My mom wanted to make a trip to Alabama instead of upper Michigan to visit aging relatives that are facing some challenges and so, we swapped the two one week vacations.
After a great trip down to southern Kentucky, the dash air blower motor went out for good. It was giving me problems in the past and I had a brand new one in the storage bay that I installed in short order and we were back to good dash air.
Got to less than 100 miles from our destination, where we overnight camped at the Athens Alabama Wallmart. After rising, making coffee and checking my coolant levels (leaky head gasket) and oil, the rig would not start. Turn the key and nothing, use the bypass switch to the other batteries for the coach...nothing. Long story short, the starter failed. Long story short to get back on the road without a tow/repair, I called a mobile mechanic and had the starter replaced for a pretty penny. If I'd time, I would have done it myself. Thank God the generator, running continuously since leaving Ohio, did not let me down. The temps were in the 90's and it was just too hot to not keep it running.
The visit went great and we all were very happy to get maybe the last chance to see my aunt/uncle alive. Never know when folk get into their late eighties.
Well, on the return trip back, we lost the dash air again. It was not the fan, just did not have cool air. I figured the air charge was lost and the compressor either seized or scrammed off to protect itself. Got home and waited until the morning to check the engine bay to see if I could figure out what went wrong. The drive belt was gone. Inspected the fan blades for damage, as this was not the first time the belt came off and destroyed the fan blades (previous owner) No damage and no sign of the belt. Went to spin the compressor to see if it was seized up and the whole unit just wabbled. What? All four mounting bolts that thread into the head were broken. Two were from long ago. I had no idea of this. Just a matter of time before the other two broke. The broken bolt ends will just have to be removed when I have the head gasket replaced next week. No biggie, I guess, but dang!!! What trip.
Everyone please say a little prayer for me that the head gasket is the ONLY thing needing repair when they pull it off....sheeeeeeesh...
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