Before installing the MC, I needed to address the booster. The booster shaft had been pushed way far out of position when I accidentally turned on the key while the brake pedal had been depressed. This started the aux brake motor that pushed the rod out towards where the MC would usually be. The big piston was kind of half in/half out and the large ‘O’ ring was exposed. Using a wooden handle, I pushed the piston and when I released the assembly the whole thing popped out and a quart of ATF spilled out. It happened slowly enough that I was able to see how the parts were assembled and didn’t loose any parts. I took it in the shop and using alcohol as a solvent (recommended for ATF and brake fluid), cleaned the gunk out of the fine plastic mesh filter screen and cleaned all the ‘O’ rings. There are 5 of them if I remember, 3 large and 2 smaller. But they were all OK and still fresh acting…probably the result of being in an ATF fluid environment for 120,000 miles. After the booster piston was all clean, I thought I’d test it for fit. Cleaned out the booster cylinder with a clean rag and inserted the piston. It went in real easy and true, but it stuck. Thinking it would be better to not jerk it around, I left it in place. My worry was that since I had cleaned but not lubed the ‘O’ rings that could cause a leakage problem. But since the rings were in such good shape, and they swim in ATF normally, maybe my mistake wouldn’t be a problem after a few miles. Third, Installing the MC: There are 4 bolts inserted into the booster that become studs for the MC. I left the bench bleed inserts & tubing in the reservoirs and installed the MC on those 4 bolts, leaving it loose so I could wobble the MC around to make alignment of the brake tubing easier. First I removed the rear plastic plumbing and quickly jammed the brake tube into the receiver hole and hand screwed it tight. This prevented too much fluid from escaping. Then the front plastic plumbing part was removed and the front tube installed. Then I installed and tightened down the four bolts. Now I had a primed MC installed, ready to go to the next step. Here’s what it looks like installed:             

The nice black thing with the white plastic thing on top is the MC. The round device at the bottom is the electric braking motor. It gives boost to the MC if the engine is not running so you still have power brakes. The part above that is the brake power booster. I should mention that this brake master cylinder is in the drivers wheel well and it was easy for me to crawl under there and work on it, after raising the rig using center lifter and then blocking up the axle. There is plenty of room. Didn’t need to remove the tire or anything. I’m 5′ 7″ and 185lbs or so. Bleeding: There wasn’t any MC bleeding needed since I’d done it on the bench previously but the old burned brake fluid needed to be pushed out at each brake cylinder. So I had a friend crack open the bleed ports at each wheel while I squirted the old, very dark brown, burned brake fluid out of the system. After about 30 minutes of bleeding and refilling the master reservoirs, I was ready to test. Testing: I started the engine and immediately noticed a howl that happens when there isn’t enough steering fluid. Ha, yes, I’d spilled a quart of ATF out of the booster cylinder when the piston popped out. So, back to the engine compartment and add a quart of ATF. B-t-w, this rig uses ATF (automatic transmission fluid) as the power steering system fluid. And since the steering system has a hydraulic pump, all the air that might be in the booster would be bled out just by running the engine, usually. So I ran the engine for 20-30 minutes and still had howling when I tried to steer, though not as bad as in the beginning. I gave up for the night to let it sit. Next day, I added at least 3/4 quart of ATF, didn’t see any bubbles, and after starting the engine, there was no howling. The bubbles of air had all migrated out of the steering system. The brakes seemed firm or just slightly squishy. Since it was my day to leave to Mexico, I checked all my fluid levels, looked for a leak at the MC/booster junction (none found), crossed my fingers and hit the road. Ten miles later there was no sign of any problems, brakes and steering worked fine and fluid levels were OK. Best of all there still wasn’t any sign of a fluid leak from between the MC and the booster. I was good to go. Estimate of time to do the job: 2.5 hours. And that’s by a non-expert. If I’d had Freightliner do it they would have made over $700 per hour. Freightliners estimate: $2800 includes parts. My parts cost + fluids: $530 (includes special parts like the bench bleeding kit and hose.) I’m happy with saving $2200. ————————————————-

