2016060401

I took my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome [with a 1988 Ford Econoline 350 (E - 350) cutaway] out for a drive on some some roads that had approximately 50 - 100ft elevation gains and after about 40 miles, it still had the same old problems accelerating and going up hill. It's definitely getting weaker. It almost barely made it back to storage.

About a mile from it, I barely made a turn on to a road on flat land and then into a parking lot.  I shut off the engine then realized that it cocked in the parking lot. Thinking that I was going to sit at the bar until the wrecker came, I turned the engine back over, but it in reverse and it started acting normal again.  At that point, I left, "made a run for it" and got back to the storage facility without a problem.

But out of curiosity, I put my hand on the hood and felt that it was hot. Now my temperature gauge in the cab has always read that it's been in the "normal" range. But there's two possible problems. One is that it's a 28 year old American auto. The other is that one of those dead mud dabble straw nests is insulating the sensor and fooling me into thinking everything is fine.

I can rule out the cooling fan because it's not electric. Instead it has a housing on the belt system that would have to run all the time.  Tomorrow, I plan on checking the levels and east color before I replace the fuel pump.

Lastly, with my new Insignia 6ft Coiled Car Charger MicroUSB, the Tablet held its charge. I couldn't measure the devices amperage because the battery was at 100%.  It runs on 12 watts and 2.4 ampres.

Log 2016060301

When I get auto parts for my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome, I get them for an '88 Ford Econoline 350 (or E-350) Club Wagon.  The only thing that I'm concerned about is getting brakes

Without an actual Econoline 350 Club Wagon at my disposal, from what I can gather online, they should weigh about 7,000lbs.  My motorhome weighs 11,500lbs.  Which means that the same 351W engine is carrying 4,500lbs more without towing anything.  The best manual that I could find was for a '93 Sundancer and it stated something like a tow capacity that was similar to the back axle's weight of my '88.  But when subtracting the numbers on the door panel, that only comes to 500lbs.  But it came with a Class III hitch. All you need for 500lbs is a I, or II.  I'll find out tomorrow if I should even consider dolling the car?

Log 2016060301

The fuel filter for my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome is on the bottom.  And I believe that it's fuel pump on on top.  Don't quote me on the fuel pump as my HHR's is on the gas tank and I still need to put a few more hours in just exploring the Ford Econoline 350 side of the motorhome.  This was directly under the driver's seat on the inside of the beam on the driver's side of the frame.  I'm somewhat slender and I drug my back along the ground under the driver's side runner board to get to it.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough room to get a better shot, but this is looking from the front and to the rear of the vehicle.  The fuel filter is strapped to that triangular piece with a hose clamp feeding through it.

I changed the fuel filter on my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome.  Because I'm slim enough, I was able to do it without putting it on ramps.  But the #1 & 5 spark plugs were in an awkward place.  They're on the engine block just forward of the firewall.  And the only way I could see them was through a hole in axle.  They're angled, so if I managed to get them off, I'm not sure that I could get the replacement's back on and not cross thread them.  I might be able to do this in the future, but right now, I think that I'd a mechanic.  But with some appointments coming up, I might try anyways?

I didn't have enough time to do a full road test today.  But the auxiliary generator easily turned over.  Since that piece of equipment is in back of the gasoline tank, it seems that the fuel line for it must be over 20ft long to meet to meet the fuel filter?

I guess so...  Both engines run much cleaner.  But with running out of time today, I'll have to put it on a shakedown cruise tomorrow.

Log 2016060301

A new fuel filer on my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome was installed at 70,496.7 miles on the odometer.  The old one did have a lot of dirty gasoline in it (it was filthy).

2016060201

I sprayed a bunch of old wasps nest under my 1988 Itasca Sundancer 25ft motorhome.  It's possible that there might have been 20 of them active on the under body at one point.  It would have taken an exterminator to get rid of them when they were live.  And they can be a bit hard to get rid of.  I'm very careful and I'm watching to see if one of them reanimates.  I have a little league tee ball bat, but sometimes it's just difficult to reach them with that.  what I need is a 4ft long 2x2, cut at an angle on one end and blunted on the other.  Most of them are mud dabbers with their straws, so they have to be scraped off.

Wait a minute... (they're mud) they could be washed off.

I just bought a 2 sets of Rhino Ramps rated at 16,000lbs per set.  The motorhome is only 11,500lbs.  When I was taking them to the register, one of the employees at the auto parts store said "you know that each of them is a set, right."  But he probably didn't know that I was lifting a motorhome with duallies (my motorhome is a 6 wheel vehicle with 4 in the back, or two on each side) on the on the back axle?

