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 > THE OWNER'S CORNER FORUMS > Monaco Owner's Forum
Click Here to Login
Join iRV2 Today

Mission Statement: Supporting thoughtful exchange of knowledge, values and experience among RV enthusiasts.
Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on iRV2
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 06-03-2013, 02:54 PM   #15
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Just an update:
We got the voltage regulator from O'Reilly's. It's the same one from a Ford truck so it only cost $25 to replace. If it was that it would have been cheap and easy. Well it helped fix it some but when we put the headlights on the volts drop so it could still be the alternator but doubt that it is. There is a very large short somewhere in the headlights. Thom and I will be testing the alternator just in case the short decided to cause a problem with it, but we are also going to go thru all the wiring for the lights to find the short. He seems to think it's on the front passenger's side. If the alternator is also not doing well we won't change that yet until we find the short with the lights since it would just cause the thing to go bad again if we didn't. At least that's my convoluted thinking, lol.
We are also going to change out all the lights on the outside with LED's since we've pretty much changed out the inside ones already to LED's.
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 RV Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

iRV2.com RV Community - Are you about to start a new improvement on your RV or need some help with some maintenance? Do you need advice on what products to buy? Or maybe you can give others some advice? No matter where you fit in you'll find that iRV2 is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with other RV owners, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create an RV blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 06-03-2013, 03:28 PM   #16
rex
Senior Member
 
rex's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Foley, AL
Posts: 1,247
Thom, if you also have a battery isolator, that could be the problem if it shorts out. Shorting out is rare for one of these, but it does happen and it will take the alternator out.
__________________
Rex

2001 Monaco Diplomat 40' PDQ - 08 Honda CR-V
rex is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-04-2013, 06:56 AM   #17
Senior Member
 
joeplazek's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CAISTOR CENTRE
Posts: 785
Check you headlight switch also. I had mine melt to the point that my headlights dimmed and started flickering. That is where I would start with the headlight short.

joe
joeplazek is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2013, 01:42 PM   #18
Senior Member
 
joeplazek's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CAISTOR CENTRE
Posts: 785
Update please,,,

joe
joeplazek is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2013, 07:48 AM   #19
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Life got in the way of figuring out the problem just yet. Thom will look at the headlight switch tonight and the wiring on the side for the headlights he thinks the short is in. We were going to do it last night but life happens.
We are sitting still in a spot right now but since there is a possibility now of us maybe doing an assignment off in another state soon for his job and the fact that he has a gig with his band way over in WV in August (we are in CA at the moment) it's something that we have to really work on fixing.
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2013, 07:03 PM   #20
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Thom just took apart the area with the headlight switch and everything is fine there so it's not the switch. One thing down and now onto the next thing to check
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2013, 04:01 AM   #21
Senior Member
 
joeplazek's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CAISTOR CENTRE
Posts: 785
Quote:
Originally Posted by PyrateSilly View Post
Thom just took apart the area with the headlight switch and everything is fine there so it's not the switch. One thing down and now onto the next thing to check

Keep us posted,,

and thanks.

joe
joeplazek is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-16-2013, 08:48 AM   #22
Senior Member
 
pipedream2's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Everett Ontario , Mercedes,TX
Posts: 263
Steve
the alt. are really a mystory to most RVers....but not so with a shop that know there stuff.
We have an alt that has a high output DUVA system (DUal Voltage Alternator) with an external sense for existing the stator and a reg that is adjustable for the loss ( .6v) in the diode isolator
The old saying was to rebuild rater than replace needs to be re-visited as most all shops are using VERY CHEAP CHINESE parts and Not Leese Neville unless you ask for them......My CHINESE re-build $299. lasted 2000 mile trip before NEARLY catching fire,,,melted the DC output stud in half and melted the aluminum rectifier clean off and drips of aluminium melted the windings on the stator.
Make FOR SURE your the replacement parts are MADE IN THE USA and you will find nearly the same price as a NEW L N replacement....newer model that will do the same or better job.I replaced with a L N AVI series 210 amp (needed a diode for the ignition wire ...the diode was built into the reg on the old DUVAC works just fine
__________________
Dennis & Sue
Fulltimers Squeezin Life
1999 Monaco Executive M-11 450 hp
pipedream2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-04-2013, 03:51 PM   #23
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Update:
Thom climbed into the engine to check the wire harness connections to the alternator. Found the ones going from the tach to the alternator was really, really loose. He took the connectors off and readjusted them and put them back on. Apparently the tach was going nuts when the RPMs were around 3000 and fixing the loose connector seems to have fixed that. Now we need to check for a loose ground for the lights because we are still getting a major drop in voltage when any of the lights for driving are turned on. Thom has a starting point in the front passenger area since there is a step light that will not work and he replaced all of them with LED. It did not work before and it still does not so that's the starting point for a short or bad ground somewhere in the lights.
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-05-2013, 04:27 PM   #24
Senior Member
 
