Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 29,999
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iFlyNothing
So, more on this weekend's fun.
Really it starts Friday with wrenching on the toad (Land Rover Discovery). I went to go change out the air conditioning compressor and then found that both the fan clutch and the water pump bearings were wiggling, so both needed replacement. I got the air conditioning itself working and blowing cold (no leaks, at least at this point), but those parts had to get ordered.
Then the aforementioned broken bolt started off my Saturday. Well great, that means now I need to dig into things further. It went more or less like this:
Once I got the water pump tensioner off, I decided it looked like it needed to be replaced. Of course that couldn't happen until I drilled out the bolt (still not done). Fortunately the water pump itself seems good, but the belt is definitely old, could even be original. No wonder it was loose, I'm almost surprised it hadn't snapped. The main serpentine belt was very obviously changed - no cracks and looks newer, so whoever did that was just being lazy. The reality is the water pump belt is the most important belt on the engine, whereas the bus can drive just fine without the serpentine belt (although if you aren't moving forward you might overheat since that does spin the cooling fan).
With the main belt off, I found that the alternator bearing was making noise, and the AC compressor would barely spin (this is with the clutch not engaged). I had been having alternator issues last year and I had planned on removing both it and the AC compressor in favor of new alternators to bump up the amperage capacity of the system. So, I guess now is the time to do that.
Getting the alternator off wasn't bad, but it had clearly never been touched in the 21 years since this thing left the factory. It didn't owe me anything, that's for sure, but the lower (long) bolt was clearly put in at some point earlier in the build process, before the turbo inlet and maybe even before the turbo, as the head was facing back towards the turbo. My options were remove the turbo inlet or grind off the bolt head. I chose option 2.
The AC compressor was supposedly replaced 5 years ago per receipts I had. That was 100% BS there. This thing has never been out of the RV. I wished those bolts that held it in would snap off, but they didn't and fought me every 1/12th of a turn to get them out. I earned a few bruised knuckles on that.
So unfortunately I have some unplanned projects now to finish up while getting the RV ready. On the other hand, you could say it's fortunate that I have those since alternately I probably would've had a breakdown on the road.
I'm still trying to fully understand the charging system, but the way I understand it is that the single alternator that was on there had a couple of diodes where the positive cable split off and then charged both banks of batteries (house and engine). At 160A this was undersized for what the inverter (2000W) can do. Also, what I found would happen is that the engine voltage would get drawn down if I had a high inverter load, which really isn't ideal for the ECU, headlights, etc. Since I have another pad getting freed up, my intent is to put two alternators in place and have one alternator drive each bank of batteries independently. Since there's a relay that will tie them together if I want, I can still connect them if need be, and the generator can also always provide power too. But I think this probably makes for the best overall system. It simplifies some wiring, and gives me lots of backups when on the road.
If someone can/wants to talk me out of it, feel free.
Out next planned trip is about 3 weeks away, so there's still a good amount of work to do between now and then. Once the thing is running and driving, I do want to also get it up to an exhaust shop to get the exhaust replaced as that's pretty rusty. I could put that off if need be as I don't think it'll fall off on the next trip, but I'd rather get it done if possible. I won't get the front AC done like I'd hoped, but that's fine as that doesn't cause any problems really. The shower is the last big project to do really, and while that will be some work, I know what that work needs to be.
Really it starts Friday with wrenching on the toad (Land Rover Discovery). I went to go change out the air conditioning compressor and then found that both the fan clutch and the water pump bearings were wiggling, so both needed replacement. I got the air conditioning itself working and blowing cold (no leaks, at least at this point), but those parts had to get ordered.
Then the aforementioned broken bolt started off my Saturday. Well great, that means now I need to dig into things further. It went more or less like this:
Once I got the water pump tensioner off, I decided it looked like it needed to be replaced. Of course that couldn't happen until I drilled out the bolt (still not done). Fortunately the water pump itself seems good, but the belt is definitely old, could even be original. No wonder it was loose, I'm almost surprised it hadn't snapped. The main serpentine belt was very obviously changed - no cracks and looks newer, so whoever did that was just being lazy. The reality is the water pump belt is the most important belt on the engine, whereas the bus can drive just fine without the serpentine belt (although if you aren't moving forward you might overheat since that does spin the cooling fan).
With the main belt off, I found that the alternator bearing was making noise, and the AC compressor would barely spin (this is with the clutch not engaged). I had been having alternator issues last year and I had planned on removing both it and the AC compressor in favor of new alternators to bump up the amperage capacity of the system. So, I guess now is the time to do that.
Getting the alternator off wasn't bad, but it had clearly never been touched in the 21 years since this thing left the factory. It didn't owe me anything, that's for sure, but the lower (long) bolt was clearly put in at some point earlier in the build process, before the turbo inlet and maybe even before the turbo, as the head was facing back towards the turbo. My options were remove the turbo inlet or grind off the bolt head. I chose option 2.
The AC compressor was supposedly replaced 5 years ago per receipts I had. That was 100% BS there. This thing has never been out of the RV. I wished those bolts that held it in would snap off, but they didn't and fought me every 1/12th of a turn to get them out. I earned a few bruised knuckles on that.
So unfortunately I have some unplanned projects now to finish up while getting the RV ready. On the other hand, you could say it's fortunate that I have those since alternately I probably would've had a breakdown on the road.
I'm still trying to fully understand the charging system, but the way I understand it is that the single alternator that was on there had a couple of diodes where the positive cable split off and then charged both banks of batteries (house and engine). At 160A this was undersized for what the inverter (2000W) can do. Also, what I found would happen is that the engine voltage would get drawn down if I had a high inverter load, which really isn't ideal for the ECU, headlights, etc. Since I have another pad getting freed up, my intent is to put two alternators in place and have one alternator drive each bank of batteries independently. Since there's a relay that will tie them together if I want, I can still connect them if need be, and the generator can also always provide power too. But I think this probably makes for the best overall system. It simplifies some wiring, and gives me lots of backups when on the road.
If someone can/wants to talk me out of it, feel free.
Out next planned trip is about 3 weeks away, so there's still a good amount of work to do between now and then. Once the thing is running and driving, I do want to also get it up to an exhaust shop to get the exhaust replaced as that's pretty rusty. I could put that off if need be as I don't think it'll fall off on the next trip, but I'd rather get it done if possible. I won't get the front AC done like I'd hoped, but that's fine as that doesn't cause any problems really. The shower is the last big project to do really, and while that will be some work, I know what that work needs to be.