Getting OLD !!!! or Let the Pro's do their thing....

I spend this past week end replacing a starter on my MH. Simple job and I have replaced plenty of starters ...... in my younger days. The years needless to say have not been kind. The last 10 years I have spend mostly sitting behind a desk keying on a computer ( I do payroll for a large department here at Duke ). My eyes just ain't what they use to be and my belly is way more than it used to be.
Needless to say after many hours of grunting pushing and pulling and other quite interesting manuvers, low and behold a new starter had been installed. A few test cranks and all is well correct ..................... NO. I started on an afternoon jaunt over to my mechanic brother in law for a little instruction on the game of "where is the radiator drain plug". about 7 miles from the house I lose all power and started hearing a large back firing from the engine. After about 45 seconds I am sitting on the side of the road wondering what is wrong. That is when I noticed smoke coming from the battery compartment yes the engine battery had blown up and was burning. It was limited to the battery compartment as far as we know at this time and the house battery sustained only a minor scorch to the wire schroud no burns on the wire itself. It seems that I probably missed one of the wire shields that keeps the solenoid wire from bumping/rubbing or in other ways touching the manifold, this caused the insulation to melt and create a dead-short to the battery.
The MH is now sitting at the shop waiting for the experts to inspect and fix anything missing during the starter installation ( if it did not kill it and require yet another replacment ) rerunning all main wires and other sundry repairs that be needed.

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST BEST TO CALL THE EXPERTS. I would not have done this if the starter had not completely stopped working but alas I did, and now reap the monetary costof having work done over as well as mess that was created.

Getting older is not for the timid.

Getting old was fun, being old sux.

On a more serious note...  I would probably do the same as you if the starter were proven bad and the alternate choice was a tow plus starter replacement.  I do have three able bodied sons in the area to call on for physical help.

29er said:

Getting older is not for the timid.

Click to expand...

Ron Ruward kept reminding me today "that growing old is not for sissies".

Jim, thanks for the word from Ron...

I am forced by old age and bad health to hire it done.  I wish it were not so but I am not ready to stop and give up just  yet.  I fear that once I stop I will die.  I still love planning trips, getting the trailer ready to go.  Having my truck detailed and trailer washed so I still look good going down the road and while in RV parks.

Every time I do anything physical I pay for it with sore muscles and joints for a few days.  Not worth the hassle.

Now if I could find someone to cook and do laundry. But that would prove I am just lazy.  ;D

I've been telling people that I'd like to find the moron that came up with the "Golden Years" term - that I'd kick his butt.

But in reality, I probably wouldn't have the strength or energy - I'd have to hire  someone to do the job for me.

adun015 said:

I spend this past week end replacing a starter on my MH. Simple job and I have replaced plenty of starters ...... in my younger days. The years needless to say have not been kind. The last 10 years I have spend mostly sitting behind a desk keying on a computer ( I do payroll for a large department here at Duke ). My eyes just ain't what they use to be and my belly is way more than it used to be.
Needless to say after many hours of grunting pushing and pulling and other quite interesting manuvers, low and behold a new starter had been installed. A few test cranks and all is well correct ..................... NO. I started on an afternoon jaunt over to my mechanic brother in law for a little instruction on the game of "where is the radiator drain plug". about 7 miles from the house I lose all power and started hearing a large back firing from the engine. After about 45 seconds I am sitting on the side of the road wondering what is wrong. That is when I noticed smoke coming from the battery compartment yes the engine battery had blown up and was burning. It was limited to the battery compartment as far as we know at this time and the house battery sustained only a minor scorch to the wire schroud no burns on the wire itself. It seems that I probably missed one of the wire shields that keeps the solenoid wire from bumping/rubbing or in other ways touching the manifold, this caused the insulation to melt and create a dead-short to the battery.
The MH is now sitting at the shop waiting for the experts to inspect and fix anything missing during the starter installation ( if it did not kill it and require yet another replacment ) rerunning all main wires and other sundry repairs that be needed.

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST BEST TO CALL THE EXPERTS. I would not have done this if the starter had not completely stopped working but alas I did, and now reap the monetary costof having work done over as well as mess that was created.

Click to expand...

