Winter Vacation, 2015-16

[ClydesdaleKevin]

And a new chapter begins!  We are all done now with our 2015 Renaissance Faire season, and are now on vacation until the end of January.

As I write this, we have already begun our journey, having left Huntersville, NC yesterday afternoon, and working our way down to my sister's house in St Marys, GA to spend a week visiting, and doing some maintenance on the RV and whatnot.  We'll be there for about a week.  Right now, we are at a Flying J in St George, SC, where we staying the evening.

After the visit with my sis, we'll be heading west on I-10 to Arizona.  Our itinerary is totally up in the air this year...so where we end up and what we see along the way will unfold as we go!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

We drove a short hop, skip, and a jump to the Flying J in Brunswick, GA, exit 29 off of I-95.  My sister's place is exit 4 or 6, so we are pretty close, and not all that far from Florida.  Totally uneventful and everything is running great!

I'm loving the less than 2.00 a gallon gas prices right now!  First fill up was 75.00, and the second was 78.00.  Woohooooo!!!

We are going to stay the night here, so that we can roll into my sis's driveway early tomorrow.  Back into drydock...lol!  Time for some visiting, projects, repairs, and good old maintenance on a flat paved driveway!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Safe and sound, and all hooked up, in my sister's driveway!  We'll be here for a week or so.  We'll be visiting and working on projects of course.  Lots to do, but lots of time to do it in.

Kev

[Rickf1985]

You must not know how to act with no mud!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Right?  A level flat dry concrete driveway to work in...I'm in heaven!!!

Kev

[circleD]

Pfft N:( spoiled man

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So I got some projects done today!!! I put a new starter in the K5 Blazer, and then replaced the battery terminal ends and added a ground strap from the engine to the frame. I was cleaning and tightening all the grounds, and if there WAS a ground strap, I couldn't find it! So I added one...lol! And I made sure that the positive terminal connection on the battery was perfect. There is the main cable going to it, and the smaller cable from the alternator...so I soldered the two together for a perfect connection. I also bought a new speedometer cable and hood latch cable for it, which I'll install on Monday, since my mom is coming down to visit tomorrow. Unless I get up and motivated early enough tomorrow morning, in which case I'll do it then.

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

The speedometer cable is replaced on the K5 Blazer, as well as the hood release cable...and I fixed the radio for Patti while I was it (loose wire).  More projects will be done tomorrow as well!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Well...crap.  I pulled the generator today to repair what I thought was a loose exhaust pipe or exhaust manifold bolt/bolts.



It was surprisingly easy to get out once I disconnect the wires and undid the bolts.  It sits on a tray that comes out completely.  Fortunately my sister was throwing out an old cabinet that was the EXACT right height to slide the generator and tray out on to to work on it.





So I pulled the shroud cover off...



And this is what I found:





It looks like a clean break, not a rust through.  Probably because 2 out of the 3 exhaust hangers were missing!  I couldn't find the part anywhere...lots of exhaust manifolds for NHE series generators out there, just none that look like this one! 





The gaskets still look good all the way around, and no bolts are missing.  The manifold bolts came right out, surprisingly! 



So I'm going to go down to a muffler shop and see if they can repair this one by welding it back together since its such a clean break.  Its too bad that I couldn't find the right one anywhere, since they aren't ALL that expensive...from 70-170 bucks. 

Off to the muffler shop!  Wish me luck folks!

Kev

[Rickf1985]

It will break again right on the welds unless they stress relieve it directly after welding and even then there is no guarantee. There needs to be no stress on that part at all. I have seen and I need to find again modern flex pipe like is used on front wheel drive cars. That should be used to tie in the muffler to the manifold to isolate the motor vibration from the muffler and tailpipe weight. Can you get me a outside pipe diameter where it attaches to the muffler?

And that really should be tack welded at least while bolted to the heads or you may have a tough time getting them to seal.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Rick!  I knew the doom and gloom was coming.   

I went all over town and stopped at a WHOLE bunch of places...and finally found a place that specializes in custom motorcycle exhausts.  So they welded it up, and it looks like they did a pretty good and strong job. 









I tried flexing it hard, and it seems as strong as the rest of the pipe.  So good job welding guys!  After that, I bolted it back to the heads...everything lined up perfectly with nothing warped!





Then I had to bolt the air cleaner preheater shroud back on...



And then the shrouds...



And then while I had it out, I cleaned out all the dirt and debris that had accumulated in the tray over the years...



And then I slid the generator and tray back in, bolted everything down, and hooked everything back up...



