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Wroughtnharv · 05-25-2017, 08:11 AM

Originally the idea was to pull the motor with the intake and exhaust manifolds intact. When it turned out the work to keep the exhaust manifold was a lot more involved than anticipated I got sidetracked with the stuck bolt. Then yesterday I discovered that there was no way to pull the motor with the intake attached. A couple of the bolts holding on the bell housing are impossible to access with the intake in place.

Every now and then even an optimist like myself can be overwhelmed with a reality. I was devastated for a couple of reasons. The most obvious was I had done a lot of work with the plan to keep the intake in place. I had wanted to do it the easy way and it hadn't worked out. So now I have to do what I should have done in the first place.

This morning we are going to the Restore to see what they have in laminate flooring for Jane. Restore is the Habitat for Humanity surplus outlet. Overstocks and surplus donated by retailers are available there. Then this afternoon it will be out to see if I can get the motor out of Lil Blue, finally. Yesterday afternoon bud came by and we went over the new desk in Jane for the IMac. He will have it ready by the end of next week.

Wroughtnharv · 05-25-2017, 08:54 PM

Fifty miles and two Restores left us with the decision that Seconds and Surplus had our best deal. We're going with three inch wide engineered wood planks. Restore had nothing but MDF based laminates that scare me because of the way MDF reacts to moisture. Engineered wood on the other hand is laminated wood from bottom to top. We're looking at approximately $450.00 for enough material including best under layment for the whole coach floor.

Removing the intake and fuel injection rail was quite a project. The last bolt made me remember the best body man I've ever known explaining to me that the best body men were blind. They could judge the quality of the body work by feel. I think the same can be said form mechanics. The last bolt holding the intake in place was done blind and totally by feel. I can't tell you much I'm looking forward to re-installing it.

I have just a couple of bell housing bolts to remove and the motor will be free to remove. My dream right now is to win that $250,000,000.00 tomorrow night and have a tow truck pick up Lil Blue and take her a real mechanic's house until she's back together.

okmunky · 05-26-2017, 01:42 AM

You mean you wouldn't donate L'il Blue to a good cause and buy a fancy new toad to go behind that million dollar Prevost?

ronjhall · 05-26-2017, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

Fifty miles and two Restores left us with the decision that Seconds and Surplus had our best deal. We're going with three inch wide engineered wood planks. Restore had nothing but MDF based laminates that scare me because of the way MDF reacts to moisture. Engineered wood on the other hand is laminated wood from bottom to top. We're looking at approximately $450.00 for enough material including best under layment for the whole coach floor.

Removing the intake and fuel injection rail was quite a project. The last bolt made me remember the best body man I've ever known explaining to me that the best body men were blind. They could judge the quality of the body work by feel. I think the same can be said form mechanics. The last bolt holding the intake in place was done blind and totally by feel. I can't tell you much I'm looking forward to re-installing it.

I have just a couple of bell housing bolts to remove and the motor will be free to remove. My dream right now is to win that $250,000,000.00 tomorrow night and have a tow truck pick up Lil Blue and take her a real mechanic's house until she's back together.

Love those couple hour jobs that turn into days. NOT!

At least you do have the tools and equipment to get the job done eventually.

Franka548 · 05-26-2017, 04:43 AM

Harvey,
The old saying that comes to mind is, if it was easy then anybody could do it, lol. I think that every time that I run into one of those things that gives you fits.
Frank

veraken · 05-26-2017, 05:01 AM

I recently replaced all of my carpeting with hand scraped engineered hardwood flooring. With the hand scraped, you can easily repair any nicks, etc. and it blends in. We glued the flooring down with urethane glue. When gluing down, I found it much easier to backbutter each piece rather than spread the glue over the floor. Not much room to move. May take longer, but alot less mess.

The expert on flooring is Ernie Ekberg and if you have any questions he is very helpful. You can contact him and look at some pictures at:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...andrepair/info

Wroughtnharv · 05-26-2017, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okmunky

You mean you wouldn't donate L'il Blue to a good cause and buy a fancy new toad to go behind that million dollar Prevost?

LOL

It's obvious you didn't take notes in Quartzite. The thought "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind. I'm not the Prevost type. Prevost would be saying "wipe me" and I would be saying back, "bite me. Wipe yourself."

okmunky · 05-26-2017, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wroughtnharv

LOL

It's obvious you didn't take notes in Quartzite. The thought "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind. I'm not the Prevost type. Prevost would be saying "wipe me" and I would be saying back, "bite me. Wipe yourself."

Me either! But I suspect you enjoy the challenge of turning a sow's ear into a silk purse.

Wroughtnharv · 05-30-2017, 08:58 PM

Things are moving on all fronts. The Casita has moved on to Southern New Mexico and new adventures. Today I changed the oil in Lucille, 6.6 quarts of Mobil One, gulp.

The solar panels are going to be able to be tilted towards the sun, hopefully. There are brackets available online but the old do-it-myself-my-way syndrome kicked in. I called a national franchise that specializes in small amount metal sales for a quote on two pieces of 2" X 2" X 3/16" X 12' aluminum angle iron. $265.00. I figured they would be high but I'm stuck with my regular supplier having a $250.00 minimum order. But before I jumped on a big order that would leave me with inventory for whenever I checked with another vendor. They quoted me $89.00 for single 25' piece of 2" X 2" X 3/16" angle. I ordered two because at that price I will use the extra piece to build the battery box for the 6 volt golf cart batteries for the solar system.

