1972 Chieftain Winnebago A.K.A 'Where Dogs Lie'

[legomybago]

Should only take 5-6 quarts of oil with filter (15w-40). Not sure where you read 9 quarts?

[LJ-TJ]

Hope this helps

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Opps; Nevermind   Memory must be going. 

Still, remember this is 440 block with 413 components mounted to it.  Figure 72 is the 413 setup

[moezart]

I'm figuring it should be in one of these plugs:





This guy on this link is saying that these truck 440's with drain plugs up front take 8 qts. My drain plug is up front.

http://goodoldrvs.ning.com/m/discussion?id=2093474%3ATopic%3A146260

Legomybago, you've done a oil change and can verify 6 qts? Dave?

Oh wait, I see the chart now. 6 qts, 7 with filter. Cool 

[CapnDirk]

Nope.  Those drain the water jacket and are located at the lowest point.  Boats will sometimes have a draincock in them to winterize the boat.

[moezart]

Well, shoot! The search continues for the location of the hole for the dipstick, cuz it doesn't have one for the moment. I guess I'll add 7 qts. Ino the meantime, the motor  is back together.



I ran out of time, and need to plug up the holes where the cruise control lines went.

[LJ-TJ]

I'll see if I can get you a picture tomorrow. It's a tough place to get into but I think I can climb under neath and get a pic for you. Hm?

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Something like this on a 440 block:

[moezart]

Sweet! Thanks guys. I'm running out to the RV right now. Nice looking motor Dave 

LJ-TJ, thanks for the info on the door hinges too! 

[legomybago]

You can see it in this pic. Lower right hand corner. Almost looks like the dip stick got broken off? There's something shiny there

[moezart]

Yes! I found it! 
It's capped off with an allen bolt. Just another thing to get on this broken down road trip.  W% I'm going to fill it with 7 qts. I picked up the HP-1 Fram filter, little bigger than normal. That's OK with me.

Again, thanks guys.

[legomybago]

Anyone have an idea why someone would thread and plug the dipstick port??

[TerryH]

Not a Dodge person, but I can see plugging the port during block cleaning and painting. Is it possible that the PO used an allen bolt as a plug? Maybe didn't tap the port, but used an on hand 'plug' and left it in place?

[moezart]

Well, despair is starting to set in. Before hooking up the battery, I put a test light to the positive side of the battery, and she lit up like a Christmas tree. I bypassed, or disconnected the generator leads. After process of elimination, I have found out that it's the big red lead from the solenoid to the underside of the dash It looks like a rats nest under there. When I drove it before I parked it here, the PO somehow wired the instrument cluster to turn on when you put the brakes on  Hm?

My brain is starting to hurt over all this.

I guess it's going to be nothing short of taking out the whole instrument cluster out of the dash.

I bought the online manaul. Can someone give me guidance on what page the wiring diagram is? So I don't have to sift through 500 pages?

[moezart]

Ok, process of elimination and pulled all fuses, plugged one in at a time, checked for test light to go off. It is has something to do with my taillight/stop fuse. Makes sense, I just installed new running lights on top. I guess I will disconnect one at a time to find my short. Shoot.

[moezart]

I found out its the blue wire coming from my taillight/stop fuse. I'm speculating that's my instrument cluster lighting. Shoot.

[LJ-TJ]

 :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao We laugh only because just about everyone here has been there. We really do feel your pain and frustration. However you are going about it the right way. It takes a pit but you'll get it figured out.

[moezart]

Thanks bud! I appreciate it. I might be laughing on the inside, but you couldn't tell by my grimace. It wouldn't be so bad if it was in my yard, but on a street with little time is nerve racking. I know I can do it. The amounting stress can start to do funny things to the brain though. Worse case scenario, I unplug the blue wire from fuse and start it up and move on.

If I get this beast to my destination, Montana, it would be cool to meet on the trail sometime? I don't know what part of Canada you are from, but I have family in Edmonton Alberta.

[Rickf1985]

The first thing I always did when a car came into my shop with an electrical short was to go under the dash and cut out any wires that had been spliced into the original harness. If it was not a factory wire then it is not needed to run the vehicle and I would worry about whatever it went to later. With these it is a bit harder because a lot of the times it is hard to differentiate from factory and Bubba but if it is obvious that it was patched in then mark it and cut it. This tends to eliminate 90% of the short circuits.  Also be extra sure to check all of your grounds because most of the front of that unit is made of wood and everything will have it's own ground wire.

[moezart]

This will be a lot of splicing.



The only way I know how to deal with this, is take it all out, and wire it up again.

Question here, I've looked on the Internet for this, and I forgot to take a picture of the way the alternator was wired, but I'm mounting the brown wire, voltage regulator ground, with the black wire, battery ground. When I do this, I get a short at the positive side of battery with my light tester? What am I missing?

CRAP!  D:oH! Battery is positive.

[LJ-TJ]

The reason I  :)rotflmao is I don't think there's anyone here that doesn't have their own rats nest. Oh can we relate. There was a chap here who had taken his hole dash out and was in the process of re wiring it who could have been and incredible help but I haven't seen him on in quite awhile. Sleeth. Hm?

[Rickf1985]

Moezart, Looking at your picture I do not see a lot of red flags there, it actually looks pretty good under there. Those blue "Boat" connectors are a flag. Those are not original and were added for some reason and are something that needs to be investigated. What they are is a connector that is used to add a wire to an existing circuit. And it is done in a very poor way, by cutting into the connection of the existing wire. This adds the load of whatever is on the new wire to the load of the original wire and a lot of the time this will cause blown fuses. So look at the wires that are added into the circuit, they will be the lone wire coming in, the original will be the one passing straight through. Try to trace that added wire to where it goes, or just cut it and see what stops working. You can add in a butt connector if absolutely necessary.

[Rickf1985]

http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php/topic,13432.msg0.html#new

Just in case you did not see it and you might be interested.

[classicrockfanatic]

you're not alone for sure. I just pulled my dash wires this last weekend. Only a few items seemed to work when I got it, and I personally think its faster to re-do it all, then chase down wires and add more splits.

[Rickf1985]

Now that one on the other hand has a whole LOT of those red flags (blue) in it!!!!