So, I've got an idea to test the functionality of the motorhome's sending unit and transfer pump. With the reverse lights being out at the moment and it being 28 years old, I have to consider that it has bad grounds. What I'm going to do is I've seen these Y branch wire connectors in my Chevy HHR's hitch wiring harness made by Reece. They're blue and you feed a whole wire through one slot, then a terminated wire along another, bring down a plastic arm with a metal piece that snaps to the side and bridges the connection. I'm hoping that I can find a box of these somewhere, but the search hasn't gone well. Afterwards, I can take off the connector, tape the cut in the through wire and that's it... it's pretty clean.
But I got to thinking even more... what if the positive wire is broken, perhaps inside it's shielding somewhere? Well, if I use my portable battery jump box, I could a lighter plug into it and get a 12v positive and negative wires out of it. Wire the negative to a ground with a gator clip then place an in-line fuse on the postive wire on it's way to the component. Now the fuse box is probably only going to have one fuse for both the high pressure and the transfer fuel pump. I figure that to keep it on the safe side, I could start with the smallest fuse in the in-line first and work my way up to whatever's in the block. If the temporary ground and the positive don't work, I'll know for sure that the unit is bad and then I'll go about dropping the fuel tank and possibly removing it.
I'm not getting a signal from the sending unit on my gas gauge either. Hopefully this might "spark" some life into it. It's all in the interest of doing the least invasive/ least costly thing first.
If I drop the tank, I will then know for sure if it's a combination sending unit/ transfer pump. And would the transfer pump be electric, or mechanical? After having it down, I should have enough information to go back to Summit Racing in-person and perhaps order a new one?
With replacing the high pressure pump recently and only getting it to go from 40 to 90 minutes without hesitating uphills, Then sending it into the shop and getting a Code 95 stating that the transfer pump has a bad ground, I'm pretty convinced that the transfer pump is it. And thinking that, if that's out and the gas gauge is too, that it's very likely that this is electric and a combination unit (without even looking at it).
With the transfer pump on, it will be time to determine if the motorhome can dolly my car. The motorhome has a V8 351 Windsor motor. The length of the motorhome is 25ft and it's weight is 11,600lbs. It has a Class III hitch. The combined weight of the dolly, car and gear is 4,100lbs. Without a manual, I'm unable to determine what's it's towing capacity is and it's door sticker doesn't state it's Gross Combined Weight Rating GCWR. The weight rating sticker on the hitch is missing and the operators manual doesn't have it.
There's a nuclear option to all of this. I'm a spend a holic. And saving up for the motorhome and everything I've done so far to it, I'm not ready to give it up. The nuclear option is to buy another Ford Econoline cutaway like this, use it's sender, then get a storage unit temporarily, chop it up and sell it on ebay. That will be saving the engine and transmission for myself of course. My current motorhome, it just has a 1988 70,000 engine in it. It still has a good under body and I'd prefer to have those rebuilt.
The air pump check valve has separated from the right bank smog tube. Some of these valves look like they had a pipe extending it that mounted to the smog tube. The current tube has a hollow bolt ceased to it. And I can't torque it out, or I'll twist up the smog tube. I got to thinking that I could mount a replacement valve that I currently have and use pipe from the home improvement store, then JB Weld it to the bolt and seal it up?
I use gNotes on my Android based smartphone to record everything about my motorhome. Including tires sizes, their age, light bulbs, size and number of exterior cabinet locks. gas tank dimensions, clearances, where all the keys go, what size are the marker lights, etc... I just keep adding things to it.
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