Are you a 93-96 Navigator owner?

[TestDriver]

Originally Posted by jumpjg

TD,

Glad to hear there is another "newbie" out there. Like you, I am a new owner since March of this year and found the info in this thread invaluable. Been pretty quiet on this thread lately - guess it's up to us new guys to bring it back to life.

On my Navigator ('94 model, build date Oct '93) it does not have an electrical board by the couch (located aft of the driver's seat on my coach), but it sounds very similar to the Inverter/Converter Panel located above my entry door. My manual identifies the unit as a Heart 2500 watt inverter/converter. Are you saying there are two panels that you are experiencing problems with, one by the couch and one over the entry door?

With regard to the inverter light not illuminating over your entry door after replacing the bad breaker, as a first step I would recommend turning on the inverter and seeing if you have 110vac at the outlets serviced by the inverter - perhaps your problem is only a bad indicator light. If no-go, then retrace your footsteps while troubleshooting/repairing the bad breaker to ensure something wasn't disturbed in the process that affected the inverter. That's about as far as I can go - still learning about the coach myself. Please share what you find.

On your breaker replacement you mentioned the "box where all the big relays are located". Are you referring to the one in front of the left front wheel or the one in the right rear aft of the coach battery locker? That info would give me a leg up if I ever experience the same problem.

Keep us posted,

Joe in St Louis

Hi,

Thanks for your replies.

I'll try to keep it in sequential order; yes, there are two panels. The one by the couch is the more difficult to understand and the one that is not covered by the owner's manual. It's the one I was describing as having several columns of lights. The one over the entry door has; LP level indicator lights that are operated by a push button, inverter rocker switch (the one where the light no longer lights up) and a momentary coach battery disconnect rocker switch. The last one works as I can hear the loud noise from the relays in the back and the light operates.

Speaking of those relays, they're the ones by the coach battery box in the right rear. It's the only electrical area I've done any work on. I have not even opened up the inverter area but I will soon and look for the 250ma fuse.

In spite of the panel inverter light over the door not lighting, the inverter lights on the couch side panel do operate (though I still don't know what they mean) and I do have 120V to the microwave and the vanity lights in the bathroom as well as some lights in the bedroom. So, the inverter does work. I would really like to get my hands on a manual for the couch side panel.

In the meantime, I'm putting up a 50A outlet on my garage wall with which to provide shore power. When I do, I'll be looking to see if the system charges the batteries as intended. BTW, the 4 6V batteries were just replaced and the combined series/parallel connection still shows over 12V after several days of just monkeying around.

I'm also currently looking into the basement AC. It seems to work sporadically. That is, the thermostat only powers up when it feels like it. When it works, it does cool well. I've only tried it with the generator. I'll try it on shore power and maybe I'll get a better grasp on it. I researched online and learned about the Coleman units and the control panel problems only to open up mine yesterday and discover it's not a Coleman. It's built by Recreation Vehicle Products out of Wichita, Kansas. There is no 'panel' per say. The wiring is comprised of some very stout looking relays and big wires. There was nothing obvious inside the box. I'll look into diagnosing the thermostat (RVP 6795) next.

Thanks for the replies again!

[jaytho]

The ac thermostat, by design, does not come on for a few minutes of power to make certain power is stable before drawing down its significant load.

For safety, Make sure you power down the ac before turning off the generator. As the motors all shut down a back surge can develop that can damage the field windings on the genset. I am still chasing a power down gremlin when I power down the genset that freaks out my inverter (i installed a newer model pure sine wave xantrex-I might go back and get the first model repaired) as well as flips the reset button on the control box by the genset.

Maybe some pictures could help us help you? Sounds like a lot of gear is working, or close to it.... I'm still lost on the big relay you describe in the back...on mine there is a big atf -automated transfer switch that flips from battery to shore power or gen set. There also is a big power relay that can be used to short the house and coach batteries together so you can start the coach if the coach batteries are drained. That reminds me I need to get out there and do a battery service...

[Navigator30]

My dash fan quit working in my 96 navigator any ideas?


