1-day chassis maint. crash-course, brakes, UP, trac-bar, etc....

[CJBROWN]

Spent about 8 hours today doing all of the chassis upgrades and maint on my 05 Itasca with 18K miles. After reading all of the things one can do to their chassis I decided to do everything and have been gathering up all of the parts to do it.

brake fluid flush - unbelievable, will post some pics, fluid looks black, worst I've ever seen. Brakes look good though. Messy job, big PITA, but not too hard to do. Use a turkey baster to drain the MC reservoirs. Lubed bellcrank zerk, had goey lithium grease in there, now synthetic racing grease. Did all the steering gear and driveshaft while I was at it. Get at least 3 quarts of fluid if you're going to do this, made 3 trips to the autoparts store

Ultra-trac rear trackbar - didn't know I ordered a 'kit' - major install nightmare but done. What should have been a half-hour install ended up taking about 4 hours. Will post pics and details soon.

Ultra-Power ECM upgrade, Taylor 409 race wire upgrade, AC Delco platinum plugs and air filter, cleaned MAF sensor. Plugs were surprisingly bad, had caked residue on them, were the 41-983's, put 993's in at .045in gap.

Oemy fuel filter update. Surprisingly, not much in the filter - cut it open to look-see, no problems there, but did the update for regular filters - way cool.

In the end the test drive told all, was like getting a supercharger in my motorhome. It's downright fast! Can't wait to try it out with the toad.

[CJBROWN]

Spent about 8 hours today doing all of the chassis upgrades and maint on my 05 Itasca with 18K miles. After reading all of the things one can do to their chassis I decided to do everything and have been gathering up all of the parts to do it.

brake fluid flush - unbelievable, will post some pics, fluid looks black, worst I've ever seen. Brakes look good though. Messy job, big PITA, but not too hard to do. Use a turkey baster to drain the MC reservoirs. Lubed bellcrank zerk, had goey lithium grease in there, now synthetic racing grease. Did all the steering gear and driveshaft while I was at it. Get at least 3 quarts of fluid if you're going to do this, made 3 trips to the autoparts store

Ultra-trac rear trackbar - didn't know I ordered a 'kit' - major install nightmare but done. What should have been a half-hour install ended up taking about 4 hours. Will post pics and details soon.

Ultra-Power ECM upgrade, Taylor 409 race wire upgrade, AC Delco platinum plugs and air filter, cleaned MAF sensor. Plugs were surprisingly bad, had caked residue on them, were the 41-983's, put 993's in at .045in gap.

Oemy fuel filter update. Surprisingly, not much in the filter - cut it open to look-see, no problems there, but did the update for regular filters - way cool.

In the end the test drive told all, was like getting a supercharger in my motorhome. It's downright fast! Can't wait to try it out with the toad.

[Petro]

CJBROWN;

I enjoyed your post. I recall doing these very things. My brake fluid was very dark also. I believe that regardless of the brand of chassis, changing brake fluid every 2 years is good maintenance.

Here in WI we have to put our coach away for the winter unless we are fortunate in having a heated garage. I miss going out to monkey around with the MH. It gets me out of the house.

Don

[DriVer]

Although we have met heavy resistance, we are continuing to pound out the need to change brake fluid. I hope the message is getting through. Changing brake fluid will be an annual event at my house.

All the upgrades that you pursued, I had already done and yes you are correct the improvement is remarkable. I enjoy driving my motorhome much better at 74,000 miles than I did at mile 1400.

I'm on the road at the moment returning to SC from FL and this machine of mine is in constant communication with my butt dyno bus through the pilots seat. Remarkable how these things work. Typical nominal performance yields =

[lawdude]

Driver,

I am still in wonder that I continue to drive my Nissan with 140,000 miles, my old Ford Exploder with 200,000 miles, etc. and they have never had a brake fluid change AFAIK. When should they fail and kill me?

Or is the brake fluid situation merely a workhorse issue?

I really do not understand the whole thing.

[JonBrazel]

Not just in the brake fluid aspect does this apply but I think people lose sight that a regular vehicle is nothing like a motorhome...especially when it comes to the brakes. In most cases the motorhome is going to weigh close to 3x-4x as much as your regular vehicle. That is ALOT of stress put on your brakes when coming to a stop or slowing down coming down a grade. As is the nature of the beast, things are going to wear out faster and/or need to be replaced at a higher interval than say a 3,500 lb. car. With that much weight on top of the chassis, problems are going to become magnified due to the inherant stresses that extra weight adds. I am not saying this is the reason for brake failures, as I merely do not believe the brake components are up to snuff on the WH chassis, but it surely does not hurt to stay on top of your preventative maintenance when you know there is a potential problem.

I just want to make sure that people don't lose sight the of the fact that they are driving a home on wheels and not a daily driver that sometimes (sometimes not) requires intervalled maintenance.

[Brazels RV Performance]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by lawdude:
Driver,

I am still in wonder that I continue to drive my Nissan with 140,000 miles, my old Ford Exploder with 200,000 miles, etc. and they have never had a brake fluid change AFAIK. When should they fail and kill me?

Or is the brake fluid situation merely a workhorse issue?

I really do not understand the whole thing. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Take your Nissan and hook it up to tow your Explorer. Then hook up a medium sized travel trailer to the back of the explorer. Next drive it for two years & then check the moisture content of your brake fluid. That is of course if the fluid hasn't boiled already & caused severe brake fade issue's.

