Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
RV Trip Planning Discussions

Go Back   iRV2 Forums > Blogs > Guzzi_Bagger
Click Here to Login
Join iRV2 Today

Mission Statement: Supporting thoughtful exchange of knowledge, values and experience among RV enthusiasts.
Rate this Entry

some day is always here

Posted 09-07-2010 at 08:14 AM by Guzzi_Bagger

Hello, this is my first blog, you don’t have to read it as it’s just my ranting and kicking myself for not looking online for information before getting to far into this money pit… if your still reading I’ll try to keep it interesting.
My lady and I decided to switch from tenting to something with a real bed and more then a bucket for her to teeter on in the middle of the night. Options where considered and we settled on a class A in the 28 foot range. This would not be the first one I’ve been involved with having a trailer and two class A’s growing up, the Argosy motor home was my favorite.
checking Craigslist for the last 8 months and looking at several, I did look at a few forums for help on what to look out for, but then we came across a 33 foot 1985 Holiday Rambler with barely 80,000 miles on it for 4k.
Yes the paint was faded and the awning was shot but the tires had 04 for a date code, the motor ran good, the generator ran the roof AC’s and the interior was in excellent condition (witch is what my lady liked the most). Checked the dip sticks on the motor & trany, the color and levels where acceptable so we went for a test drive, the drive train seemed good so we bought it.
Now comes the real inspections…
It had a little over ½ tank of LP so I knew the tank was good.
I knew the gen & AC’s worked so connected it to shore power to check the charging system and all the outlets, good so far.
Discovered the fridge didn’t work, needed a new controller board. (Found "Dinosaur boards" on line, a new one came two day’s later).
Tried to connect a hose to the water line, threads where stripped out so hose just blew off, will have to replace that later. Put a few gallons in the tank and ran the water pump, it shut off after filling the lines and turning off the faucets so that was a good sign (no major leeks in that system). Oops, spoke to soon, no water to the toilet, found a shut off valve behind the toilet, turned it on and soaked the carpet and myself. Flush valve was cracked (probably from freezing).
Pulled the toilet, disassembled it to find someone had done some custom work on this baby. Down loaded the service & parts manual and headed to the local RV shop to get the valve and other correct parts (the service manual showed a much less contorted way to remove this thing so again I should have looked into it first,
hind sight). Now my lady has a "clean" flush toilet. Oh and it’s a good idea to dump the tank and give it a good rinse before pulling a toilet (hind sight again).
Ok, so we have electricity and water, now we need to check the gas appliances.
Purged the lines, lit the stove and the pilot on the fridge & water heater then turned them back off.
still no sent of gas inside or out after a couple of days and the tank still had pressure, so it looks like the LP system is good.
The first weekend trip went as well as could be expected.
Put in a half a tank of water, it would only be the two of us so we only needed enough water for the toilet and washing (don’t plan to drink that water just yet).
Ran the fridge on ac over night to prep it, loaded up our stuff and headed out.
At camp we discovered we had no hot water, further investigations showed the water heater had by-pass valves, changed the valves settings and the water heater started filling, ok good, not so fast, now we have very little water flow from the hot water side of the sink taps and looking out side we have water leaking from the water heater cover. Ok so the water heater has a crack, just boil water for now.
No other problems arose till we go home and I discovered the left front wheel was hot enough to fry an egg on, crap, I figured a brake caliper was sticking… I’ve done them before.
Pulled the old one discovering the brake fluid looked like coffee, bad omen, this thing is going to need a good flushing. It took a little searching but I found the master cylinder, hard to get to till I pulled the left front wheel liner out, Hmmm this thing has a hydraulic booster, never saw one before.
Went to the car parts store with the old caliper to get a new one, cool he had them on the shelf, even had the same casting number on it and it was only $22. I’ll do the other side at another time. I got the caliper and pads and had it back together in less then an hour. My lady pumped the brake while I bled the lines, used up nearly half a gallon to get things flowing clear to all four wheels, didn’t do the tag as I hadn’t opened up that system, but I’m sure it will need to be done, went for a short test drive around the block and the brakes seemed normal again.
That next weekend would be our second trip. We loaded her up and headed out Friday night. Got about 30 miles out and things started to go bad, this time both front brakes started to heat up. CRAP!!, something’s clogging up the master cylinder? That’s one of the only things that could cause this affect (in the past), we where close to my lady’s fathers house, he’s got tools, so I limped it over there.
Pulled the master and found a lot of crud and a bit of rust, I’ll just replace it and salvage the weekend. Went to the local car parts store to get a replacement for a "P30 chassis" as this kid "couldn’t find motor homes in the book". Found one, had to order it but it would be in before he closed. Paid for it and left the old one with him to cover the core charge (
hindsight again), went back to clean and do what ever else I could do while waiting for the call, I pulled out the proportioning valve’, it couldn’t have caused the problem as it was seized up.
Used up a can of brake cleaner to get the poppet louse, cleaned it up, replaced the o-rings and put it back together, a switch on this valve is what controls the "Brake" light on the dash when you have a pressure loss in the front or back.
The call came, sent my lady to pick it up while I started reassembling things, this time the "brake" light on the dash came on a lot through the bleeding process, a good sign as it didn’t before.
After a test drive around the block I thought we where good to go, hung out with dad the rest of the night and headed out Saturday morning. This time we made it about 10 miles and the fronts locked up tight. It was all the 454 could do to push her to the side of the road.
Now I‘ve worked on all my care as I was growing up, things where a lot simpler back then, to much computer control in them now, but I thought I could figure this thing out, it’s my vintage, I just needed time, but my lady helped convince me to let AAA hall it to a local shop (
hindsight again) and let them have a crack at it.
"Oh yes we see that a lot", I heard, "and we can get her fixed up for ya on Monday".
So I leave it in there hands waiting for the call and a big bill. Monday goes by with no word, I call on Tuesday to see where it’s at,
"swapped out some hose’s but had a hard time bleeding out the rear system, took it for a test drive but it still locks up, you say you already swapped out the master so where thinking it must be the hydro boost, the power steering fluid looks pretty bad".
They manage to find one for under $100 so I didn’t think it would be too bad a bill yet and told them to go ahead and put it in, if the power steering fluid was as bad as the brake fluid then the hydro boost was probably as bad as the old master.
Well the replacement booster must have come from Taiwan as it still wasn’t in by Thursday. A second one was ordered from another store and couriered over. "It should be ready to go by Friday night…", so we made plans for the weekend again.
Left work early to pick up the rambler I was surprised the bill very reasonable, so I headed home… damn if I didn’t get more the 5 miles and it locked up again. Called the shop and the mechanic came with a wrench, cracked the bleeder on the right front and I was rolling (back to the shop). I’d have to wait till next Monday to get any further with this problem.
Now I finely get smart and start a search for "brake problems" and "P30 chassis" on Google.
Hmmm, typically the internal lining of the rubber caliper lines collapse. This was probably my original problem, not the caliper, but nothing about what could be still be doing it after the lines are replaced only a vague mention of a collapsed low pressure drain line from the hydro boost back to the power steering pump preventing the boost relaxing completely.
Found a lot about the "Auto-Park" problem, good thing this 85 just has the cable to operate that brake on the drive shaft, at least I don’t have to worry about that one.
Now I know enough about hydraulics to know "what goes in - must come out" so I discussed my findings with the mechanic, he checked the line, it was clear, when he suggested maybe the power steering pump return screen was clogged with crap and wanted to just replace the hole pump rather then clean it I said ok.
At this point I had an ‘as good as new’ brake system, it’s got to work now.
I picked it up two days later and sure enough I made it nearly home before the fronts started dragging again, this time I was armed with my 10mm, released the pressure at the right front and continued home.
I called the shop to let them know it still wasn’t fixed, they apologized but had no other idea what it could be.
I felt the parts probably would have needed replacing sooner or later, the labor charge wasn’t outrages and the shop was about 30 miles from my house, I let it go at that.
Back safe in my drive way and in my hands I started checking with other friends and local mechanics to see what else it could be… common thoughts where ‘the proportioning valve’ or ‘the master cylinder’.
The next test drive she locked up after the third stop, this time I cracked the line at the master cylinder, and yes there was pressure there. Drove home and pulled out the now suspect master.
On my bench I couldn’t blow brake cleaner backwards through the front port so I concluded it was a defective master (of course the fronts would lock up, they couldn’t drain back to the reservoir).
Good thing I got this master from a chain store, there was another one by my place.
Went over to exchange it, didn’t think they had one on the shelf so I just asked this guy to order a master for a p30. When it came in I brought my defect in… hmmm it wasn’t exactly the same, close but different part number then the one on my receipt.
I asked him to back check what mine was from and he came up with a "G30 chassis" what ever that was, SO, I had the wrong master and it was defective, didn’t match up my original master at the other store cause I sent my lady and trusted the kid at the store to get it rite the first time.
Bones! The correct one was $5 cheaper.
Mystery solved?
Installed the correct master and went for a long drive with lots of stops, then drove home.
Brakes where barley warm and that 454 accelerated the rambler like it was a Hugo.
YES!!! I LOVE IT!!!
Always match up the old part with the new one on the counter before walking away.
Now I probably need to replace both front calipers, certainly the pads as they are cooked.
Next I’ll need to look at the U-joints as now the rambler goes 65 mph with little effort and I could hear that old sound of imbalance.
The adventure continues:
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 2094 Comments 2 Edit Tags
« Prev     Main     Next »
Total Comments 2