Brian
1996 Holiday Rambler Navigator

[jaytho]

Is it blowing fuses, or did it just quit? Does it run on any setting?
Mine started blowing fuses, then finally quit. The connector got pretty crispy, so I relocated the circuit.... The fuse board has a few fused circuits that go to bolts. I cut the wire for the fan, installed a ring terminal, and put in a fuse for the bolt. There are some pictures early in this thread. You can check and see if the connector is getting hot. Next you need to see if the fan has something blocking it. Bags are notorious for getting sucked in, or a rodent makes a nest. If that's all good, and the fan is spinning freely, (make sure the power is off when you get close to that fan, it can bite!) then might be the motor, wire to the motor, or fan switch. A diagnostic light is pretty useful tool. You can poke the sharp tip through the the insulation of a wire and see if you have power...

[Navigator30]

The fuse wasn't blown, it would only work on high speed yesterday and finally quit on the way home yesterday. I'm going to replace the resistor this weekend.


Do you know how to get to the blower motor?

[rsha]

Blower motor can be access from the front access door of the RV. But you need a set of screw drivers that allow very short access. I used a ratchet set that I purchased from NAPA. It is not easy. I would try living the fan motor with WD first.

[Navigator30]

Is it on the passenger side?

[rsha]

In the center under the shroud of the heater unit. You can feel the blower blades with your fingers. It's a squirrel cage blower.

[jumpjg]

Greetings fellow Navigator owners,

Just finished a two-week, 2500 trip from St Louis to the Southwest corner of Colorado circling the San Juan Mountains. Fabulous area of the country! All systems performed pretty good but I have a couple observations I'd like to share and solicit comments.

Before leaving I was concerned about the grades, not so much going up but rather coming down. I've never been to impressed with the performance of the Pac Brake so I did a bit of research to see if I could improve it. While inspecting the actuator operation I noticed there was an adjustable stop bolt that limits the travel of the butterfly. Pac Brake's web page has many PDF documents talking about service & installations - I found one specific to the Cummins 8.3 installation and it mentions attaching a gauge to a test port upstream from the butterfly to measure back pressure and describes a road test procedure to adjust it. It mentions that the high(er) strength exhaust valve springs are required on the engine (which I assume Spartan/Cummins addressed) and that the Pac Brake is to be adjusted to yield 60 PSI back pressure. Well the test procedure was way too involved for me to do by myself so I decided to go ahead and adjust the stop bolt to allow the butterfly to close more when actuated. But after doing the adjustment I started thinking if the pressure got too high it might hold an exhaust valve open and cause an interference with a piston, so I re-adjusted the stop bolt to a point just a few threads beyond the original set point. My experience on the steep down grades of Monarch, Lizard Head, and Wolf Creek Passes was what I perceived as a slight improvement in braking effect & less use of the service brakes. I also came to the realization that the braking effect increases with engine rpm - it doesn't do much (other than downshift into 4th) at engine speeds below 2000 rpm, but the effect is more noticeable at 2500-2600 rpm. Makes sense - more air, same orifice.

I was surprised that I had more problems going up the grades than coming down. On the way up Monarch (11,312 feet) I started having problems with coolant temps, twice getting up to 220+ which sounded a very irritating warning buzzer, requiring me to pull over and set the engine at a high idle for a few minutes to get the temps back down to 185-190. Never lost any coolant but still unnerving. When it became obvious I wasn't going anywhere fast I detached the dingy (Chev HHR, ~2100 lbs) & had my DW follow me up, and started downshifting to keep the engine rpms up. I eventually got down into 2nd gear on Monarch but managed to keep the temps at about 200. Later that day I did an internet search on motorhome overheating and the most mentioned diagnosis was that it was caused by an externally dirty radiator, but most of the comments came from folks with aft radiator DPs whose rads were fouled by oil mist coming out of the engine crankcase draft tube. I know that my radiator fan is working fine but it's rather difficult to ascertain how dirty the radiator might be since it has the CAC mounted on the external side and the internal side is not at all easily accessible. Any comments regarding the cleaning of Navigator radiators would be appreciated. I did come across one post where the writer recommended to keep the engine RPM above 2000 to ensure adequate airflow across the radiator - that seemed to do the trick for me on Wolf Creek (10,856 ft). Still disconnected the dingy but was able to keep it in 3rd gear going up and temps never got to 200. I also believe the thinner air at those higher elevations is less effective at removing heat. Once I got back down on the flats of eastern Colorado & Kansas the temps stayed at about 185-190 all the way back to Missouri.