[CJBROWN]

Yes Driver, the resistance amazes me.

Mr Lawdude, your old cars with old brake fluid may or may not kill you. Only if your brakes fail and you run off a cliff...

And why would Driver steer you wrong, anyway????

Seriously, brake fluid flush is common on high performance vehicles, common on European vehicles due to their brake componenent materials, and now for the workhorse chassis due to sticking caliper pistons. I have yet to run across an actual service or shop manual that didn't recommend fluid flush every 2 years for any type of vehicle. Most people aren't aware unless they do their own technical work. It usually doesn't show up in an owners manual.

I just did mine on Saturday, starting with the MC reservoir. Sucked the old fluid out of each tank with a turkey baster, was surprised at how dirty it was. Drained them both, refilled with new Dot3, took about a quart to refill them, added more for each pair of calipers.

Proceeded to bleed all four calipers. Put wifey in the drivers seat and used the emergency braking (engine not running) pumped them up with the brake motor and held while I released the bleeders. Took about 8oz out of each caliper. I will post pics later, but the fluid looked black. Not dark, black. I have NEVER seen brake fluid look like that. NEVER EVER. YOU DON'T WANT THAT CRAP IN YOUR BRAKE SYSTEM!!!
Can we be more clear than that??

So we don't know if this is manufacturing contamination, or moisture absorbsion, or oxidation from heat, but I sure has heck don't want that in my calipers.

I just don't get why people are questioning this. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, take it to a service center or any independent garage and pay to have it done. It's cheap, about $60-$80, and may well keep your calipers functioning optimally.

BTW, when I first got my coach the jacks quit working properly. With help from Kwikee we were able to determine that the electric valves were sticking so I pull out the ones for the offending legs, disassembled them, and found metal shavings stuck in them. I had to do this three times over about a 6 month period. They have worked fine for the last three years now.

I read in the brake thread that there was some kind of lubricant that was being found in the workhorse brake systems. I wonder if it's a graphite based lube that's not getting flushed out and hence coloring the fluid. Would be nice to get to the root of the issue.

[CJBROWN]

Found the camera and got a pic before this crap got dumped into the recycle tank.

This is the brake fluid that came out of my calipers. The master cynlinder reservoirs were dirty but not nearly this black. I was shocked.



BTW, my brakes work perfectly. I would hate to think that not changing the fluid would eventually gum up the pistons. I know there's something to the lubricant properties, that's what happens to motor oil when it dies.

Also, my plugs were surprising caked with crud at only 18.5K miles. I cannot imagine running them to 50K or 100K miles. They were the right color though.

For the fellow that thought these chassis demanded too much maintenance, I agree the old stuff seemed to run and run forever. But they eventually did break down, and in fact a lot of those old rigs were dead at 100K miles. These rigs are designed to go a lot longer than that, but they do have to be serviced to do it. And if that means minding after things that need correcting, so be it. You either do it and drive happily on your way, or sit and complain about it, or worse, do nothing and break down in the middle of timbuktu. It's reality dude, deal with it!

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by lawdude:
I am still in wonder that I continue to drive my Nissan with 140,000 miles, my old Ford Exploder with 200,000 miles, etc. and they have never had a brake fluid change AFAIK. When should they fail and kill me? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>lawdude, Most likely at a time not of your choosing.

That said you're a scientific type of guy, do the science and analyze your fluid using a test strip or send it off to Blackstone. The results evident, you may want to check your perceptions about how important clean brake fluid might be.

[Tenn.Vol.]

Lawdude, you can sleep eazy tonight, ONLY WH chassis has this brake problem.
And there is more good news, as only the chassis yrs. 01,02,03 and some 04.

Tenn.Vol.

[CJBROWN]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Petro:
&gt;snip
Here in WI we have to put our coach away for the winter unless we are fortunate in having a heated garage. I miss going out to monkey around with the MH. It gets me out of the house.

Don </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don, we had family friends that lived up there, and he would fly down to Lake Havasu in the winters in his plane to get away from all the cold weather.

I hear the same complaints from the boaters - they shrink wrap their boats and dry store them for 6 months.

We had a cold day today, southern CA - only about 75 degrees. Supposed to rain over the holiday. But seriously, we get out all winter long, about every other weekend, either with the boat or the RV. Lobster season is open right now so it's fun to go out at dusk and catch some dinner. We were supposed to go out to the desert with the RV - to Salton Sea - over the holiday but it may rain torrents, we'll see.

I have the coach on a pad next to the house - you step out of the garage side door and three feet down is the door to the coach. Always tinkering and cleaning and stuff. My motorhome is four years old this month and looks better than the day we took delivery. It's been a lot of fun. Wifey tells me it's a good thing I like it because nobody is buying [expletive delete]. I've been looking at big block diesel pushers and would do it if I could swing it. It's just not in the cards right now

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tenn.Vol.:
Lawdude, you can sleep eazy tonight, ONLY WH chassis has this brake problem.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Tenn Vol, Please don't allow your guard to fall. This is not only a Workhorse specific concern. Do the research and you will see it for yourself.

There is power in Google and it will provide you with the truth about brake fluid.

[lawdude]

Driver,
Can I visibly see the degradation if I pop the cap on my brake cylinder and examine the juice? I am trying to learn not only the practical problems but also the technical side of it (reasons, cause/effect, etc).