Comments

  1. Old Comment
    I am sooo sorry, I can hardly see to write, tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks and blurring my eyes...my first blogg is above yours but my ramblings started off in a thread earlier today with a similar title. I think you search my name to find my threads. Similar experiences but im one day into it all.
    I promise I am laughing with sympathy and with you, not at you....
    and yes how many times in my life have I been suckered into that sound of imbalance.. its a dreadful sound and feel, then the steady dum dum dum noise that you instantly convince yourself is a bulb in a type...inexpensive...rather than a UJ about to dismantle...expensive.
    Today I heard that noise too until I realised my back tyres were bouncing over the reflectors in the middle of the road..we call then "cats eyes" in England.
    But anyway where my manners, hello and nice to meet you.I hope your path gets smoother with the rv.
    regards
    Harry
    Posted 09-09-2010 at 08:55 PM by harryoxford2 harryoxford2 is offline
  2. Old Comment
    Enjoyed your story about brakes locking up. Had the same problem on my 98 Bounder. Replace master cyl., brake lines, new calipers, bleeded lines, still over heated. Had ABS removed and repaired. Still over heated. New or reworked ABS not available. Removed ABS and had new brake line made to connect front and rear separately without ABS. Make one trip so far with no problems. Will up date on additional trips. Jim L.
    Posted 02-12-2021 at 05:39 PM by Jim Bounder Jim Bounder is offline
 
» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:46 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.