Another strange thing I noticed at the higher elevations was during the start-up of my GenSet. Down here in the lower elevations (St Louis ~465 feet) the Kubota diesel starts right up when cold and evens out within 4-7 seconds. Up in Colorado the engine would light right off, but it would take 30-45 seconds until it would run smoothly. I did check to see if power was being supplied to the glow plugs (and it was), but I did not check resistance on the individual plugs. Even with about a 40 second pre-heat on the plugs the engine would run rough on cold start-ups but eventually would smooth out & run fine. Once down from the mountains it has been starting up as before, smoothing out after only a few seconds.

Speaking of Gen Sets, I'd like to ask what you all use for oil. I need to do an oil & filter change and I noticed the oil fill on the engine says to use 10-30 wt. - I'd like to use diesel 15-40 so I don't have to carry two different oils. See any problems with that?

Thanks for your time,

Joe in St Louis
'94 HR Nav 38'

[vtwinwilly]

Originally Posted by Navigator30

The fuse wasn't blown, it would only work on high speed yesterday and finally quit on the way home yesterday. I'm going to replace the resistor this weekend.


Do you know how to get to the blower motor?

Did you ever get your fan motor figured out? Did you replace the reseistor? Did that help?

I'm starting to have trouble with my dash blower. When I turn it on it runs for a while, then starts to oscillate speed up and slow down, then it blows the reset-able breaker. Turn it off, the reset-able breaker resets itself, and the cycle can start over. I'm thinking it's either the resistor pack, or the blower motor itself.

Any thoughts?

Bill B

[Navigator30]

I sprayed WD 40 on the blower motor and cleaned all connections that worked for about week. I'm going to replace the blower motor. My 12 volt wire gets warm then blows the fuse so I'm sure the motor is dragging. All three speeds were working so I Didn't replace the resistor.

[vtwinwilly]

Originally Posted by Navigator30

I sprayed WD 40 on the blower motor and cleaned all connections that worked for about week. I'm going to replace the blower motor. My 12 volt wire gets warm then blows the fuse so I'm sure the motor is dragging. All three speeds were working so I Didn't replace the resistor.

Thanks for the update.

If you don't mind, let me know where you source your parts, and even part numbers (making the big assumption that the 93 Navigator and the 96 Navigator use the same Dash AC unit).

Also if you don't mind sharing tips and tricks to getting the old motor out and the new one back in... that would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Bill B

[guiswite]

Greetings,
I have a 1994 Navigator with the Primus Heat. I have never had any problems at all with this system. Today when I turned on the system, the small fuse on the control panel blew. After some investigation I found that the system will work fine on the propane. When push button 4, electric (one stage) the fuse will blow. The only way to activate the Engine Heat button is to have either button 3 or 4 depressed.

Any ideas on what would cause this fuse to blow when the electric button is depressed. It is not even connected to the shore power when it blows, it is just that the button needs to be pushed in order for the Engine Heat function to work.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike G

[jumpjg]

I recently noticed that my tail lights are not working, nor are the docking lights. In addition, the turn signals only work when the light switch is turned on, and as the turn signal flashes, so does the license plate light. The tail lights on the toad seem to work as normal when hooked up to the coach. I did some digging into the docking lights - 12vdc power being supplied to the lights, bulbs good - when I hook up a separate ground from one light to the battery neg terminal both docking lights come on. I believe all this mischief is due to a bad ground, and it seems that the tail lights, license plate light, and docking lights are probably all grounded at the same point. I'm writing to see if anyone knows where this grounding point might be before I start tearing into multiple split looms to find the location.

Appreciate your time,

Joe in St Louis