And that is as far as I got today.  Here is the exhaust pipe and muffler ready to bolt back in.  The strap around the muffler is the one that was missing its hanger.  So I bought a hanger when I was out having the pipe repaired, but it was too long when I mock fitted the exhaust.  I went back out and got one that will work, but for now this is as far as I got.  Almost done!



Here are couple of shots of the exhaust manifold flange that the exhaust system bolts up to.  Easy to get to and plenty of room to get to the bolts.





And this right here is the mounting hole for the exhaust hanger that was missing.  It sits right over that big muffler strap.  I found a bolt in my bins that fits, so all I have to do is modify the hanger I bought tonight, install the exhaust, and call that project done.



So yeah!  Looks like it will work just fine!  Almost done!  So I'll finish this up in the morning, and then move on to more projects!

Kev

[Rickf1985]

Try to get me a size on the outer diameter of the pipes on the muffler if you could. And by the way, Mr. Doom and Gloom is a Certified welder with many years of arcing under his belt. I will say no more on that subject, as long as you are happy.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Its all good Rick!  If it breaks, you can tell me you told me so, and I can try to find a new one...although the prices I found are stupid high...like around 270.00 bucks!  It cost me 35 bucks for the motorcycle exhaust shop to weld it up.

When I'm installing it tomorrow, I'll take a measurement of the pipes and let you know what it is.



Murphy's Law has NOTHING on Rick's Law...lol!   

Kev

[Rickf1985]

I worked with Murphy for the last 15 years.  No joke! His name is Lionel Murphy and he is the other locksmith at the College where I just retired. We shared an office for the last 6 years. 
I can see where your short side exhaust gasket was leaking at the head, did you use new gaskets?

[DRMousseau]

Oh MY!!! I'll jus bet that was a bit noisy and such. It's amazing how quiet these things are with a solid intact exhaust system. I was able to further reduce noise by installing an insulated, noise reducing, baffle barrier on the inside of the air grill of the door. Of course I had the space to do such as my grill was locate horizontally above most of the genny rather than vertical as yours is.

Now maybe it's jus me and my personal experience,... but I couldn't help but to notice one of them damn plastic semi-clear fuel filters!!!! They jus scare the heck outa me, on anything but small exposed engines, where such fuel filters are always in plain view and any leaks or failure causes no hazard. Those things jus aren't intended for this kinda setup!!! And yet I find 'em to be common. I tend to replace them with solid metal can types and prefer threaded ones with solid metal fuel lines fitted properly. Ya might call it, "preventative medicine"!!! But WHY do I see so many PLASTIC ones like this, HOSE CLAMPED in such a manner???

I remember some vehicles with such a setup,... most notable was the early 70's Fiat X1/9,... yes, the little mid-engine 2-seater often seen in flames on the side of the highway. They chose to run a flexible fuel line from the tank (behind the passengers seat) to the carb directly over the distributor (behind the drivers seat)!!! Guess ya'll never looked in a rear view mirror while driving and seen roaring flames behind your head!!! Something you'll never forget!!! Had similar excitement on some motorcycles too, and those are small open setups! I've been very selective of fuel filters and lines, and still cringe when I see this.

But your exhaust repairs look satisfactory,.... for now,... or at least for a while,... errrr,... ya, you know,.... what Rick didn't say. LoL!!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

It looked that way to me as well, Rick...until I looked at it closer.  All that carbon buildup on that side was from the broken exhaust manifold pipe spewing carbon all over everything.  I reused the gaskets as they seemed to be in fine shape, and I properly torqued them down, so I should have any leaks from there.

And Doc, I change that plastic filter out once a year, and the fuel line every couple of years.  The one in use right now is exactly one year old.

Kev

[Rickf1985]

In all my years of racing and wrenching I have never seen one of those filters fail under normal circumstances. I have seen them in some pretty extreme circumstances and not fail. It is the line that fails much more often than the filter and it is usually because the line was tightened too much that was the cause for failure. If you were to attach the fuel line with metal line to the generator which pocks and rolls in there it would break in minutes. You have to have the flexible line. I also want to comment on your choice of vehicles you use for examples for fires, all foreign vehicles. Any mechanic knows that the fuel lines used by the foreign cars were questionable back in those days. The clear stuff with the braids in it? Got hard as a rock in less than a year and started to leak. VW fuel line was famous for breaking down over time. It was supposed to be replaced after five years but never was and fires were the end result. None of this was caused by the filters though. Basic maintenance is all it takes to keep the filters and lines safe.

As an example of how durable those filters are I raced the Baja off road race in 75, 76, 78 and 80 in the unlimited buggy class and myself along with just about every other competitor ran those clear plastic filters and I never saw a failure. Clogged filters thanks to Pemex gas but no failures.

