After watching lots of balloons take off (ascend) on Sunday morning we decided we saw enough and it was time to head for home. The coach ran great the whole way but for the last hour or hour and a half of the 6-hour trip we had a sort of whistling noise coming from somewhere up front. At first I thought it might be either the power steering pump or the alternator but a little experimenting convinced me that it is probably a vacuum leak somewhere. The noise completely disappeared below 60 mph and, above 60 mph I could make it come and go with the gas pedal. The vacuum gauge did not seem to be any different than normal so I didn’t worry about it.

Once we got home and unpacked – not completely since we will be leaving again in 4 days – I moved the coach to the parking lot (can’t park on the street overnight) and it ran like there was some sort of fuel problem – I had to keep working the gas pedal to keep it running. At first I didn’t connect the whistling noise to this problem but now I am thinking that the hour or so parked in front of the house allowed the engine to cool enough that the theoretical vacuum leak affected the advance or choke mechanisms. I will inspect all of the hoses later this morning to see what I can see.

Well, nothing wrong that I can tell right now. I inspected all of the hoses and nothing is off where it should be and all of the hoses are fresh and solid. The coach started right up and ran great getting back over to the house. The next trip is only about 50 miles each way so not much risk there. More later if there is anything to report.

Update 1/27/2014: The rough running went away for some reason. When I went back to get the coach the next morning I checked all of the vacuum hoses and connections and could find no problem. The hoses are very new and all connected solidly. The whistling noise I now believe to be coming from the power steering pump and maybe it is more of a high-pitched whine than a whistle. Time for a new one I think.