Community Forums

TCollins · 08-25-2018, 07:13 PM

I have a 2004 Holiday Rambler Admiral on the Ford F53 Chassis. I would like to go through it this winter and change out the serpentine belt, hoses, etc.

For those of you who have done this how big of a job is it? When I open the "hood" all I see are three layers of radiator, air conditioning condenser and trans cooler. Are you able to get at the hoses and belt through the dog house and from under the engine? I suppose you could also get access through the wheel wells.

I'm not particularly agile anymore but I avoid having other people work on my equipment if possible. Saves money too. For sure, if the radiator and coolers have to come out it's going to the shop.

So what am I looking at if I do this myself?

Tom

Civdiv99 · 08-25-2018, 07:18 PM

I have neither an F53 nor an HR, but yes, typically you go in from the top (doghouse) and underneath to both release tension and thread the belt out and vice versa. Since one person is stuck being either above or below, a 2nd set of hands on top making sure the belt doesn’t shift while you (or they) are underneath can be helpful.

No radiators, etc are affected.

leadman · 08-26-2018, 06:58 AM

I have a Winnie on an F53 chassis. It also has the engine coolant heater on the water heater. The engine hoses were not too bad except for some of the spring clamps were hard to get the tool on to release them. There is also an engine coolant heater under the bed in the rear, IIRC there was a total of 17 hoses.
Buy the tool to release the spring clamps if you have those and if you have extra hoses like I do buy extra hose clamps. Took me most of the day to do the job. I also bought the smaller hose bulk in a box as it was much less expensive this way. There is also a hose that goes to the coolant tank under the hood that gave me some problems.

Waiter21 · 08-26-2018, 07:01 AM

Hoses are reasonably easy. If you remove the plastic intake snorkel, the piece that runs from the throttle body to the filter assembly, it makes getting at the upper hose a lot easier.

I did a HOW-TO on changing the belt.

F53 Serpentine Belt Replacement – 1999 Southwind 35S

On my old Mirada I had the belt on/off 50 times trying to resolve a chirping problem, so I had a lot of experience repalcing the belt.