The motor came out of Lil Blue alright. It wasn't easy and it wasn't pleasant. But it came out without bending or breaking anything, at least that I know of at this point in time. This morning started off calling around for a flywheel resurfacing. Even the auto parts stores I thought would surely do their own surfacing don't anymore. So I called my bud with the machine shop, nothing but a thing. He did it with me watching. Then he had the adacity to want to charge me $15.00. He got stuck with$20.00 and a hug, good for both of us, share the same birthday, different years. I hope I am moving as well as he is when I get to be his age.

I cleaned up the motor and the flywheel, clutch pack, pilot bearing went in like magic, love it when that happens. There was one hiccup. The clutch pack kit came with two pilot bearings and two different input shaft tools. One of the tools was for GM-Geo and the other was labeled Ford. The bearing and input shaft tool labeled Ford worked, hmmmmmmmm, kit made in Korea for a vehicle made in Japan for an American manufacturer, no surprises here.

On the way home I stopped by the mechanic's that traded trucks with me. I pointed out that I had the motor on the ground and really didn't want to pull the front timing chains cover even though I knew it would be a lot easier to do any required maintenance now than later. He convinced me that was what I needed to do. I think that falls into a man doing what a man has to do. Hopefully all that will need work will be replacing some tensioners.

Lucy, my old truck looks really sharp now. Her aluminum wheels have been polished for the first time. 230,000 miles with lots of love and affection and never once polished the wheels. I think she's going to like her new home. Poor Lucille has only got her oil changed......

okmunky · 05-30-2017, 09:17 PM

Harvey, your going to enjoy having solar panels on Jane, it really opens up lots of possibilities for where you can stay and for how long. My little 272 watt system keeps us charged for 2-3 days before we drop below the 70% battery level. And if it's sunny the 2 golf cart batteries are usually full by noon.

Have you swapped out all of Jane's incandescent bulbs for LEDs yet? This made a huge difference for us. There are suppliers on eBay selling bulbs for about $1 each.

Wroughtnharv · 05-31-2017, 08:39 PM

We've done a bunch of the light to LED's conversions and purchased a do it yourself package from Ron Hall to do it a bunch more. Eventually it will all be LED.

Today I checked the new to me Solar panels to see if they put out voltage in sunlight. They're 125 watt panels and each put out 19+ volts when exposed to sunlight. We have two of them.

I had the Tracker motor on some saw horses when it decided to fall. I caught it before it hurt itself or me. Sometimes doing what a man has to do doesn't mean doing it like an idiot.

I pulled the timing chain cover and oil pan to get a look at the innards to see if there was any obvious problems. I called my bud over to verify all was good. He told me put it all back together and get her running again.

I thought I had heard an exhaust leak before, assumed it was a gasket in the area of the exhaust manifold. Exhaust manifold looks like stainless and has a crack at a weld. Hmmmm, something else to remove and fix, love it.

My bud who is building my new desk for the coach and myself were talking tonight. He just turned 71 and I will be 69 early July. It's kind of funny, this darn old and still stretching ourselves when it comes to doing things. He's learning blacksmithing and doing an awesome job of blending iron work and his skills with wood. I'm just learning to mechanic.

okmunky · 05-31-2017, 09:14 PM

Harvey, did a charge controller come with those panels? If not, I recommend Morningstar charge controller and a Trimetric battery monitor. If you plan to do much boondocking you might want to buy a larger amp rated charge controller so you can add more panels as you find them.

This solar info below is written by a good friend who straightened out the mess someone else made of my system. It has worked flawlessly for 5 years now and I have Bob to thank for that.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/...ging-puzzle-2/

Wroughtnharv · 06-01-2017, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okmunky

Harvey, did a charge controller come with those panels? If not, I recommend Morningstar charge controller and a Trimetric battery monitor. If you plan to do much boondocking you might want to buy a larger amp rated charge controller so you can add more panels as you find them.

This solar info below is written by a good friend who straightened out the mess someone else made of my system. It has worked flawlessly for 5 years now and I have Bob to thank for that.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/...ging-puzzle-2/

Thanks Barb, I woke up an hour ago going over the best location of the battery box etc in Jane's underbelly. I have a 3000 watt inverter and a heavy duty battery monitoring system but will need a charge controller. I'm not sure how far to go on the off grid concept since we own a place in Yuma now that has full hookups etc for the winters.

Here I am mentally working on the solar system while I'm mentally and physically working on the re-installing Lil Blue's motor. We're also going to replace the floor in Jane before we leave for Arizona. We used Allure vinyl planks in the fifth wheel when we replaced its floor. That has to be the easiest to install except for just painting the floor. But it didn't hold up well for us. I'm pretty well settled on an engineered three ply thin plank Pergo style that will be floating. I know most people will be advising against it but I'm one of those types that insist on peeing on the sparkplug myself.

So the list is small in its own way, battery tray design and install along with viable solar panel charging system to supplement generator power for off grid this summer mountains of Arizona. Putting Lil Blue back together and building new bumper for tow bar. Then there's the floor replacement in Jane along with some new electrical wiring to run from back to front including installing new gauges in dash.

Life is not only good, it's interesting.

okmunky · 06-01-2017, 12:40 PM

Harvey, I wondered how much you'd use the Solar with the Yuma lot.

As to your inverter -- a 3,000 watt inverter will drain your batteries pretty fast. You might want to mount a convenient switch so you can turn it off after the coffee is made.

I bought my charge controller from these folks. I hear they are helpful at pointing you to the right product. Bob actually ordered it, I just paid for it.

https://www.solar-electric.com