99 Monaco Diplomat water pump out? and location of 2nd fuel filter

[Lidiot]

Hi everyone!
I just joined this forum because it’s the only actual resource I've found helpful in obtaining information and help with my 1999 Monaco diplomat (36 ft holiday rambler). Im not a first timer as far as RV living goes, but I am a first timer with this uniquely complex vessel. I feel like this RV is going to get the best of me, unless I’m able to grasp a better understanding of it and how it works. Im starting to think it hates me. As soon as figure one thing out, i run into another snafu. Hopefully most of my problems are An easy fix, but with the manual being so vague and uninformative, I feel stupid and helpless. Im usually very good at fixing things and figuring things out, but this thing is more complex than i had anticipated. I’m just a single gal who thought I could do this. So far, I’ve been successful in rewiring the captain’s chair so I can reach the petals, and installing a new radio so I can have music. I have many problems, but then one i’m dealing with now is my water pump. I ran out of fresh water so and filled it up. When I turned on water pump to pressurize and it worked a little bit, but now the light wont even come on when i push the button. I don’t know if there is a fuse for it somewhere, or if I just need to replace the pump. It worked long enough for me to wash dishes, and then the next morning i had no water and the pump light wouldn’t come on when i pushed it....yet all the other lights on the monitor worked. So I opened the wet bay, and wiggled a spliced wire and it came on for a little while. I tried rewiring it, but it didn't help. Any suggestions? Did i miss a step?
Also i am having an issue with my warning light and stop engine light. I have a 5.9l Cummings diesel 276hp pusher, that has a hard time towing my very small kia on a dolly. Thanks to this forum, ive narrowed it down to the secondary fuel filter that the previous owner never knew about, much less changed. My turbo seems to work, so I hope this is easy to change. Any thoughts or advice is welcome. I live in this RV so i need to get theses issues fixes asap
Thanks everyone!
Lydiot!

[kidz_driver]

The primary fuel filter on the 1999 Diplomat is in the compartment behind the A/C coil which is the second compartment from the back on the driver's side.

It requires the barrel key to open the grate and then to unlock the A/C coil which is hinged on the left hand side.

Once open you will find the Pure AirPlus airdryer, the RVA jack reservoir and pump, the power steering fluid reservoir and the primary fuel filter.

If the primary fuel filter hasn't been changed, the question arises whether the air filter has been changed recently which could also cause performance issues. It is behind a panel on the left hand side of the radiator doors at the back.

To test the water pump I would apply 12volt power directly to the water pump to isolate whether the problem is the pump or the wiring.


Good luck

Dave

[Lidiot]

Originally Posted by kidz_driver

The primary fuel filter on the 1999 Diplomat is in the compartment behind the A/C coil which is the second compartment from the back on the driver's side.

It requires the barrel key to open the grate and then to unlock the A/C coil which is hinged on the left hand side.

Once open you will find the Pure AirPlus airdryer, the RVA jack reservoir and pump, the power steering fluid reservoir and the primary fuel filter.

If the primary fuel filter hasn't been changed, the question arises whether the air filter has been changed recently which could also cause performance issues. It is behind a panel on the left hand side of the radiator doors at the back.

To test the water pump I would apply 12volt power directly to the water pump to isolate whether the problem is the pump or the wiring.


Good luck

Dave

Dave!
Thank you! I found the fuel filter! It was so dirty, I almost didn't see it. I felt so accomplished, and proud....until I tried finding a replacement rancor filter. That was even more of a challenge. Needless to say...I'm anxiously anticipating the next step of actually changing it. I think my RV is trying to kill me. I’m going to need more a more detailed explanation of the water pump test, if you dont mind. I actually hooked up to city water last night, and was so excited to wash my hair. So I went to plug in my janky cord and plethora of adaptors that made it a 110 from 220, my todds p250 ats popped and started smoking. The generator comes on, but there is no power from anything with a plug, and the lights are dim. The gfis wont load and the heart interface converter/charger wont come on (i checked the 2 fuses next to it) . Ive checked an endless amount of fuses, i think the 110 is still providing the dim lights. Im worried. My appliances were on afterwards (except maybe the TV) so I unplugged them and turned off the frig. I tried checking the heart interface remote panel and it said “fault” and that my batteries are dead and The monitor in the bathroom agrees. rewired the ats and the green led light comes on. The heart interface panel doesnt indicate any outside ac coming in or charging of the battery. I don’t know if its in idol mode, auto shut down, or if its toast. The multimeter showed it had power. Dave please help me! Im pretty handy, but This rv is overwhelming, and you sound like you know a lot about this enigma. I cant find a wiring diagram, or anything about todd ats or heart interface....except how to install them. Do you think it just got a little too much voltage and killed my batteries? I have 4 6volt golf cart batteries, that are coved in sulfuric acid (despite my constant cleaning). Do you have any words of wisdom, that may give me hope that this wont be anything major? Please! I live in this thing full time. I just parked in my uncles driveway for a month on the generator (oran) and fresh water tanks. I only left so I could hook up to 110 to give the oran a break....and also get running water. I take very good care of my rv, and Am conservative with my power. I don’t know why this RV hates me so much. It shouldnt be this difficult! I picked this one because Of its strength and durability. I wanted a class a, Cummings diesel pusher with an oran generator and large fuel and water tanks so I could be off the grid. It towed my car like a gasser, theres no fresh water, no power (at least the generator comes on....that was my first big problem...no power from 110 and the generator wouldnt come on. Then the frig and water heater pL went out. Im going to go crazy! Ive learned so much about this thing, and I just keep doing the complete opposite if making progress. I don't know anyone that has the skills to help me. Its a constant brick wall. All the parts dont exist anymore and there is nothing online. I have the manuals memorized. Sorry to vent. Im just getting overwhelmed! I need some advice from someone who’s experienced a diplomat....from 20 years ago. Thanks!

