1967 Dodge Travco Build (Polly Luna)

TravcoJosh · November 10, 2014, 09:29 AM

On Friday we stayed up until 2am recovering the folding couch in vinyl. Carmen had been working hard on sewing it up and our hog rings had come in. I didn't get it 100% straight and I think in the next year or so I will pull it out and redo the foam. On Saturday we hauled the couch and the GMC dinette out to my mom and dad's to begin mounting them in Polly. We had to do a lot of trips to the hardware store and the dump so we lost a good portion of Saturday to the windshield. The GMC couch is a horrid orange and Carmen just couldn't stand it. So one of our trips was to Target for 2 shower curtains to use as covers. Carmen cut them up, pulled them over and hog ring'd them on to the frame.Today we cut some thick angle iron and started mounting the seats. We tried to run a piece of angle iron between two of the grade 8 bolts whenever possible. I burned up 4 drill bits drilling the metal but I got the couch, the dinette and 2 of the 7 seat belts mounted. The last time I drove the old girl the turn signals stopped working. I figured it was a blown fuse and I was right. Easy fix right....NOPE! Every time I turned on the right turn signal the fuse would blow. It wouldn't blow on the left signal, flashers, brakes or taillights. I did some investigating and determined the issue was in the signal switch. So off came the steering wheel (I love rent-a-tool programs) and sure enough there was a bare wire on top. I think all of my climbing under the dash last week fixing the dash lights and pulling on the steering wheel ended that little wire. Luckily there was no damage, so I taped it up and put it back together. Yay turn signals!
I went to run the engine to turn on the dome lights (no house battery yet and it was dark) and they wouldn't turn on. They had worked Saturday, but not today. The dome fuse was good, but there was 0 power making to the secondary fuse panel.This panel is fed off of a small inverter that is powered by the alternator and/or the house battery. I checked the output of the alternator at the big connection and 0VDC. I guess with all of the shorts on the turn signal it took the alternator out. Joy! At least it happened now instead of in the middle of the up coming road trip. Sorry, no pictures this time.

Rickf1985 · November 10, 2014, 09:53 AM

Most alternators will show battery voltage at that terminal even if it is not charging. You might want to investigate further and make sure you are getting voltage to the field terminal and also make sure the charging wire is connected correctly.

TravcoJosh · November 10, 2014, 11:21 AM

It was working Saturday night and then nothing Sunday. I'm heading over tonight to do more investigation. I think the first thing I need to do is to make sure that the IGN terminal is getting 12VDC with the ignition on. It is my understanding if I have voltage there and nothing on the Field terminal then the Alternator is bad. If not, I need to look for why I do not have ignition voltage.

TravcoJosh · November 10, 2014, 09:12 PM

I am getting voltage to the Battery Isolator from the Ammeter. I get full battery voltage with on the Voltage Regulator IGN when the wire is disconnected, but only 1.5VDC with wire hooked to the Voltage Regulator. If I jump the Batter Isolator to the Alternator circuit the house side 12VDC gets energized.

Jumping the IGN to the FLD did not make a change.

Rickf1985 · November 11, 2014, 06:52 AM

As long as the field wire is energized with battery voltage when the key is on then the alternator should charge the battery ant 14.3-14.5 volts. A fully charged battery with no parasitic loads may show less. If the alternator has a built in regulator you may have lost the regulator only. I forgot you are working on a pretty old unit and probably have a separate regulator. D:oH! I am kind of rusty on diagnosing those old systems but let me know what you have and I will shake the cobwebs loose. W%

TravcoJosh · November 11, 2014, 04:11 PM

Thanks Rick. I have a single field alternator with a mechanical voltage regulator. I'm fairly sure it is the alternator at this point. I think the battery being at 13.5 is high enough to cause the Voltage Regulator to short the IGN signal to ground giving me 1.5VDC when it is hooked up. By bypassing the VR it should have kicked out voltage and it does not.

There is a wire junction within 8 inches of the alternator and I have voltage here. I couldn't get a good connection on the FLD terminal itself so it is possible that there is an issue between the junction and the connection, but I didn't touch that.

Rickf1985 · November 11, 2014, 07:51 PM

I would guess the brushes are worn out. Sometimes tapping on the alternator while it is running will get it to charge for just a little bit, that is a dead giveaway for worn brushes. If you are going to depend on this unit for actual use you might seriously want to look into a more modern alternator. There are one wire alternators out there to fit almost anything and that should fit you bill. They are usually high amp models too.