[legomybago]

If I remember right...the air cooled vw's had a cloth/fiber covered rubber fuel lines? Is that right?
I've had a couple Type III's, and a couple bugs back in the day. Everyone of them I had to pull the motor out at one time or another! Fun to drive though.

[Rickf1985]

Yes, it was a braided cloth over rubber and did NOT use clamps from the factory.
Whenever we rebuilt a Porsche we immediately replaced all of the fuel lines with stainless braided Aeroquip lines with threaded fittings. No need for that on your coach but new hoses are a good idea if they are more than 10-12 years old. Keep in mind that there are two types of rubber fuel line. There is standard line and there is fuel injection line. The standard line is just as durable, it just is not designed for the very high pressures of a modern injection system. The injection hose is very hard to get onto barbed fittings. So save yourself the money and buy the standard fuel line. Get USA made and branded line and you will have no worries. Oh, And there are two types of hose clamps also, there are the standard worm clamps that we all know and hate and there are clamps for the injection line. The injection clamps are much nicer and clamp more evenly but I am not sure they clamp tight enough due to the thinner walls of the standard line and the fact that the clamp is made to stop at a certain point. Use the correct size worm clamp but only tighten until the rubber is flush with the holes on the clamp, do not tighten until the rubber is squeezing through the clamp. This is what causes failures.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

The muffler is installed, clamped up properly on hangers, and the generator is purring like a very loud kitten!  Even with no leaks, these things aren't exactly silent...lol!

Here is a picture of the lower exhaust pipe bolted up to the manifold flange.  I used a new bolt since one of them was pretty rust on the threads.



I had to get creative with the muffler hanging clamp.  The one that was on there was cracked.  I looked all over for one that would fit, and then found one that was a part of some sort of truck exhaust rain cap.  They sold me the whole thing for 10 bucks, and I used my cutting wheel to cut the clamp part off the rest of the unit.  Perfect fit!  The hanger is an inverted generic hanger...I flattened the end that would normally go under a U-bolt, drilled a hole in it, and then bolted it up to the mounting point with the rubber strap hanging down, most of it cut off.  Then the bolt from the new clamp went through it, sandwiching it between the ends of the new clamp.  Voila!  Perfect fit, and nice and strong but with flex from the rubber strap!



I reused the exhaust pipe strap, since it was still in good condition, even if it is ugly.



And here it is all hung up in place!  No more leaks and about as quiet as these generators get!



Putting out a steady 125.2 volts.  Seems a little high to me, but it works!



And Rick!  The pipes are 1.5 inches OD, manifold pipes and exhaust and all.



The rest of the day was cleaning up and getting ready for tomorrow's projects.  First I tried to locate just ONE Firestone 4100 airbag...and there was no way to get one here in time.  But I was able to get the whole kit from Summit Racing, and it should be here tomorrow...so I can replace the bad airbag before the long trip out west.  I also bought a Napa Gold oil filter and Mobile 1 full synthetic oil for the RV oil change, and a few things to make the oil change easier, like a catch pan that I can seal back up to recycle the oil.  I decided to go with Mobile 1 from now on, and just change the oil and filter once a year on the RV...which comes out to about 6000 miles or so between changes.

So lots more to do tomorrow!!!

Kev

[Rickf1985]

6,000 miles is a lot on a carburetted engine for oil changes. It is not bad on injected engines but they do not pass anywhere near as much combustion byproducts past the rings as a carb engine does. What I would do is go with the 6,000 miles but at 3,000 miles change the filter and just add the lost oil from the filter. Or if you are really cheap pour the oil from the old filter back into the engine, I would not do that myself though.

[DRMousseau]

Ya might be right Rick,... cheap fuel lines were the biggest hazard!!! And I cant believe ya never had problems with them plastic ones, especially the early plastic ones. Fragile, they cracked, failed at the seams, and deformed at inlets and outlets (either due to hose clamping or poor mounting alignment),... and the "it looks clean, why change it" attitude of most jus increases the problem of aging plastic AND LINES! Made of much better material today,... maybe they're alot different. But "once burned, twice shy", and still I avoid them for critical applications, and change 'em as often as oil for non-critical applications. Where I use flexible lines of necessity,.. they'll be threaded fittings and the best I can find. Jus me I guess.

And I've also developed a critical eye in foreign products over recent years,... some are great! Some are jus JUNK!!! Even common sparkplugs, once made right here in Michigan with consistency, are now manufactured in foreign countries with deplorable quality. They look and are marked familiarly,... but they're not the same as they once were.
 