[HJLowell]

Reading all of thiis is so very depressing.
Its like my understanding of airplanes and why I dont own one and fly.

1 step at a time please.
Personally
I would get yourself a good roving mobile diesel mechanic and see that the air filter to the air dryer canister and valve kit is all new.
Have him point out each item on the engine as he totally services your rig.
That engine is a very big investment and if not properly maintained your in for a 15 to 30 thousand dollars Bill.

So hire him as an Educational advisor.

Step 2.
Get an rv electrical mobile tech and get your electronics sorted out before you burn the Damned thing down [emoji848]

Step 3
Dont drive the rig untill step 2 is completely safe and secured.
And you have a solid understanding of your pouer system's,
I think you have a good start.
But your barely treading water now.


Next
Complete step 1 and then drive your rig safely and hopefully uneventful for many years.

Be Very Patient.
Be willing to spend some $$$$s along the way.

Good luck.

And
When you ask a question on the forum.
Deal with one , 1 issue at a time.

Again
Good luck.

[kidz_driver]

Lidiot,

I hope I can help you a little bit, I have had our 1999 Diplomat for about 6 years and have run into many problems which I have tackled, power problems included.

I think one of the most important things to understand the many things that run off your house batteries including all your internal lights, furnace, fridge 12v control circuit, propane solenoid, step motor, slide motor, propane side of water heater, water pump, inverter, CO detector, radio etc.

When your batteries die, these things stop working.

The things that run on 120volts include the microwave, tv, air conditioners and wall outlets, the water heater electric element and the fridge in ac mode however that still requires 12v to run the control panel.

Your house batteries are charged by the battery charger section of the Heart Interface or by the engine alternator.

When you are living off-grid, the main source of power to recharge the batteries is the generator and it probably needs to be run for several hours each day to keep them fully charged. The excess amounts of sulphuric acid on your batteries indicates that they are continuously being fairly heavily discharged and recharged. Hopefully you have been maintaining the water level in them with distilled water.

The Heart Interface also passes 120v through to the wall circuits and has an inverter which converts 12vdc to 120vac on selected outlets.

There are several circuit breakers directly on the Heart Interface unit which impact the 12 volt side of things. There is also a second panel in that compartment with two 120v Square D circuit breakers which I believe are connected to the outlets which are connected to the inverter section.

The remote panel gives an indication of battery condition, power source and load. I have found that sometimes when the panel is acting up, disconnecting the house batteries forces a reset of the unit.

The TODD Automatic Transfer Switch automatically selects between shore and generator power with priority to the generator. It also contains a time delay circuit board to allow the generator to stabilize before the load is applied. The circuit diagram wiring the ATS is on the inside of the switch cover.

Shore power is fed into the top of the left hand relay, generator power into the top of the right hand relay. The load wires are connected to the bottom terminals of the left hand relay. There is a square button in the center of each relay which is pushed in when it senses power from one of the sources.

If you are measuring voltage on the incoming lines but not on the load lines, try pushing in the center button with an insulated tool.

My ATS recently died while on a trip and rather than repair it at that time, I wired a 50amp appliance outlet to the generator wires. When I want to use the generator, I simply plug the shore power cord into the 50 amp outlet.

The TODD ATS is no longer available but there are a number of others available.


If you have access to a battery charger you might want to see if you can get your batteries to hold a charge while you have access to shore power.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Dave

[scenic route]

Kudos, Dave. Nice post, which should help the OP to understand her unit a little better. This site's membership never ceases to amaze me with their helpful knowledge and their willingness to share it.

