Our RV Adventures

or I’m getting really good at this.

After coffee and breakfast this morning, I started pulling my washer back out of the cabinet. But the first step was to go outside and loosen the vent deflector and hose.

Then it was just a matter of pulling and dragging, tugging and cursing, until I had it out of the cabinet and onto the floor dolly. Moving it out into the kitchen, I put down some padding and turned the washer upside down.

But even before removing the bottom panel, I saw at least part of the problem. One of the two bolts that held the angle bar in place, the bar that held the new pump, was gone.  And then removing the panel told me the whole story.

When I originally installed the angle bar, I used a 1/4” bolt on one end, and a smaller bolt on the end by the orange arrow. I used the smaller one there because it was too small an area for where I wanted to put the bar. And the reason I wanted to put it there was so the electric leads for the pump would still reach without having to lengthen them. And that’s what happens sometimes when you take a shortcut.  It bites you in the bottom.

The reason for the leak itself was immediately obvious.

When the mounting bar came loose, the pump moved, and that pulled the hose loose that goes from the filter into the pump. Thus the leak.

So now I started over by remounting the bar in an area where I could use the larger 1/4” bolt. Then I spliced longer power leads into the harness and moved the pump into position. This let me reconnect the drain hose and tighten down the clamp.

As before, I wanted to give it a test before I put it back in the cabinet, so after I replaced the bottom panel and turned it upright, I plugged it in at the sink, dumped a couple of quarts of water in the drum, and turned it on.

Then after that successful test, I put it aside until we finished dinner, a delicious rerun of last night’s Chicken and Dressing Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Walnut Salad and Grilled Bread. Still really good.

After dinner I reinstalled the washer and got it all hooked back up. Next up was two loads of laundry during the rest of the evening for a test.

Hopefully it’ll last longer than six loads this time. But on the plus side, I’m getting really good at taking the washer out and putting it back.

So with this out of the way for now, tomorrow I’ll get back on my rig oil leak.

Oh, boy!

Thought for the Day:

It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

ghdgh