armand – Page 16 – gmcmotorhome

Fredericksburg, Texas – time for a little rest

We did another full day (for us) drive today and got to Fredericksburg, Texas where we will spend two nights. We plan to get a little rest, eat some fresh peaches – this is a big peach growing area, and see some tourist things – this was the home of Admiral Chester Nimitz and his grandfather’s hotel has been converted into the Pacific War Museum. We visited the museum today – I forgot my camera but we are going back tomorrow – and spent almost 2 hours there. This museum traces the origins of the Pacific War – Japan’s role in World War II – from the early history of China, Japan, Korea, etc. – things I never knew.

GMC content: This morning’s fillup was with the usual crap gas but the coach ran well on the highway but did have a couple of periods of a sort of surging after stopping and idling for potty breaks. It was really strange, no stumbling, just acted like I was giving it gas and then taking it away with the accelerator pedal – Carol asked if I was doing it because it seemed like it. It went away pretty quickly both times it happened but still strange.

The fillup tonight again seemed not too bad mileage wise (7mpg) so maybe I have fixed something with the vacuum. I don’t have a dash gauge for vacuum and, it turns out, I have been removing the HVAC hose (the bad one) to install the temporary vacuum gauge so never saw the problem with it. I will be adding a vacuum gauge when I rework the dash – for now, I am thinking of getting some hose and hooking up my toolbox version of a vacuum gauge and just putting it where I can see it.

I don’t think I have mentioned any data from the transmission temperature gauge? I never had one before so I am just keeping an eye on it and learning. When starting out in the morning or after a stop the temperature in the transmission pan can run at about 160 or so for quite a while. It gradually creeps up to about 180 and stays there until we climb a hill and then it will get up to 190 to 200. On long hills I have seen it get to 220. Once it gets hot it takes quite a while to come back down to the 190 – 200 range but once there it stays pretty steady. I do see it get down to 180 sometimes but mostly runs about 190 or so. If we stop – like for a potty break for me – the temperature climbs to about 220 until we take off when it will pretty quickly drop to 200 and then gradually get a little cooler until we climb again. Strangely, when we are driving in the rain the temperature can drop down to 160 or less – I am wondering if the water splashing on the transmission pan is cooling it enough to do that. The owner’s manual, by the way, says that the normal operating temperature of the transmission is 190-200.

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- Summer 2012 - East coast and back

Ft. Stockton RV Park

This is such a nice park! We stayed here once before and remembered it as being nice and quiet. This time we ate at the little restaurant here, The Roadrunner Cafe, for dinner. It was deeeelicious!!! Home made – real – mashed potatoes, green beans and super yummy pork ribs. Just a fabulous meal for only $7.95 – and it even came with dessert. We had great, cool weather and it was a very restful stop. We will definitely keep this on our list of places to stay. Oh, and the price was great too – only $24 for full hookups. Lots of trees and grassy areas. Gravel/paved roads. A very pleasant park with all the amenities and more!

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RV Park Reviews

Fort Stockton, Texas – good traveling weather

We arrived at our planned stopping point of Ft. Stockton, Texas at about 4pm Central time – the second day in a row that we lost an hour. We started the day filling our gas tanks at a Fina station in Las Cruces – a pretty good-sized sign on the pump said no methanol added. After the fill-up the coach was running a little rough for the first minute or so – I think the choke was still active and the engine was warmed up enough to not need it – fallout from the blocked crossover on the intake (GMC tech jargon – sorry).

The weather was wonderful for traveling – cloudy and a little rain. The day went by without incident and the coach ran well. We made it all day without needing more fuel – first time that has happened in a while. The daily fuel consumption numbers show we did better than 8 mpg – we barely beat 6 for the past two tanks. Improved fuel mileage could be because of the non-ethanol fuel (who are we trying to fool with this ethanol stuff?) and/or because of the improved engine vacuum (see yesterday’s post). Our fill-up in Ft. Stockton was with the normal crappy gas so we’ll be able to tell at the end of the day tomorrow if anything is still better.

Our windshield wipers – original GMC wipers leave a lot to be desired – are not working very well and, between yesterday and today, we have gone through several heavy rain storms and needed them. I don’t know what is up with them and I should convert to modern electric wipers but that is another $300 that I didn’t feel like spending – not a lot of driving in the rain in Arizona. We stopped at a WalMart for groceries and I bought some Rain-X and treated the windshield – now it probably won’t rain again on the trip.

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- Summer 2012 - East coast and back

On the road again – we made it to Las Cruces

The coach ran great today. We managed to get on the road by about 9:30am and drove until about 4:00pm our time (5:00 pm in New Mexico). We drove through a couple of rain storms where the temperatures dove from the mid-90’s to low 70’s in a few minutes. The rain was great except for our less-than-ideal wipers which I have not paid attention to because we hardly ever need them.