[153stars]

Good help on ATS and inverter. If you got the pump to start by messing with the splice you may also have wiggled the spade connectors at same time. Usually remove it gentle squeeze with pliers will get the female connector tight again and clean connection. You really need a 12v test light and multimeter, I don't know if the digital light probes provide a load ,but a multimeter can be fooled by a poor connection especially 12v lighting circuit like trailer lights and coach turn signals ect.. If you light the test lamp it is usually have good 12v power then check pump ground or connect between pumps pos. and grd. wire. Good to make up test spade put a short stripped wire in one or strip off the insulation of a spade connector to plug in for testing. Test lamp best bet with the exception of high amp connections like starter.
Do you have multiple pump switches around coach or just one?

[winniman]

My 5.9 cummins has a secondary fuel filter on top of the engine. I don't have the same rv as yours, but they generally have two fuel filters. One is a large canister with a water drain on the bottom. Mine is located on the lower side of the engine. Yours apparently is in a service bay. My second one is on top of the engine in a canister that you screw the top off. It has a paper filter inside. The engine warning light could be something as simple as you are low on coolant in your radiator reservoir. Is it causing the engine to derate and lose power when the engine light is on? These engines are famous for having the cheaper lift pump go, and wreck the far more expensive injection pump. If you add some coolant to the surge tank and the light goes away, you probably have found the problem. If it doesn't, get a Cummins dealer to scan your rv to find what code is causing the engine light. If it is low fuel pressure, get the lift pump fixed, don't drive the rv much if the problem is low fuel pressure. The lift pump is several hundred dollars to buy, and relatively easy to change. The injection pump is thousands, and costs several thousand to change. {approx.} Hope all works out for you. I have done fairly extensive repairs to my 5.9. My exhaust manifold cracked, and my vp44 injection pump got ruined because my lift pump developed a leak. I was getting the engine light as well. These older DPs can be money pits. I know, not what you want to hear. If you happen to know any diesel and rv mechanics, it could make your life a lot easier.

[kenwyatt]

Kudos for what you have accomplished so far and being willing to take it on. Yes it can be overwhelming and daunting at times. This comes from a guy that maintained some of the worlds largest oil drilling rigs afloat. I know it is difficult to stay focused when you have multiple systems going down on you but may I suggest you pick 1 issue at a time and focus on it. Lot of great help here. Pictures go a long way in helping with problems from both sides. Do not have the exact same coach as you but a lot of the systems are similar. And basic troubleshooting techniques apply universally. I know you said you are attempting to live in it full time and that adds to the problems as well. Is there any way you could get out of the coach until you get the basics back

[Lidiot]

Wow guys! Thank you so much for all of your suppory, helpful responses, and tips. I’m sorry I stuffed all my problems in one post. Please forgive me, as I’m a novice to the forum and MD. This has been a learning curve, and you guys are my #1 resource for troubleshooting, especially since most of these replacement parts don’t exist anymore.
I successfully located the fuel filter I was looking for in the left bay. Its behind a radiator looking door adjacent to the duel wheels. It loos like its never even been opened! I ordered a replacement and have a good friend whom offered to help me change it. I found the secondary fuel pump on the top of the engine, under the bed. It was changed a few days prior to my ownership so its good!
My friend also offered to help me with the water pump. I already ordered a new one, since my current one is 20 yrs old and looked a bit tired. Luckily, My mechanic is also a plumber and was able to look at it for me. Even he had a hard time understanding the custom electrical and pluming systems. since its for electrical problem, I have narrowed it down to the AtS which are not cheap! I think im starting to wrap my head around the heart interface converter, inverter, charger Since I took the inverter apart to find the fuses. They were very small and hidden, and fine. So when i reinstalled it I reset the inverter on the remote monitor, and bam, my gfis came on and I got full power on the appliances via the inverter. Therefore im guessing it works and my ats is the blown. When i try use shore power or the generator, it trips the 50 amp breaker, meaning Ac never even make it to the converter/charger. The batteries did receive a charge even when I turned the house battery off. So I assume the charger works even when its off. I also let the engine run for a few thinking the alternator would charge the batteries. Currently Im trying to research how to bypass the ats. This is a very unique and delicately connected electrical system. I am starting to understand it. The previous owner neglected to tell me much about the details of the all the systems. Thankfully, I have a friend whom is helping me. He is very skilled with diesel, plumbing, and electrical, and still has difficulty following these custom systems. So we spent 2 days reading all the individual manuals. Needless to say my brain and eyes hurt, but i think I’m starting get it. Hopefully after changing the fuel filter, water pump, and ats, i will be back to normal. This experience is definitely helping me learn more about my diagnostic abilities. I just need to research things before i let them get the best of me!
Any suggestions on a replacement ats or have any detailed instructions on how to bypass the ats?
Thanks
Lydiot!

