Community Forums

Imperial1995 · 08-19-2021, 06:51 AM

So the suspect vehicle is a 1995 HR Imperial 37wds. Her name is Hilda. She has the 8.3L cummins 300hp on a Spartan chassis. Coming back home this past Monday from a trip up north we were 5 miles from home (luckily) and my power steering went out and temperature light came on (thermometer with wave underneath) with alarms like crazy. I muscled her over to a parking lot and found a trail of fluid and puddle under her where I stopped. Thought at first it was transmission fluid but was thinking why did power steering go out. From the research I have done I believe power steering and my fan pumps (hence the temp light) run on this fluid. I also believe it is transmission fluid or maybe a hydraulic fluid of some sort.
Looking for someone to confirm what I think I know so far and also to help me in locating the reservoir, as well as where to start looking for the leak. The whole under side of the transmission is wet with the fluid as well as other parts toward drivers side and forward. Back of the engine (coach) is dry. TIA!

jacwjames · 08-19-2021, 07:19 AM

From your description I would say you are on the right track.

If you have a side radiator it will have a fan driven by a hydraulic motor, this would explain high temp. There is also a pump for the both the fan and the power steering. On my coach the pump is mounted on the back of the compressor, passenger side of engine toward the front of the engine (which at the rear of the motorhome)

On my 2002 model there is a large 4.5 gallon reservoir mounted near the engine accessible by lifting the rear engine hatch cover. It is on the right side, easy to fine. Yours could be in a different location, you will have to trace hoses to find it.
The fluid could come from a hose, the fan motor, the pump itself. You will have to put ~a couple gallons of Dextron II in the reservoir to find the leak.

Report back as to location of leak and options to fix.

153stars · 08-19-2021, 08:08 AM

AFT and AW46 hyd. oil was used hydraulic PS and Jack systems. The Valvoline MaxLife is popular really inexpensive at Wal-Mart. Like said trace the lines to and from the pump on drive side of motor ,rear tank, cooler in radiator stack, fans and toward front to power steering. I have had hydraulic swivel fittings become loose or swivel fitting crack for no apparent reason. Many truck supply parts stores and Napa can make or repair hydraulic hoses .I would look really close at radiator stack to make sure it's not wet with oil you don't want to oil and dirt to collect. Sounds Like a bad leak should be too hard to find most likely hoses running over or near the trans but fans could blow oil all over as well. Look for rubbing against hoses as well.
When done or before wash everything done well.

shootist · 08-19-2021, 08:38 AM

You may have the pto pump, it is more in the transmission area. In any case an instant leak of that size has a high chance of being a hose. I'm guessing the pto style and not the compressor driven pump due to the red atf fluid. The compressor driven have engine oil in them as it can mix through the compressor.

jacwjames · 08-19-2021, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shootist

You may have the pto pump, it is more in the transmission area. In any case an instant leak of that size has a high chance of being a hose. I'm guessing the pto style and not the compressor driven pump due to the red atf fluid. The compressor driven have engine oil in them as it can mix through the compressor.

Mine is a compressor driven pump and uses Dexron ATF. But they are all snowflakes so who knows.

shootist · 08-19-2021, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacwjames

Mine is a compressor driven pump and uses Dexron ATF. But they are all snowflakes so who knows.

I think Monaco used atf for coaches sold in cold weather areas with the compressor driven pumps. ( I have no proof of this) I have read the seals in the fan motors can blow out with 15/40 oil in cold weather.

Imperial1995 · 08-20-2021, 12:13 PM

Well you guys were right. Blew the hose from the drivers fan motor to a union. Not rubbing or anything just blew through the sidewall. Also found my reservoir passenger side back by the engine. Now to soak the fittings and see if I can get them off. Also need to find this hose somewhere.

vito.a · 08-20-2021, 12:20 PM

I took my hydraulic hose into one of the larger NAPA stores and he made a new one.
Those large fittings on the end are very difficult to break loose. I bought a jumbo wrench set from Harbor Freight and used a very large hammer on the end.
There is a YouTube video where the guy uses an impact hammer on one side of the B Nut to break it loose.

Windecker · 08-20-2021, 12:32 PM

Double what Vito said.

Have the hoses duplicated. They can make them while you wait... Do note, if there are angles on the ends of the hoses, they need that angle duplicated also. Not just a 45 or 90 but clocking of those 45 or 90's on the new hoses...

Now so you can lose some sleep tonight (sorry to do this to you) but a pretty large percentage of the time, if the pump is ran dry enough to overheat the engine, the pumps tend to be trashed.
So, you have that going for you

Windecker

Quote:

Originally Posted by vito.a

I took my hydraulic hose into one of the larger NAPA stores and he made a new one.
Those large fittings on the end are very difficult to break loose. I bought a jumbo wrench set from Harbor Freight and used a very large hammer on the end.
There is a YouTube video where the guy uses an impact hammer on one side of the B Nut to break it loose.

Imperial1995 · 08-20-2021, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windecker

Double what Vito said.

Have the hoses duplicated. They can make them while you wait... Do note, if there are angles on the ends of the hoses, they need that angle duplicated also. Not just a 45 or 90 but clocking of those 45 or 90's on the new hoses...

Now so you can lose some sleep tonight (sorry to do this to you) but a pretty large percentage of the time, if the pump is ran dry enough to overheat the engine, the pumps tend to be trashed.
So, you have that going for you

Windecker

That’s exactly what I am going to do. Get wrenches from harbor freight.
As for the over heating engine I believe my alarm went off because the fan stopped. I don’t think engine actually over heated. I only went 5 more miles. Fingers crossed.

barmcd · 08-20-2021, 08:30 PM

I've changed all the hydraulic hoses to the fan and power steering from the hydraulic fluid reservoir. They all developed small leaks at one of the fittings. I haven't had to change any hoses from the actual pump yet.

Imperial1995 · 08-21-2021, 06:42 AM

Seems like every single trip something goes wrong. Being a 1995 it seems like there are so many items “about to go”. I know these coaches need constant pm’s but do you think selling this one and upgrading to like mid 2000’s would be better? I’m getting close to my wits end working on this thing. Maybe I should look at just going 5th wheel. I had a TT and never had to worry about issues like this constantly. I also have a manifold leak and exhaust leak around turbo. Probably not the right place to post that type of question but you guys seem knowledgeable and probably have experience with other coaches and rigs.

jacwjames · 08-21-2021, 08:39 AM

The age of the coach does result in more maintenance issues. Things that you'd never would wear out start to fail, you hose is a good example.

Can't give you advice on whether to move on or not, that's a personal decision and depends on your tolerance for having to work on the coach.

FWIW, I have a 2002 Windsor. It had been relatively dependable up until 2015 when we took a longer trip. We (I mean my wife) decided to build a new house and I ended up doing a lot of the work myself to save $$$. That's 4 years of my life I'll never get back and what was worse the motorhome stayed parked.

Earlier this year I decided to work on the rig, spent +6 weeks doing stuff including adding upgrade to the OEM fuel transfer pump and charging systems.

Took a 5 week trip starting in late June, the rig overall did OK until the last week so cut the trip short and have been working on it ever since.

So hate to say it but I guess I've joined your club.

RamiDav · 08-21-2021, 08:44 AM

Regarding those Harbor Freight wrenches, measure the large fittings you
plan to work on because one of the sets of wrenches they had didn't include the size I needed. Right now I can't recall for sure the size, but it might have been 1 1/4"

I don't like China stuff but for wrenches, I may never use again they worked perfectly and were cheap.

Ray 03 Windsor