Alternator failure… Many times over the last 2 years I’ve tested the voltage across the batteries with the engine running. It’s always measured 13.8 Volts. This is fine and indicated a correctly functioning alternator. But on the recent trip between Fort Stockton, Texas, and Hondo Texas, the voltage meter on the dash rose to a very high value. Still indicating ‘OK’ but higher then normal. After an hour of that, it suddenly plunged to ‘discharging’ on the meter. Hmmm. I kind of expected the alternator to fail sooner so I just assumed it was bad and did what I could to conserve battery energy while I continued on to Hondo, a mere 3 hours distant. Firstly, I turned off the stereo radio, it’s large speakers draw a lot of power while playing, secondly the headlights, no need for them in the daytime. I have nothing else to turn off. And the meter, although it’s now higher then when I started, is still in the discharge zone. The diesel engine doesn’t use any electricity while running so the power draw must be the control circuits for the refer and the LP and CO alarms and some other 12V parasitic draws like the radio clock and such. Not a big deal but I didn’t want the battery (starting battery – a single ‘Deep Cycle’ 12Volt) to be discharged to deeply since that can ruin it. So I stopped the rig, kept it running, and jumped my little trickle chargers 12 Volt lamp load out of circuit so the ‘House’ batteries (two deep cycle 6 Volt wired in series) would trickle current into the starting battery. Of course this would eventually exhaust the house batteries and if they were too deeply discharged could be ruined too. I make it to Hondo OK and hook to 120 Vac which charges the 6 Volt batteries, and the starting battery too (with my trickle charger installed-not standard equipment in RV’s). The next day I move to a RV park closer to town, also closer to the towns services, and start calling around for tech help. I could do the job myself but don’t really want to. After calling a local shop, which doesn’t do that kind of RV work, I get a tech’s number I get lucky that afternoon and find a nice RV park that has room for our small, informal caravan with all the services nearby or at the spaces. Once hooked up, I get to work trying to find out what type and size of alternator I need. Read the books and then call Freightliner. They tell me the style, 21SI, and the output, 100 amp. So I call around to auto parts stores and find a Delco alternator, get to work and 6 hours later, I have the old alternator out. Not fun, not fun at all. It’s all dirty under there and I wipe grime out of my ears for a couple days while I rest and watch the weekends football games. Old alternator, it’s really grimey too: Saturday, I get a ride downtown and buy a rebuilt 100 Amp alternator. Costs $142. Plus $10 for the shop guy to take my old pulley off and place on the new one. Just easier for me. Run back to the rig and drop it in place, climb under the rig and don’t notice that I’ve got it wedged in wrong so it’s bending the bracket. Well, one thing leads to another and soon I’ve bent the shaft on the dang thing so it won’t turn. Monday we return it and I buy another one. They’re out of the 100 Amp units so I get a 135 Amp. Costs another $143. With a promise from the desk that they will submit my warranty claim…I don’t expect much from that but I’ve already saved over $100 in labor costs…so now I’m committed to finishing the job myself. If I get a refund, great, if not, I’m not that unhappy, I’ll just pretend I had to buy it from Cummins or Freightliner. By the way, I called and Freightliner wants $470 just for the alternator. Labor would have been $90 an hour if I’d had them replace it. We also run around trying to find a new connector that supplies the field voltage to the alternator, mine is all corroded and stuff, and they’re suppose to be available ‘everywhere’. NOT. We found it at one auto parts store out of the five we went to. On Tuesday morning, armed with the new alternator, the new connector and the knowledge I didn’t have on Saturday, I rewire the new connector, clean all the other connectors, and slide the new alternator in place, making sure I don’t bend the bracket again. It takes a bunch of reefing and hammering on stuff but I get it installed and wired up. The engine starts right up and I see the voltmeter jump up into the green, means the alternator is wired correctly and operating. Whew. So I go out and get everything picked up, do some strapping of cables and such and finally finish. Just in time to go take a shower before the women in our group arrive. Here’s a shot of the engine compartment and the hole where the alternator goes:                               

Now with the new alternator installed:                  

And another view:                                                                                                         

Some thoughts on replacing the alternator: 1) Don’t ever use a floor jack to push up on the pulley, see what’s blocking it, if anything, I stupidly did that and it cost me a new alternator; 2) I tried to loosen the belt idler adjusting component but it seems to be siezed up, I didn’t want to break it so I had to install the alternator onto the belt using as much care as possible and by wedging the alternator in the right place against belt tension then hammering in the bolt. Then the lower bolt required more wedging with a crow bar. By dropping the alternator in wrong the first time, it wedged in against the lower bracket wrong, so I bent it, and consequently, bent the alternator shaft; 3) It’s filthy under there and if I had to do it over, I’d spray wash the engine, bottom and top first; 4) I checked the belt before reinstalling the alternator to be sure it was still good, plus I have a spare belt; 5) Changing the small connector carrying the field voltage to the alternator is a good idea if your unit is older, they get a lot of crud on them and corrode easily. I cut the old wires back 3-4″ to avoid any old corrosion that may have creeped up the wires and reattached new wires with terminals for the new connector; 6) After starting the engine and checking the voltage meter, go back and check the alternator to be sure the belt is running true. Good luck! ——————————————————————————-

