New Puppy Blues ---- continued

We have a new (1-year-old) Brittany Spaniel. Being a puppy, she does what puppies do, chew on everything, furniture, windowsills, toys, and BUS WIRRING…

We came home a few weeks ago to find a small section of wring harness on our back porch, OOOHHH CRAP...

Steep learning curves ahead…New lessons to start, in 3-2-1..

Slide under the coach and spot 3 sets of wires chewed through, connectors missing. Get on IRV2, and get tons of advice but the things that stood out in my mind while under the bus were,
1. Do not start the bus until the wires are separated and isolated
2. Do not start the bus unless the wheels are choked in both directions
a. Not sure if any tranny wires are cut or if it may be in a drive gear
b. Not sure if air lines are chewed or if you will have brakes
3. Be careful while under the bus as an airbag dump could occur if air lines are compromised


FIRST---- I carefully locate all the split wires and isolated them so they could not go to ground. Then I posted pics on IRV2 to try and determine the function of each pair and then started slightly panicking waiting for replies.

Set 1 was to the air accumulator dryer
Set 2 was to the Fuel Water Separator
Set 3 goes into the bell housing (still not 100% sure what is for)
1 and 2 were chewed clean in the middle at waterproof connectors and I found the pieces so I could just get new connectors.
Set 3 however was a different animal all together. She managed to eat the plug BUT/AND she managed to pull the wire so the connector into the bell housing came out. Bad news, not sure what its for but the female plug on the bell housing is still good, the good news was the puppy got bored (or full or plastic) and dropped the male end of the plug under the bus and I found it. Chewed up but still functional and was able to reuse it… This was the scary part because I had no idea what it was or how to get a replacement part…


SECOND --- I carefully started the bus and eased it out of its parking space (on crushed granite) down to the driveway where I could use a creeper to roll around and look for more damage.


I locate all the wires, determine the types of connectors I need, pull the bus back in its parking spot and go inside to get on AMAZON…...

Now I must build a new fence around the bus to keep this from happening again while I wait on the new connectors.

Here is a list and links to everything I purchased for this repair. I would recommend that all these items be added to your toolbox.

1. Heat shrink crimp connectors; they have heat shrink material on them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1




2. Heat shrink butt connector crimpers (typical crimpers will not work with these connectors and keep the waterproof functionality intact and YES they are different)


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



3. Pig tail Connectors ( I bought a few types with different gauge wires)
https://www.amazon.co/gp/product/B01...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
10 pack of these prewired




and

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
10 pack of these unwired


and 1 of these (this was a direct exact replacement for one that only had one side chewed up so I only needed half of it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The last thing I needed was a small butane torch for the heat shrink and soldering. Picked that up at Lowes.


Once everything arrived, I pulled the bus back out into the driveway, slid under and went to work. 1 hour later all the wires were fixed and secured. The bus was started, NO engine lights or codes were lit and all seems right in the world.

We are leaving on a trip this Thursday and I will be taking all the new wiring supplies with us, JUST IN CASE.

This could have been very expensive but with a few good questions on IRV2, some great advice from members, a quick order from Amazon and a little time and this was solved without a trip to the shop.

The repairs cost me less than $100.00, not including the new fence.