Oct 20th through Oct 23rd – Things got pretty hectic and I kind of lost interest in posting stuff on here for a while.  The rest of the rally was spent in seminars and meetings.  The seminars for obvious reasons – they are the best way to learn about stuff – and the meetings because I agreed to “run” for GMCWS President.

On Thursday night, just before the drawing for the reaction arm system, I was elected President of GMCWS for the coming year.  I am looking forward to contributing to such a great club.

On our way home we crossed the new bridge over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam.  This is the 7th highest bridge in the world!  Unfortunately, because of the way they constructed the guard rails you cannot see the dam from the roadway – even from the height of the GMC driver’s seat.  I guess this is because they don’t want any “rubbernecking”.  The bridges saves at least 30 minutes and more like an hour on the trip – very nice.  They do give you the opportunity to go down to the dam the old way and walk on the bridge and see the view.

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Oct 19th – A free day at the rally so we hung around and relaxed before leaving at about 1:00pm for the Las Vegas strip and the Cher show at Caesar’s Palace.  Cher was great – her voice seems just as good as it was when she was young – or my ears can’t tell the difference.

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The dawn of a new rally

Oct 18th – The rain quit by morning and the sky was clear and blue.  A beautiful morning.  Had some breakfast – I was hoping for some donuts but …

Attended a couple of tech sessions by Jerry Work and his wife who traveled the US and Canada this summer.  The hit of the day and probably the whole rally was a talk on engine rebuilding by Joe Mondello.  Joe is a legend in hot rod and race car engine building and he gives a very informative and entertaining talk.

We had the windshield repaired today by one of those mobile repair guys.  The windshield had been hit at some time during our last trip and we wanted to prevent the damage from ruining the whole windshield.

Carl and Kathy S. arrived this afternoon from the Salt Lake City area where they had been vacationing since last week.  Good to see them again.

I gave in and bought a second subscription to the park’s wifi network.  As Carol said, it is still cheaper than the Verizon service would be for the month.

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Oct 17 – We mistakenly took the Laughlin – Bullhead City route to Las Vegas today because the signs from yesterday were still up.  They were warning of delays and we didn’t want to get stuck in construction and sightseeing traffic at the new bridge so we took what we thought was a good alternative route.  It wasn’t.

Laughlin and Bullhead City are on either side of the Colorado River at the bottom of a pretty significantly steep valley.  The climbs down and back up are not the most pleasant thing for us with the GMC.  The downhill portion is over 10 miles, I am sure, and all the while I think how much I would like disc brakes on the rear.  The uphill climb kills the gas mileage even worse than usual and the leaking exhaust manifold under my seat make lots of noise when we are climbing.

We got here and got settled in and then it started raining.  It rained pretty much all afternoon and evening and even into the night.  We love the sound of rain on the metal roof but it sure kills the social activites.  Dinner was Mexican – chicken enchiladas – and very good.  We did have a chance to visit in our coach with some friends during the afternoon but no outdoor visiting.

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OK, I know that it only takes a day to get there from Tucson but we like to take our time and allow for the unexpected.  We plan to take 2 days.

The coach ran well for the first 4 hours or so except for that exhaust leak on the driver’s side manifold – I am getting tired of it so I think I’ll try some of those thick gaskets – Remflex – that Jim K sells.  Something to do this winter.

Starter problems

We stopped in Wickenburg to get gas and the coach wouldn’t start.  Turn the key and nothing, no noise of any kind coming from the starter, not even a click.  Since I had just replaced the solenoid I suspected that immediately but I knew it could be something else, like the neutral safety switch.

I had no idea where the safety switch is and had no internet to investigate.  I thought, incorrectly, that the switch was up under the dash but I could not find it.  I tried to check at the starter but no test light (just a DVM) and I couldn’t reach the terminal on the solenoid.  I gave up and bought a new solenoid and installed it.  At first it had the same symptom but eventually, after much thrashing around, it started but I didn’t know why.  I decided that I would not turn the coach off until we were parked for the night at a campground just short of Kingman.

Home for the night

When we parked at Kingman it again wouldn’t start.  I started tracing the wire back from the starter to see where I could check for voltage. I moved the wire going to the starter from the top of the engine and the starter came to life.  I also located the neutral safety switch and got some info from the GMCnet on how to jumper around it.  If it happens again the plan of attach is to check the wire to the starter followed by jumpering the safety switch.

We should be able to get to the rally by noon tomorrow.

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I had a pretty short list of things that needed to be done before leaving for the GMCWS rally in Las Vegas.  I got most of them done but not all.

I wanted to put a fuel pressure regulator after the Carter 4070 electric fuel pump.  I bought a Holly pressure regulator and fuel pressure gauge.  During the installation I figured out that the guy I hired to put the Carter pump and filter on the GMC put them in the wrong order – the fuel pump was first and then the fuel filter was after it.  This means that when dirt comes through the system because of age and alcohol content it first has a chance to clog or otherwise screw up the internal pressure regulator in the fuel pump.  This happened once before and the pump ended up putting out way too much pressure and causing poor operation and reduced mileage.  I fixed that problem and installed the regulator and gauge and adjusted the fuel pressure to 5 to 6 lbs/psi on Dick Paterson’s recommendation.  I’ll swear that it is already running better.

I installed a new started solenoid because the old one was on its last legs – almost fell apart in New Jersey on the last trip.

I invented and installed a storage scheme for the counter-top extension and today I installed a spring to hold the extension in place when it is in use.

The biggest project for this session was a valance for the shade on the exterior door.  During preparations for the big cross-country trip in August I had made valances for the two large windows in the front area and the large back window.  The door and the bedroom windows were left out.  The bedroom windows are OK without valances because no one can see in around the shade, but the shade on the door had a large gap on the forward side and caused Carol some concern.  I made a valance for that window so she won’t have to worry on this trip.

Other miscellaneous things were done in the past two days but nothing big enough to mention.

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The biggest thing that I wanted to do in preparation for this trip was to work on routing the engine cooling air through, rather than around, the radiator.  At Steve F’s suggestion, I bought an 18-wheeler mud flap at a truck stop and cut it to fit on either side of the radiator so that the air can not go around it.  I then bought some heavy 3-inch corner braces and bent them to hold a temporary air dam – made from a piece of 3/4″ plywood – under the radiator.  Hopefully, this will force some air up and through the radiator and also cause a mild vacuum under the engine to help pull the air through.  If this does any good I will make a more permanent air dam from something more appropriate.  Jim K and Applied GMC (www.appliedgmc.com) show a drawing of an air dam that goes around the bottom, exposed, section of the radiator in a wide U-shape that would be better.  We’ll see about the price when I see him and I know more about its value.

Another project that I wanted to do for this trip was to devise and install a storage solution for the counter-top extension in the kitchen.  I have that but it still needs some work. I’ll try to have it better before we leave.

Yesterday, I lubed the 18 zerk fittings on the coach – that grease gun and Mobil 1 do not work well together.  Very messy and time consuming – that needs a fix.

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