UPDATE:
Just received a call from the shop and found that only 2 wires ( short runs ) in the battery compartment on the chassis battery and 1 short run to the starter solonoid had been damaged but other than the battery, which has been replaced,  all is well. I also have them taking care of a heating situation I was having. Seems they found that the radiator clutch fan was bad and not pulling air. Now this has been replaced and I asked for a Radiator flush and T-Stat replacement. Air bag replacement is being put in and top clearance lilghts will be checked as there was a short in them. Having the last few things checked on the dash A/C and a charge completed using the Freeze12 freon. I know this sounds like a lot of stuff but if you have been keeping up with my continous exploits in getting the MH ready this is like the light at the end of the tunnel. so YEAH !!!!!

UPDATE // Very interesting for older RV's
We took the ole' girl out for a week-end and was pretty satisfied. All systems worked fine with some small troubles.
We did experiece a bit of heating even after all of the heating system work we had done. I decided that it was time to pull the radiator. Now this is not a job for the weak of heart. I did my research and was prepared for the worse. It seems that some can only be removed from underneath but not the case with our P30 chassis. It is accessable from the front. BUT you have to pull the grill, Auxillary cooler, A/C condensor, various mounting brackets. It took about 3 hours for the total radiator pull and was surprised that there were no visible leaks anywhere. Now for the good part. We determined that if we could not get by with a rod out we would look into replacing the core as a replacement radiator could not be located. This bad boy is like hen's teeth. I started checking around with local radiator shops for pricing on a recore and got the sticker shock of a $600.00 est at the least. Well guys that is fast approaching the cost of a new 4 row radiator and aluminum at that. I did have a problem because the current radiator has an internal transmission cooler & Engine oil cooler that would be required and most had one of the other but not both. Well not to be "fleeced" so to speak I kept looking and finally found a radiator shop only 30 miles away. After speaking with the owner I began to feel that there were still some good people in the world. He quoted me a top end to recore the radiator of $350.00 which to me sounded great, but alas needed to complete measurements on the current radiiator to confrim.
I got back from his shop about an 1 1/2 ago with the best news to date regarding this MH project. He inspected the radiator and ran a pressure check and found that the radiator was in great shape just clogged up. He advised a boil out and rod out and thought that is all that would be required ( thank the Lord for honest people ). He could have taken me to the cleaners because I was prepared for the recore. His quote was ........................$65.00.  with an est of time of " I should have it ready this afternoon but by tomorrow at lunch at the latest "
Good news for me, at least so far.
Now for the owners of the older MH with the P30 454 combination. This guy showed me two other radiitors almost identcal to mine except for the fill cap location. He pointed out a white looking film over the entire inside core, tank side ( tank had been removed exposing the copper core ). He said this is due to a low quality solder that was being used in the mid 80's causing premature radiator failure. It would cause the radiator to weep. You would run hot find that the coolant level was low refill and it would run hot again shortly afterwards. The radiator around the solder would weep coolant that would evaporate and leave no trace of the pesky leak. So you would think the radiator was fine and start tearing into every thing else trying to locate the leak. Only way to locate this problem is to pull the radiator and have it checked.
He was also very concerned about thermostat replacement and advised using only a good USA made t-stat.
Anyone thinking of a radiator repair within driving distance of Burlington N.C. I would suggest giving this guy a call. He is one of the few left around this area and seems to shoot pretty straight. C&L Radiator Burlington N.C. (336) 227-3957 and ask for Mark. The only down side is you will have to remove the radiator yourself or have a shop pull it for you and bring it to him. He does not do the removal piece. But still considering the cost a good replacement for some of these MH going from $6c up to $2k this is a very good sound alternative. Even if you have to do a recore you know the fit going back will be perfect and it allows you to up the cooling rows if applicable.

Not only have I gotten older, but I am now a solid memeber of the "over the belt gang".  I dont crawl under things as easy as I used too.....its either that or they are making all types of vehicles a lot lower to the ground than they used too.... ;D

Dave Stringham said:

Not only have I gotten older, but I am now a solid memeber of the "over the belt gang".  I dont crawl under things as easy as I used too.....its either that or they are making all types of vehicles a lot lower to the ground than they used too.... ;D

Click to expand...

Ran into that problem and found a way to remove the lower guard then raised the jacks so I could get under there and pretty much sit up into the engine compartment. Still it is tight and the "Dunlop disease" is not much of a help these days.