We stopped for gas in Lordsburg, NM (gas was $3.19) and, again, there was lots of vapor pressure in the fuel tanks – it took at least 2 minutes to bleed it off and the vapor is hot. It was difficult to get gas into the tank at first but eventually, I managed to fill them again. The coach was stumbling a little as I drove out but, having experienced this before, it got lots better as soon as the pressure built up in the tanks again – my theory is that this keeps the gas from boiling.

We ran well until we got off the highway at Las Cruces and as I stopped at the end of the off-ramp I heard the aux. vacuum pump turn on indicating that we have less than perfect vacuum – maybe that hose is leaking again? Since we don’t use the dash A/C and we don’t need a heater or defroster right now I just unhooked the hose and blocked the manifold port. Can’t make the aux. vacuum pump come on any more – maybe our gas mileage will get better? I must get a vacuum gauge for the dash – next interior project will be the cockpit and dash.

We are staying at a little RV park that we have stayed at several times before. It has a nice view of the Organ Mountains just north of town. Carol lived her from the age of 7 until 14 when she moved back to Pennsylvania – she has fond memories of it and it is the reason we like living in the desert. Some photos of the mountains below.

We are staying in the Siesta RV Park in Old Mesilla, NM. In 1850 some people who lived in Las Cruces and were mad at the U.S. for taking it in the Spanish-American War moved across the Rio Grande River, then still part of Mexico, to avoid living in the U.S. but we fooled them and bought Old Mesilla as part of the Gadsden Purchase.

See you tomorrow.

This is a picture of the Organ Mountains from our camp site at the Siesta RV Park in Las Cruces – actually Old Mesilla.

This is ‘A’ mountain – a place that Carol remembers from her life here in Las Cruces. She doesn’t know why it has the ‘A’ on it.

A closer view of the Organ Mountains so you can see why they are called that – looks like an old-fashioned pipe organ.

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- Summer 2012 - East coast and back

Last minute upgrades and repairs

Almost since we have owned the GMC we have had a home-made console on the ‘flight deck’ to hold the computer on a swivel platform and a couple of drinks along with two drawers for books and junk. The console was not real big (I don’t have any photos of it) but it seemed like it took up all of the floor space between our seats. Another issue with it was that in order to open the engine hatch for check things it had to be moved somewhere, taking up more space and it was heavy. What we wanted was a computer holder that was held by an arm from the dashboard area and could swivel back and forth. Also, the under-dash air conditioning unit was pretty ugly looking and was installed in front of the switches that control the rear suspension.

I built a cabinet that covers the under-dash air conditioning unit and moved the switches for the rear suspension to the front of it. It has an arm extending to support the computer holder which swivels and also has a slide-out drink and cell phone holder. We’ll be testing it and seeing what kind of improvements are needed – I am sure there will be some.

On our last trip we spend a couple of nights in the heat and so had to run our Onan generator for several hours. The last couple of hours it started running rough and almost quit a couple of times so I decided to give it a little TLC. I watched the Duane Simmons DVD and followed his procedure for cleaning and torquing the heads and adjusting the voltage. I found and corrected several problems so I hope it runs better now – it sounds better and I am more familiar with it so I feel good about it. One problem that I did not have time to correct was the Low Oil Pressure switch is not working so, if we should run the Onan dry of engine oil, it will not stop automatically. It is easy to fix but, apparently, getting the correct oil pressure switch (a normally-closed one that opens with oil pressure) is a little problematic.

While I was messing with the Onan I decided to install a fuel prime switch – a cheap and simple modification that makes it start almost immediately instead of needing lots of starter-motor cranking to get it going.

Since the new transmission had a bung in it for a temp gauge I wanted to install one – might have helped save the last transmission. I finally got a new sender via Amazon and got it installed in place of the old one (I could not find the correct electrical connector for it) without spilling more that an ounce or so of fluid. I got the gauge hooked up and test drove with and without the tow car. According to the book the normal operating temperature of the transmission is 190-200 degrees F. My test driving verified that but it took a 7-mile hill to get it that high – it was about 10 degrees hotter with the tow car. I will keep a close eye on it and try to establish a base-line of values.

I am sure there were many other minor things that I did also but an important one was installing a halon fire extinguisher in the refrigerator compartment. The refrigerator has been the cause of many RV fires and this is automatic. We have one on the engine too but that one is aqueous foam instead of halon.

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Between Trips

All fixed – A/C works and no oil leaks

I finally got to pick up the coach on Tuesday afternoon. The A/C compressor works and has been converted to R-134. The seals in the final drive have been replaced and the weep hole is now open and not leaking. The only issue remaining from the original tranny swap is that it is a little late shifting into third gear. I am thinking that this might be how it was intended because of the weight of the coach not to mention the additional weight of the tow car. If it gets to be a problem I will have to adjust it on the road – it is not too tough but does require crawling under the coach – it won’t be the first time.

