Getting our 1989 Winnebago Warrior 22EC ready for the road...

[rushton88]

Wow - you're lucky - someone cared enough to put zip ties on the major excess amounts of wire under there. On my 88 they just doubled it back and ran it around the steering column - again and again and again.  Do it right buddy. 

[Stripe]

the License plate looks like it reads Too Numb..  2NMB..   :)rotflmao

[engineer bill]

Stripe pointed out that my license plate reads "Too numb" and that was interesting. I didn't see that. I guess that means I may be numb. I'm not surprised. Years ago I was issued a license plate that read "3WAK666" some foolish people thought that it was a custom plate and that I worshiped the devil. Seriously. Moving on, there have also been many other encouraging posts, and I appreciate every one.

[kattkisson]

hello engineer Bill-
I have a 93 Warrior 22.  The build list is attached to the driver's side inside under the drivers side window.(mine is hanging on by a thread due to some old water issues)  It is also copied in the owners manual which was a three ring binder.

You have a different floor plan that year which I deem to be better than the fold down sofa that was in 93 and a few other years.  I reckon they changed it for some reason which I can't comprehend. I have found that the unit is just the right size for the 2 of us and even pulling a small car get 10mpg+-.  This is with TBI and I think you have a carb. In the 22's they used a higher axle ratio due to the lower weight.

Lots of trials because unit set for many years with water leaks.  This has been an issue with the floor as in my year at least it was just OSB with an aluminum under skin.  OSB and water don't mix. Have done a bunch of other work/modifications if you want to hear.  Just drop a line.
Ken Attkisson

[engineer bill]

My personal philosophy is to try to move forward on all fronts (including hobbies other than the RV) so we have been working on ride and handling issues, electrical issues and persistant air bag and tubing leaks. Despite all that, we really love it and are getting ready to take another short trip this coming weekend to Salt Point State Park here in California.

[engineer bill]

Also, I found a bracket, under the center dash above the dog house. The bracket was loose and these three  boxes were mounted on it. One box has to do with the wipers because a previous owner's wiper repair taps in to the harness in two places. The PO used green wire for every thing and you can see the wire taps in picture. Unfortunately, they did not wire through the wiper "park" switch (maybe broken?) so it's hard to stop the wipers in the right place.

[engineer bill]

The mess of wires up under the left side of my dash was something to behold. I finally found the time to start to make sense of it. Eventually I was able to shorten a number of wires and use a consistent consitent color scheme. After several hours of work I had teased out this mess of purple wires. I tested each connector for continuity to ground, always hot, accy switched hot, lights etc. Then, I tested each connection for continuity to each of the others. Nada. In the end I wrapped the whole bundle up, rolled it up and stuffed it wayyy up under the dash where I wouldn't have to look at it.

[acenjason]

Wow. I actually thought your snake nest looked good. I saw some fuses and everything My dash had two separate areas that had caught on fire. Electronics were arcing visibly though the gauges as I drove my beloved Winny home. Ah the remories......the flashes of light......that wire fire smell......good times! It has taken a zillion hours and thousands of dollars. I spent last night boondocking in the mountains. Its all worth it. And now you have a hobby ........well forever. Its a love affair...... Winnebago built my hotrod!

[HandyDan]

That larger whitish box under the dash is very similar to the cruise control box on my rig. 
Dan

[engineer bill]

I just recently added the fuse block, terminal strip and batt/accy/ground/lights taps so hooking up my upcoming gauges would be easier. My workmanship is just ok - I'm a little out of practice but at least it is safe.


The PO wiring that really scared me was the 10 ga (solid not stranded) house wire (not oil resistant) that was wired directly from the battery (with no fuse or circuit breaker) up to the dash wrapped around various metal engine components (including a motor mount) through a hole with no grommet, to the dash panel. Yikes!

[acenjason]

That looks sharp!

[engineer bill]

Have replace the house wire with appropriate 10 ga stranded wire and circuit breaker next to the battery. Have removed all coils of wire and wrapped up the apparently unused purple wires into an insulated bundle high up in the dash. As I repair the wipers, cruise and add my gauges, I will use my new fused terminal block attachments and good quality crimped connectors. I bought a good, professional tool for this. The terminal block connections will really simplify adding the gauges. I have already added a tachometer and a vacuum gauge with lighting. Installation of these was easy due to my preparation. Thanks you guys for the complements. You know who you are. Will keep you all posted on this as I move forward.

[engineer bill]

Thanks, I will be looking at the wires into the white box as I start look into getting the cruise working. (I only intend to use it on our very long sections of I5 where I have a tendency to not maintain my intended speed-driving faster than 60 mph or slower than about 50 mph.) I do understand from some helpful comments on this site that using the cruise in any hilly country will kill my mpg. By the way, I got 7.8 mpg on my last run of mostly highway with a small amount of hilly, curvy road. That's up from 4.6 mpg on my first tank after purchase.The biggest single improvement was subsequent to proper adjustment of my parking brake and replacing the parking brake warning light switch.

[sasktrini]

Agreed... I think terminal blocks would have been common sense from the factory to keep the system tidy and logical... hence why they are never there!  I haven't started on my dash wiring, but i like your idea.  Heck, I may even use one when I move around my 12V coach system.

[engineer bill]

Litttle white connector:


Have found this little white thing mounted on the bottom of the dash, way over on the edge on the driver's side. It is small-about 1 inch spacing for the mounting holes. It seems to have two terminals but the spacing is smaller than a fuse ~ 1/4". Have probe'd it with a multimeter and neither terminal seems to be "hot", neither is "ground" and the resistance between the terminals is ~infinite. I've made these measurements under various conditions, i.e. key off, key on, lights on, brakes on and so on.


Does anyone have an idea of what this is?