Papa_Jim's Avatar
 
Outdoors RV Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Manitoba,Canada
Posts: 2,789
Voltage drop when the headlights are turned on can indicate poor ground. The dash volt gauges can be notoriously inaccurate due to ground issues. You may want to open the dash and check the ground wires at the gauges, and the ground wires at the main ground buss on the front metal firewall behind the dash. Monaco used a single ground wire 'daisy chained' from gauge to gauge. I added a few more ground wires from the gauges to the metal firewall, which made a huge difference. Now when I turn on the headlights, the volt gauge doesn't move at all.

Also, my headlight switch used to get extremely hot when the headlights were on. In fact, I had to change the switch once because it had melted. I fastened a ground wire on the headlight switch and ran that wire to the front metal firewall. The switch stays cool now.
__________________
2016 Creekside 23RKS
2012 Ram 2500 Laramie 4X4 Cummins 6.7L
Canada, eh?
Papa_Jim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-05-2013, 08:40 PM   #25
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Update:
Thom went into the dash, under the coach, into the back and inside the engine. He has been working on redoing all the grounds and making sure all plugs fit snug. Some of the plugs have been loose including the one on the alternator that goes to the tachometer.
Finally coming to the conclusion that the alternator may have gotten messed up when the inverter went out and it went out because the previous owners did not match up the inverter to the microwave and we have had to replace both. And it all seemed to have messed up somewhere between MI and TX last year while we were traveling. The batteries got cooked and things went haywire. Fixing things now so that they do not do that again.
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-10-2013, 10:29 PM   #26
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Update:
We have now gone over and/or replaced all grounds in the dash and up front that has anything to do with lights (and a few other grounds too). We still have the problem of turning on the headlights, hi or low or running, and the volts dropping. If it was just a tinge of a drop it would not be such a big thing but it drops a whole volt, from 13.8 to 12.8 or less.
Batteries are fine.
Just replaced the voltage regulator.
Fixed or replaced all grounds up front.
Checked the light switches up front and made sure all grounds there are fine, no melting of switches.
Fixed the connectors on the alternator, one plug was loose.

What else? What are we missing? What else to check? Besides changing out the alternator and/or battery isolator .... for now anyway. That is on the list but doubling checking everything else possible so that it does not happen again .....
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2013, 06:59 AM   #27
Senior Member
 
joeplazek's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: CAISTOR CENTRE
Posts: 785
I don't think a 1 volt drop when turning on all the lights is a concern. Waiting to hear what others think?

joe
joeplazek is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2013, 07:41 AM   #28
Senior Member
 
PyrateSilly's Avatar
 
Monaco Owners Club
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,200
Let me clarify, the volt drop is automatic as soon as any of the lights are turned on while going down the road. We tested to see if it happened when just one of the light switches was turned on but it happens when any are turned on. If we had to keep driving the volts would continue to drop and the reason I know this is because we have watched it happen. That's when the generator has to come on to keep volts up while driving. Since we did not have to go to FL we could just stay in CA we decided to cancel our trip and try to figure out the problem.
__________________
Thom and Christine having fun in a 1993 Monaco Crown Royale Signature Series 40ft 300hp RV. Towing a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Harley.
Our blogged repairs and travels
PyrateSilly is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
alternator



Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:08 AM.


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