Now, on to the planned changes that I wanted to be working on for the past two weeks or more: the Onan needs some checking and maybe adjusting; I have to finish the chassis lube now that I know where the fittings are on the torque boxes – I had to go back and look at photos from the installation; I want to devise a cover for the furnace hot air outlet under the sink; I need to install a temperature gauge for the transmission (new tranny has a probe installed; I want to install a plastic bottle on the tranny vent hose so I can tell if it vents; and I really want to replace the center console that I made a couple of years ago.

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Between Trips

Final drive OK but both seals bad – we did the right thing

I heard from Jared this afternoon and he told me that they found that both final drive input shaft seals were leaking and there was tranny fluid in the final drive but we caught it before any damage was done. They have the seals, thanks to JimK, and they will get them in tomorrow. They expect to have the coach ready on Friday afternoon. Right now they are waiting for the A/C dryer. We are in Williams, Arizona celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary by staying in a B&B and riding the train to the Grand Canyon and back today.

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Between Trips

A/C Compressor is not OK and other bad news

Got a call today with good news that later turned bad and bad news that is still bad.

The ‘good’ news was that they fixed the oil cooler adapter oil leak and the found the real tranny leak. The oil cooler adapter leak is fixed and that is good. The tranny leak at first appeared to be from the dip stick tube but they fixed that with a larger/thicker O-ring. When they took the coach for a test drive it was still leaking transmission fluid from a tiny machined hole in the final drive right next to the dip stick. The ‘good’ news was that some RTV made the leak go away. I decided to pursue the reason for that tiny hole and was told by Manny and JimK that it was called a ‘seep’ hole and indicated that one of the two seals that keeps transmission fluid and 90-weight final drive oil separate is leaking. It is meant to be a warning sign. The recommendation from both Manny and JimK is to (again) remove the final drive and install new seals. That is definitely bad news.

The bad news was that the A/C compressor is actually bad. It turns nice and smoothly but it leaks really badly and needs to be replaced. The local A/C shop that Jared uses says that rebuilt versions of the old compressors are unreliable but JimK says that is practically all they use with no problems.

I called Jared with the news about the need to reseal the final drive and that JimK recommends using a rebuilt A/C compressor. He will call me tomorrow with a quote for doing all of this – and I though a rebuilt tranny was expensive.

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Between Trips

The A/C compressor is OK

Turns out the hub and pulley on the front of the A/C compressor somehow came apart and cut the high pressure hose coming out of the compressor spraying freon 12 all over the place. The noise was the sound of things rubbing on the hose. Unfortunately, that hose is pretty expensive and the labor is too but I don’t want to (can’t?) do it myself because it takes some special tools like a vacuum pump, etc. Jared is going to recharge the system with Freon-12 again. That is the stuff that is now outlawed – using existing freon is OK – and he won’t talk about using Duracool because it is not legal in Arizona (yet). Duracool is a freon replacement that is made from petroleum-based gas and is legal in most states, including California, but not Arizona for some reason.

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Between Trips

New tranny but there are still leaks – now it’s the A/C

We picked Barbie (our GMC) up on Monday afternoon after having the new (rebuilt) transmission installed. I was pleasantly surprised that the cost was at least $100 less than I had planned – they charge $85/hour for cars and $115 for RVs. This is a lot like a car so maybe they will stick with the $85 in the future if I beg.

I parked the coach at the clubhouse parking lot on Monday evening because I will be working on some interior things that need doing before our trip in July. When I went to pick up the coach on Tuesday morning and again later when it was parked in front of the house I noticed a small puddle of oil under the engine. It seems to be coming from the oil filter or its housing. It has been leaking there and I had asked them to look at it and now it is worse but nothing major I am sure.

I again parked the coach at the clubhouse on Tuesday evening and when I went to pick it up this morning (Wednesday) there was a 4″-5″ inch puddle of tranny fluid on the ground under it. I suspect the dipstick tube where it goes into the final drive again and there is fluid right under it.

I called Jared at Next Generation Automotive, told him what was happening and he said to bring it in. Since both leaks were there before I expect to have to pay again but I don’t think it is more than an hour of work.

On my way to drop the coach off I had just gotten off the highway and the under-dash A/C quit blowing cold air. I was leaning over trying to turn some dials on it (it is all apart because I am working on a new enclosure for it) when I heard a loud sort of grinding sound from under the floor and then lots of smoke billowing out from the right side wheel well. I pulled over wondering if I was going to use that new aqueous foam fire suppression system I had just installed but no fire just a little smoke now. I pulled open the engine hatch and could see smoke still coming from the front of the A/C compressor. I restarted and drove the rest of the way – a mile or two – with only some noises coming from that A/C clutch but no smoke. Jared will let me know the bad news about this tomorrow.

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Between Trips