[kenwyatt]

Congrats on what you’re done so far. The ATS usually has at least a couple of large 50 amp contactors that the electronics switches the power between the generator or the shore connection. Sense you said it trips breakers it may be a direct short. Look at both of them very closely. I have had them arc and develop a carbon track between the contacts or contacts to frame that’s hard to see but will trip breakers. If you could open it up and take a pic that would help. Contactors can be replaced for a lot less then the whole unit. If it is that you are looking at under a $100 I believe.

[kenwyatt]

Which breaker, Generator, Shore power pedestal or the breaker box inside the coach.

Also when you get a breath and a couple of more pressing items have you considered getting the fluids analyzed?

[kidz_driver]

Lydiot,
I recently by-passed the Todd ATS on our 1999 Diplomat. The Diplomat has a 50 amp service which means that there are two hot wires (the black and red), a neutral (white) and ground (green).

My first RV did not have an Automated Transfer Switch. What it did have was a receptacle connected to the generator and the shore line was connected straight to the electrical system. When you left a serviced site and disconnected from shore power, you plugged the shoreline into the generator receptacle. I wanted to replicate that simplicity.

To by-pass my ATS, I connected the generator output to a 50 amp receptacle and connected the shoreline wires to the load wires in the ATS housing.

On the TODD ATS, the left hand relay is the shoreline and load wires and the right hand relay the generator wires. I disconnected the generator wiring from the ATS housing and connected them to the 50 receptacle ($12 at Lowes) which I mounted on the wall beside the ATS.

I then disconnected the shoreline wires from the top of the relay and the load wires from the bottom of the relay and connected the respective colours together using the appropriate size wire connectors. I left the ground(green) wires connected to the ground bus bar since it also grounds to the chassis.

Now when I leave a serviced site, I plug the shoreline into the generator receptacle and can use the generator as before.

If the shoreline relay is still working properly, it may be possible to leave the shoreline and load lines untouched and just disconnect the generator lines and connect them to a receptacle.

On mine this worked but the relay was still energizing and humming fairly
loudly so I chose to by-pass it altogether.

Connected to shore power, there is 240V across the hot lines so exercise the appropriate safety precautions when working on the ATS.

Dave

[Lidiot]

Hey yall
Thank you so much for your help. I finally fixed it! It was the very first thing i checked, and the reason i took the inverter apart. It was the 2nd microscopic 1/8 fuse inside the freedom combi 15 hidden on the circuit board. The first time i checked it, it looked fine. Apparently my eyes just aren't what they use to be, and the fuse size was not in my favor. I knew the issue was something between the main breaker and the charger. So I installed the new quality solid METAL ats and successfully received power from both the generator and shore power. I still wasn't getting power to the rv unless I used the inverter. Since the inverter worked but clearly the charger wasn't. I had to start the engine and let the alternator charge the house batteries. So I though i needed to reset the dip switch setting thinking the charge function had been turned off. So disconnect the red cable on the inverter as well as the phone jack looking connecter to reset the inverter and remote. I left it off for a few hours while i checked the series and parallel connections on my 4 6V 232AH batteries and checked them with the multimeter. Then i made sure I had the correct information needed to properly set the dip switch for my batteries. When i plugged it all back in and set my remote, the inverter started buzzing. So i got my multimeter to follow the connection under the rv from the main circuit where the ats and charger are both wired. When i started measuring the voltage I started at the freedom 15. Thats when i learned the bottom 1/8 fuse on the circuit board inside the freedom 15. I don't think its recommended for people to do on their own, unless you really understand electricity, which is why its not in the manual for the freedom 15. I assume they would tell you to end it to a repair man, or buy a new one. I just research the hell outta things before DYI-ing them. If you don't know what to do you could get shocked or burn down your RV. It was a $1 fix vs $1000 fix, so I had no choice but to learn how to safely work on the electrical. I only got shocked one time in this week long project. Like for example, my friend hooked me up to 220 because it looked like a 229 plug, and the ats started smoking. Then he tried to bypass the inverter, without knowing there was a main breaker box in the bedroom. Its just hard for a women to tell a man that he is wrenching on something incorrectly. They just thought i was a nagging. Luckily that didn't do any more damage! He finally understood when i told him there was other breakers in the rv. I also installed my new water pump and my same friend got the old one working again too if anyone ever needs an og water pump. The new ats is amazing too. It uses dc coils so its super quiet! Now I have my house back! I can cook and take showers! Im still waiting on my fuel filter and will let you know if it restores and power so I can tow my car and maybe even my jeep, like a Cummings is supposed to. The fuel filter was sent back because the mail is busy rn. When i contacted them they said thay’d sent it to my parent’s house. Ill keep you all posted! Thanks again