{"id":2593,"date":"2014-11-12T10:35:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T17:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minniebiz.com\/gmcmotorhome\/?p=2593"},"modified":"2015-01-22T13:32:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T20:32:32","slug":"trip-number-45-prescott-az-for-gmc-saguaro-jetset-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minniebiz.com\/gmcmotorhome\/2014\/11\/12\/trip-number-45-prescott-az-for-gmc-saguaro-jetset-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip number 45 – Prescott, AZ for GMC Saguaro Jetset rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1193\"<\/a>Our 45th trip – hard to believe. Some trips have been pretty short but all of them have been fun. This time we went to Prescott, Arizona for a club rally. This club was established almost 40 years ago as a GMC motorhome club when GM quit sponsoring the original clubs. There wereall of 7 GMCs at this rally – about half of the coaches present – but everyone is still nice and fun to spend time with.<\/p>\n

The GMC ran great as usual but we did have a problem starting on the way to the rally. The old “hot start” problem was back with a vengeance. A week or so ago I had all 6 old tires (bought a new tire in Barstow on the last trip) replaced and when I went to leave there I could not start the coach. I thought I had fixed the problem with a new battery ground cable and a new starter solenoid. Well, it wasn’t fixed. About 40 miles from home we stopped to get gas and it would not start again. I would turn the key and there was no sound from anywhere in the area of the engine (the rear suspension air compressor relay clicked in the back). I jacked up the right front and got under with my volt meter and measured voltages as Carol tried starting it. I measured only 8.5 volts on the wire that engages the solenoid. I used a temporary jumper wire to get the coach started and started thinking about how to fix the root of the problem.<\/p>\n

The root of the problem is that there are multiple connections, 38-year-old oxidized connections, between the ignition key and the starter solenoid. Each old connection adds resistance to the wire and drops the voltage a little. It finally got so bad that there was not enough voltage to engage the solenoid. The solution to the problem is to use the reduced voltage to engage a small relay instead of the really big solenoid. The relay then connects the battery directly to the solenoid and it now starts like a new car.<\/p>\n

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