Fixing the Hot Water. In Dec. ‘04 or so, I had been living in the RV long enough that I’d noticed that the hot water was intermittent. I’d flick on the switch for the gas to start and sometimes nothing would happen. Flipping it off and on would often get it to fire but as time passed, that method became less and less effective. Over several weeks, I ran many tests and found that one of the two thermostats, the ‘High Limit Switch’, was giving me odd readings. The repair records for the RV didn’t show any work done on the water heater so I decided to replace all the parts eventually but in the meantime, I just made up a jumper and shorted out the offending thermostat. My quick fix worked for several weeks and then the problem reappeared. It was still intermittent so I only missed having a hot shower while camping a couple of times. By August ‘05, I’d grown tired of messing with the situation and did some searches on the web looking for repair parts. I compared replacing parts with just replacing the entire tank while I was searching. Repairing came out ahead as it was $300 less expensive then buying a new tank, even if I installed it myself. I also checked the tank to make sure that it wasn’t in too bad of shape and would give me a few more years of service if I repaired it. I found the best replacement parts I could at the best prices and since the supplier turned out to be in Forest Grove, Oregon, very near where I hang out in Gresham, Oregon, I just stopped by on my way to my stomping ground. While wandering around their facility, I discovered a reasonable price on an electrical heater element that installed directly into the drain of my gas-heated tank. Since it was only $70, I picked it up along with a new ESI module, and an ECO/TStat kit to replace the old thermostats. The whole group of parts came to just under $200. And no sales taxes in Oregon. I’d already replaced the weeping pressure relief valve ($12) months before so I didn’t need to deal with that. The ESI (Electronic Spark Ignition) module was smaller then the one I replaced so I had to drill a hole for a self tapping screw, that allowed two screws to hold the module. Then I replaced both the ECO (Emergency Cut Off) and TStat (Thermostat) devices. All these parts are easily accessible behind the water heater door. I tested everything and it all worked, didn’t cut out or anything so I was good to go. With everything working it was time to install the ‘Hot Rod’ branded heating element. I have a 6-gallon tank so I bought the 425-Watt, 4 Amp heater that comes with an Anode, a thermostat and an electrical cord with 3-prong plug. After cooling and draining the tank, it’s an easy job to select the correct sized collar for the rod, install it in the tank, ty-rap the thermostat to the top of the relief valve, wire it up and tape everything in place. My model Bounder has a set of patio outlets within a few inches of the tank so I just plug in the heater whenever I park and have electric. Otherwise the cord is coiled up inside the water heater cover. Nothing overheats even if I’m using gas so it works out pretty well. Here are some shots of the water heater and it’s new parts, the gray device in the upper right is the ESI module:                                      

This shot is a little closer:                                             

When I’m parked, here’s where I plug in the ‘Hot Rod’: ———————————————————–

Backup video intermittent… I found after driving the rig around Gresham and Portland, Oregon (my home town) the first 4 months after I bought it and before I really started driving off around the country, that the backup monitor would sometimes not give me a picture. Makes it kinda hard to back into a space by yourself. It was intermittant too, usually it would work fine and then when I actually needed it, I’d have a blank screen on the monitor. I posted a question about the problem on a RV forum I frequent and the only answer I received that made sense and described the symptoms accurately, was one that suggested that a large automotive type relay that supplied power to the house had bad…meaning pitted, burned or corroded…contacts and the low current of the camera system wasn’t enough to overcome the poor connection (called a dry circuit failure). With a large load (lots of current), the relay would work fine. So the next time the failure occurred, in the rain, at dusk, I ran out and opened the ‘Intellitec’ power center in the battery compartment and whacked the suspect relay with a rubber mallet. Ran back in the rig, and sure enough, the backup picture was there. Usually, it wouldn’t fix itself that quickly when the problem occured just sitting in a parking lot, I’d have to drive over a bump or something. Now I knew that I had a ‘dry circuit’ problem with a relay (looks just like a typical automotive type starting relay), it was a simple and inexpensive repair using a standard starting relay from an automotive parts house for around $9. Here’s a pic of the battery compartment and cover to the Intellitek controller:                                                                        

The installed relay is the silver device near the center:

Thing is about this repair? It was easy to get the new relay installed and all cinched down but I forgot (really) to disconnect the batteries. During the messing around, I dropped a wire to the wrong place and it shorted out to a battery terminal, welding itself in place. Things started melting, smoke started pouring out of the Intellitec and insulation on several wires began melting, adding to the smoke. I have a degree and many years experience with electronics so after I pulled the shorting wire off the battery, I took everything apart, repaired the open traces on the board, replaced the melted wires, and got it all working again. My advice is, if you must work on the Intellitec, to disconnect the batteries. Then cover them with a piece of wood before removing any wires…I learned my lesson. —————————————————————-