I got those because the rear axle is too low for me to crawl under far enough to see the front of the gasoline tank.  I went looking for the fuel filter earlier.  I couldn't find it.  Then I went looking for the fuel pump... I couldn't find that either.  From what I've heard with F-150's of this area, the fuel filter should be about 1ft behind the area where the driver's side seat mounts.  That would be nice if it's there, but I have ChiltonsDIY as my repair manual and it's on the Internet only.  It doesn't have many pictures.

I purchased an external wireless keyboard and touch pad combination for my laptop so I don't get it's keys dirty.  The auto parts store said that it could take 6 days for me to get a Haynes manual for the Econoline.  I'm not even supposed to be here now.

All I have to do is follow the fuel lines from the gas tank (pending that I can get close enough) towards the engine and I will arrive at the filter somewhere.  It will be nice to finally have it changed.  I normally work on the motorhome at my storage unit.  But lifting it there is out of the question.  It's an uneven dirt surface and the management doesn't want me doing it there.  So, I'm going to squeeze it in to another driveway and lift it there.

Because of it's age and the fact that I haven't seen the rear brakes yet, not knowing where the mechanism is, I'm not too sure about the parking brake cable.  But I have chalks and they'll work fine on the front wheels when the back end is up.  And then I believe that the transmission will hold it from there.

While I'm there, I might have a second person to help feed the spark plug wires, too?

2016060102

My Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (tablet with Verizon cellular signal) is experiencing a slow drain about about 1% battery per every 20 minutes or so at an average 210mA charge with the screen jammed on.  The active applications running are:

Pandora Internet Radio
Locus Pro (mapping app)
Screen Manager (the screen jammer)
Ulysse Speedometer (my 1988 motorhome doesn't have a trip tick)

It's tethered to a bank of the weakest front side USB ports on my desktop computer.  These ports are wired to a connector that inserts into some pins on the motherboard.  They're not soldered like the back side ports are.  This is a good test because I know that the ports in the motorhome's cab can at least double the amperage.

The 4 port hub has a 5A in-line fuse.  If the smartphone is pulling 1.2A and the tablet does 0.7 to 0.8 on the same 2A power adapter, I should just be able to get another 2A adapter (from Verizon just to make sure it's the right one) and increase the in-line fuse to 7.5 or 10A.  If anything comes through that the devices can't handle. those lighter power adapters have surge protection themselves and should be able to handle a problem if one occurs.  It's protection if I'm wrong about going beyond 5A because the splitter might not be able to handle it and it might fail and smoke on me one day?

Log 2016060101

Every fuse in the cab and chassis power converter has been checked.  I bought spare fuses and an employee at Camping World told me that there's nothing different about them, that the specification on the converter's door was just the manufacturer wanting the motorhome owner to buy their fuses.  I decided that I'm not going to tar the seams on the roof.  Instead, I picked up something while I was there that uses a brush to apply it.  And I got some crank handles, one of which will replace the one for the antenna tower.

Every USB port and one lighter socket on the 4 way splitter, as well as the main socket on the expansion lighter power port was tested for amperage on my car and the motorhome.  I'm not happy to announce that the tablet has a miniUSB v2.0 port.  My smartphone has a v3.0 because it's power hungry.  But so is the tablet.  I'm getting 600 - 750mA going to it because of the bottle neck at the tablet's port and that's the best that I can do.  The phone gets about 1200mA in the car and cab.

I just did a test another amperage test with my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (the tablet), this time with it's USB cable connected to it's stock AC/ DC converter and it was charging at least 1000mA.  I'm not sure that USB 2.0 should be able to do that?  Whatever that means, it means that it needs something more powerful in the motorhome's cab.  I have a 200W inverter already that I could plug the AC/DC converter into if necessary.  Those Web pages that I was consulting about the tablet's USB version could have been wrong.  But I'm unable to find where on the device it's stated, or anything that could detect it.

I tested the 4 pin electrical connectors on my car and motorhome.  While I don't know how to use the push button "range" feature.  But I can confirm that there's some kind of signal coming through all 3 ports.  So if there's any problems, it's on the utility hauling trailer.  Well, since the deck splits when it folds for vertical stage, I learned my lesson with torquing the wires last time and used two pins on a three 4-flat connectors (to accommodate both sides and the trailer tongue).  They make excellent diagnostic ports because I'm better able to locate the problem when one occurs and only have to replace that section's wire.