And have ya'll noticed the greatest noise of these things is rushing from that grate underneath??? LoL!!! Ya insulate the cabinet, enclose it all, get the exhaust taken care of,... but that fan noise, DAMN!!! Jus can't escape it!!! Still,... these things are so much quieter than most any in the neighborhood here for a half-mile away!!! And quieter than my AC unit!!! Cant hear nothin inside when that's runnin!!!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

I was considering that, Rick...just replacing the filter about half way through the year and topping of the oil with fresh Mobile 1.  I use the Napa Gold filters, and even those aren't all that expensive.  Mobile 1 synthetic is supposed to be a darn good oil from what I've heard and read though, with no breakdown in viscosity or performance for up to 15,000 miles, so I think changing the filter at 3000 miles should do the trick.

Kev

[Rickf1985]

What is the best oil is a subject that will be argued until the end of time. I personally do not believe synthetic oils are any better than standard oils in a non-high performance engine. My professional opinion. They all use petroleum base oil and add synthetic additives where the standard oils use petroleum additives. There are full 100% synthetic motor oils out there that have no petroleum base oils in them at all, they are about 100.00 a quart! Isn't marketing a wonderful thing? I don't push one oil over the other because it starts a flame war every time. They all do the job they are designed to do. Here is the kicker. All American V8's are full flow oiling systems. That means all of the oil flows through the filter on it's way to the engine. Inside the filter there is a bypass valve that will open if the pressure gets too high in the filter allowing unfiltered iol through and on to the bearings.that valve will typically open on very cold starts or when the filter gets clogged, the theory being that dirty oil is better than no oil. The higher end filters tend to have better filtration, I know for a fact that NAPA filters are made by WIX, one of the best. Some of the aftermarket high end filters tout finer filtration media, this is not always a good thing since it means the filter will clog faster and then the bypass opens and ALL the oil goes through the bearings. This is why I say to change the filter after so many miles because on a hard working carburetted engine there is a lot of combustion gas and crap going past the rings and into the oil, it is the nature of the beast.

And just so you do not think I am against synthetic oils, there is a place for them in high performance engines that turn high rpm with high bearing pressures and temps. High heat and pressure is what breaks the oil down and you are not running into that in a motorhome. Again, it is totally your choice and the amount of miles you have and will put on yours proves whatever you are doing it is right.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Alright!  First I changed the oil and filter this morning...and while I was working on it, UPS arrived with my new Firestone 4100 airbags!  And I'm glad I didn't order just a single one.  You'll see in the pictures that Firestone changed the inlet design, so if I had bought just an airbag, I would have been SOL!

After changing the oil, I removed the Spectre air cleaner and washed it, and set it out in the sun to dry.  Still waiting for it to be totally dry as I type this, so that I can oil it and reinstall it.



Then I removed the faulty airbag.  And it was WAY harder to do than removing an old crusty dryrotted airbag!  In the following picture you can see the carnage...and some of the clamps I used to get all of the air out of the new airbag to install it.  Don't mine the green slime!  And that is exactly what it is...Slime!  It helped the airbag to hold air for almost a year...but stopped working, and thus this project.



I decided to only do one side, because the other side is good, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  Besides, the good side is only 2-3 years old.  So I have a spare airbag for future use, and a spare airline.



It wasn't easy, but I got the new one in!!!  WOW was it a tight fit!  A few bloody knuckles and cuss words, but getting all the air out of it, and then using the clamps to hold it in a folded taco position while installing it with plenty of dish soap, and it is in and inflated!!!



Here's a gratuitous picture of the older side, still holding air.  I've never had a problem with this side.



The next two pictures show the design change Firestone made.  Maybe I wasn't the first one to have the old design leak around the ferrule!  The new one has a built in Schrader valve, with a 90 degree elbow built onto the end of the air hose.  The old one had a push in valve/ferrule on the bottom, and you had to piece the hose together with an elbow.





Both sides are holding air, inflated to 70psi.  SWEET!  After I clean up after today's projects, hopefully the air filter will be dry and I can oil it and reinstall it.  Then I have to run down to the autoparts store to get a double barbed fitting and some hose clamps to repair my portable air compressor hose...I borrowed my brother-in-law's for today's projects, but I don't like to be without a working one while traveling.

And that will conclude today's projects!  Tomorrow we have to run down to the Florida DMV (we are right over the line, so the DMV is about 12 miles from here) to renew the registrations on the RV and the Blazer before they expire on 1/11.  And then back to my sister's place to work on the electrical.  I have to fix my windshield wipers and figure out why they stall out...which sucks when driving in the rain...and figure out why my low beams suddenly stopped working.  I'm hoping those are just burnt out bulbs, since I did go with the super bright performance ones, and they don't last all that long. 

Busy busy!

Kev