[eXodus]

looks like a plug for something. maybe a temp sensor.

[Rickf1985]

Do a search on that patent number, it may give a clue.

[engineer bill]

Do a search on that patent number, it may give a clue.

And the prize goes to Rick1985:
Patent #3143301. LAMP ASSEMBLY WITH RESILIENT MOUNTING FOR WEDGE BASED BULBS, filed Oct 5, 1961.


I popped in a bulb and now I have light on the driver's door steps. Brilliant! BTW, these days Patent searches are so much easier and cheaper (free) using google...

[engineer bill]

I have been plugging away at trying to repair intermittent & inoperative turn signals, hazard lights and brake lights for the last month but the last two days I have made a lot of progress.


1. I replaced the very cheap turn signal blinker and hazard blinker with new, HI QUALITY  "Heavy Duty" ones after cleaning the connector contacts with contact cleaner.


2. I removed the fuses for the hazard lights and the turn lights and replaced them with new, HI QUALITY ones. I cleaned the turn and hazard terminals in the fuse block with terminal cleaner. Then, I removed, re-inserted and wiggled the fuses about ten times. Voila, the Turn and Hazard Lights work now. (The heavy duty blinkers also help because they are much louder and so you can hear immediately when your wiggling gets to the sweet spot and they start working.


3. The brake lights were much harder. I checked bulbs, bulb sockets, grounding, wiring harness, chassis connectors, brake light switches (yes, there are two). I finally deduced something critical: since the brake lights/turn signals & hazard lights all use the same bulb, there must be some switching going on... More thinking, perhaps the switching is in the turn signal (checked chevy chassis manual and YES it is!) now from experience I know to check the simplest thing first... so, there is a wiring harness that comes out of the steering column down to a connector under the dash. Those must be the turn/hazard circuits right?. Maybe a circuit to the brakes would go through there on it's way up to and back from the turn switch. So, I disconnected the connector and cleaned it with contact cleaner and reassembled. That did it.  I now have brake lights.  (BTW, if you are trouble-shooting brake lights, I highly  recommend cutting a small piece of wood just long enought to prop between the bottom of the dash and the brake pedal. That way you don't need a helper.)

[HandyDan]

I never have a helper around when I need one.  It is amazing what one can do on one's own with a little imagination.  Glad everything is starting to come together.  I know what it feels like when you find a solution.  The planets all align and the bluebirds sing. 
Dan

[sasktrini]

   Nice turn of events!  Good work!

[Froggy1936]

Tip: Snap On & probably others make a spring loaded rod with rubber boots on ea end for holding the brake pedal down from the drivers seat , Also good for checking master cly seal leakage . Frank

[engineer bill]

Litttle white connector:


Have found this little white thing mounted on the bottom of the dash, way over on the edge on the driver's side. It is small-about 1 inch spacing for the mounting holes. It seems to have two terminals but the spacing is smaller than a fuse ~ 1/4". Have probe'd it with a multimeter and neither terminal seems to be "hot", neither is "ground" and the resistance between the terminals is ~infinite. I've made these measurements under various conditions, i.e. key off, key on, lights on, brakes on and so on.

Turns out the terminals are hot/ground only when the headlight dimmer is turned all the way to the "click" that turns on the dome light. Something to remember. BTW Sure would like to find a replacement lens for the dome switch up on the ceiling above the middle of the dash.

[engineer bill]

I had quite a shock yesterday: I opened the outside compartment that had the pretty nice tool set I had put together for the Winne, to get out a gallon of coolant. There was six inches of water in there! Hundreds of dollars of tools, mostly ruined. I worked for hours with WD-40 and rags to try to save what I could. Brand new DeWalt driver and two batteries-ruined. 12V air compressor for the leaky air bags-ruined. I worked late into the night with WD-40 and rags trying to salvage what I could. Most of the gear had been in these new canvas tool bags. Well, lesson learned there. Some of the things not damaged were Stanley. Good plating jobs on those.

[engineer bill]

I've been working to try to tease out the functions of the thirteen 20 ga wires that run out of the "Smart Stick". So far, I have the high beam/low beam working again.


Twenty-five years have wrecked the switch. Instead of Click-Click it goes Crunch-Crunch. I've looked high and low for an exact replacement and I'm pretty much convinced that there are none. (Lot's you have said the same thing.) It's a kind of odd bit in that the end of it is and "eye" that screws into the turn signal switch rather than fitting into a splined hole. The original switch had the following functions incorporated: high beam/low beam, cruise control on/off, cc set/-, cc resume/+, wiper on, wiper high speed, wiper low speed and a wiper delay function with a sliding button. I'd original looked into it because I wanted to fix the hi beam/low beam. Then, when I got into it, it seemed like I might be able to get my wipers back on track with the wipers "parking" when I turned them off rather than just stopping anywhere. (They had been butchered by the PO, probably when the Smart Stick broke.) These wires are clearly digital controls for the three electronics boxes up under the middle dash. Here are the wire colors:




/////////////////////////////

1 yellow, cruise?
2 green, cruise?
3 brown cruise?
4 red (Accy switched +12), cruise? also wipers + ?
5 pink (touch hot-hear click)
6 dark grey, wipers interm?   maybe try <12 for intermittant speed
7 black (touch hot = wipers low)
8 purple (touch hot = wipers low)


9 dark blue

10 white #1
11 white #2
12 orange #1 (touch to other orange = cycles high beams)
13 orange #2 (touch to other orange = cycles high beams)


/////////////////////////////


At this point, I'm sure I can get the basic wiper functions and the cruise control functions mapped to some other switches. I'd love to get the delay wipe working, but mostly just for the fun of it. It's obviously not necessary. I'm thinking of a couple of little aluminum panels with toggle switches mounted up under the spokes of the steering wheel. More to follow.