TravcoJosh · November 17, 2014, 11:51 AM

Wow it's been a heck of a long cold weekend. Friday I fixed the charging issue by replacing the alternator, field wire and ignition wire. All were bad. Saturday I wrapped up the wiring, cut new brackets for the seat belts, mounted a cabinet door, temporarily fixed the bathroom door handle and mounted the dinette. Here are some pictures of the couch recover and installation
Before

Original foam

Added another layer of foam

Scrap fabric to protect the foam from the springs

Finished product

All loaded up and ready to go

Installed with seatbelts

Sunday I finished the seat belts and then noticed that the thermostat housing was leaking. The went out and got a new stat, housing gasket and sealer. Autoparts shopping is her new favorite thing, she tells the guy what she wants and they go get it for her. She loves it! While she was out I installed 2 more lights, fixed a wire to the license plate light and taped up the crappy trailer wiring install that was left with bare wires. I also fixed a couple of clearance lights that were not working and put the non operational clock in the factory hole. I honestly just got tired of looking at it, lol. I also installed some of the curtains the wife made. Btw she covered the dinette as well, she just couldn't stand that much 1976 in the rig. We ran out of time and money so the dinette is partially covered in Target shower curtains. Hey, they are water and mildew resistant right? I had to do some modifications to the seats as they came out of a GMC motorhome. I welded in some angle iron to one seat and made a center tab to attach the seat belt on the other
Preparing to add the support

Welds (don't laugh I'm teaching myself)

A center tab on the other seat, after this picture was taken I bored a hole for mounting the seatbelts. The bolt goes through the floor and into angle iron below.

Dinette installed with shower curtain covers.

While the wife was out I went to kick the old girl over to generate some heat and the battery completely crapped out. So when she got back from her running around I sent her back out. She got a new battery and cable ends. While she was out I installed the thermostat and gasket.
I re-tightened the valve cover and transmission pan bolts as both were leaking (I had gone easy in them when I replaced the gaskets a couple of weeks ago). I also installed the table.
If you've read this far then your in luck cause I'm almost done. With the new battery and cable ends she turned over like never before and the thermostat gasket didn't leak. I finished off the night by making a spare tire holder and a battery holder. Sorry no pictures of those, but here are some of the completed interior with my youngest daughter hamming it up.
Front looking back

Back looking front

All of this and we got 2.5" of snow on Saturday.

LJ-TJ · November 17, 2014, 01:22 PM

Looks like somebodies getting excited. Welds?

look pretty good to me. We all had to start some where. How do you think we got so smart. >GRIN<

Rickf1985 · November 17, 2014, 07:29 PM

A couple hints on the welding. Where you have your ground clamp be sure to grind it to bare metal. A good ground is needed for a good weld. And turn up the heat a bit on the welder.

TravcoJosh · November 17, 2014, 08:12 PM

Thanks for the Tip Rick.

pvoth1111 · November 18, 2014, 07:36 PM

The ground should also be close to the work....

Are you arc welding or MIG (wire feed)?

Rickf1985 · November 18, 2014, 08:16 PM

The distance on his ground is alright, that is mainly a high amperage DC thing where magnetic flux comes into play. And amperage loss if you get way far away. I'll bet he is using flux core wire feed from the looks of the spatter and flux smoke marking.
Here is a good site to learn some stuff about welding.
www.weldingtipsandtricks.com

TravcoJosh · November 18, 2014, 10:57 PM

Rick nailed it. It is a 220VAC wire feed with flux core wire. I ended up turning the power down on the tab because I was blowing through the seat metal.

TravcoJosh · March 24, 2015, 11:11 PM

New Video on the work done last year on the Ol' Travco.

https://youtu.be/lIWotNLZjYU

TravcoJosh · July 04, 2015, 11:06 PM

Went out to drive the old girl last week, we had reservations for the weekend and were exited to finally spend a couple nights in the old girl. While warming up in the drive way she died. Took some troubleshooting but I finally pulled the distributor cap and turned the old girl over. The points were only touching 5 or 6 of the lobes. The shaft was wobbling badly, without a replacement available I had to cancel our reservations.

I replaced the distributor last Monday and she was running great again. I have a new carb and two good exhaust manifolds to swap out and figured I would bring it out of my storage spot in order to work at it at home. I went out to get it ready on Friday and take it for its first drive of 2015, watch the link below to see what happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX-90gBuFug

Rickf1985 · July 05, 2015, 08:43 PM

Well you take that well I must say. W% What did you say OFF camera?

TravcoJosh · July 05, 2015, 11:31 PM

I have a feeling I would get banned if I repeated it here

I didn't get back over to the house this weekend, but hopefully next weekend I can try to figure out where my brakes went...again.

Rickf1985 · July 06, 2015, 12:47 PM

It takes a special person to make a video like that at a time when you more than likely want to throw things. Thanks for showing us how it SHOULD be done in the face of adversity.
Oh, And better to lose the brakes there than on the move! Is that a single stage brake system? I notice it went right to the floor like there was no second stage.

TravcoJosh · July 06, 2015, 04:30 PM

Thanks Rick

No it is a dual master cylinder and that is what's worrying me. I either have multiple leaks or my brand new master cylinder didn't last the winter. Or something else entirely (brakes went out of adjustment again on all 4 corners?)

TravcoJosh · July 06, 2015, 10:05 PM

Last weekend I grabbed some footage of the Generator firing up. I finally got around to editing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hu67Jz1_iA&feature=youtu.be

I cannot run it for very long as the fan belt is missing. I think there are a few screws and the guard will come off to allow replacement. But I do not know the size of belt that I will need. Anyone have an resources for Kohler generators that may have the belt size?

Oz · July 08, 2015, 11:54 PM

Please remember this is an instructional project board. If you have questions such as where to get a belt for the generator, use the message search or post a new topic on the appropriate message board. Others can benefit by doing it this way rather than having the info buried in what should be a "this is how I did it" topic.