Our RV Adventures

With nothing much else going on this morning, I put in some time on my latest RV project. For the curious, I should have it far enough along to give ya’ll a peek tomorrow or Thursday.

And of course, I’m already planning,  and ordering some parts, for my next project. Stay tuned.

Jan and I headed up to the Clear Lake area for dinner, but our first stop was the Salvation Army store in Nassau Bay to drop off some clothes that we have recently culled from our closet. Actually this was our third try to make the drop off,  but we kept finding the place closed

So I called this morning to double check the hours before we tried again. The answering machine said that the hours were 10am to 8pm, but I waited to talk to an actual person, who then told me they were open from 10am to 6pm. And when we got there about 3:30, they were open, but the sign said they were open from 10am to 4pm The previous two times we were there it was before 4pm but they were closed anyway. So take your pick.

But at least we got the two bags of clothes out of the backseat.

Our next stop was the Harbor Freight down near I-45 for a couple of things. When I was checking out  the lady gave me a big sheaf of coupons for their special Mother’s Day sale. When I got back to the truck I told Jan I now knew what I was getting her for Mother’s Day. I’m not quite sure how to take the look she gave me.

Then it was on down the road to have dinner at Cheddar’s. Jan got her favorite Key West Chicken and Shrimp, and I got the the Tortilla Soup and the 4 Veggie Plate. Really good as usual. I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad meal at Cheddar’s.

Coming home I made a convenience store stop for Powerball/MegaMillions tickets and saw this in the parking lot.

At first glance I thought it was a replica early 50’s MG on a VW chassis, but it just didn’t really look right. Then I saw the Mercedes Benz Tri-Star hood ornament and realized it was replica 1929 MB SSK, the vehicle that the early MG’s was loosely based on.

What had thrown me off was the fact that the SSK was known for its 3 external exhaust pipes coming out of the hood.

And this car didn’t have them. Since these have a VW rear engine the pipes aren’t functional, just decorative, so I guess they just saved the money.

But it’s still neat, but it would have been neater with the exhaust pipes.

Looks like Thursday is going to be a dryer repair day. The dryer stopped drying a couple of days ago, so I’ll pull it out and take a look. I’m pretty sure that I will find the thermal fuse has popped. The right fuses are no longer available in the correct temperature range, only ones that are about 20° lover. The last time I needed a fuse it was $50 on eBay, so I found these on Amazon, 6 for $8.33.

Luckily I won’t have to pull it all the way out to replace it, so that will make it easier. Hopefully this one will last the two years that the previous one did.

Thought for the Day:  

A Sign of the Times.
Found on Amazon asking a question about a pair of wire cutters.

Can this cut through 14g stainless steel? I need to cut my septum piercing off because the balls on the ring are stuck.

sdfgsf

Several people (apparently new readers) asked about the reference to my ‘Great Transmission Repair’ last May in Weed, CA, so I thought I’d post a recap of it since nothing much else happened today.

May 2, 2017

We were dieseled up, hooked up and pulling out of the Flying J by 9:45, a little ahead of schedule for a change. But that didn’t last long.

As we started to turn on the I-5 entrance feeder, I noticed the rig was kind of lugging, not accelerating like it should. It was quickly evident that problem was that the transmission was stuck in 1st gear and wouldn’t upshift to 2nd. Then I happened to move my head a bit and saw a Check Trans light on the panel. I didn’t see it at first because it was blocked by the steering wheel.

No other alarms, no Check Engine light, no nothing. Just the Check Trans light. It was obvious that I was stuck in the ‘infamous’ Limp Mode.

So I tried the simplest thing first. I shut the engine off, let it set for a few minutes, and then started back up.

OK, no warming light. That’s good.

But as soon as I was moving a few miles per hour, the light came back on.

Bummer! 

Jan however, said some other words.

So next I checked the transmission fluid. It was at the lower part of the OK range, but I added a little TransSyn to be sure.

And again, no luck. Still stuck.

I did use my Silverleaf Computer Display to check for any fault codes, but nothing showed up.

So now I was on the phone to Spartan, my chassis manufacturer, to see what they might have to contribute. But not a lot, but they send me on to Allison Tech Support.

Now I have known for a while that my rig’s Allison transmission is kind of an oddball. I think it kind of straddles a model revision, or something. For example, according to my transmission’s serial number, I should be able to check the transmission’s fluid level from the console, but I can’t.

I’ve had several techs tell me I must not be doing it right, and proceed to show me how. But apparently they weren’t doing it right either.

The Allison tech told me to check for transmission fault codes by turning the key on, and then pressing the upshift/downshift buttons together, twice.

And I got nothing. So I turned the key off and back on, and then did it again.

Again nothing. But I did notice that something flashed in between the first and second presses. So I turned the key off and on, and pressed just once. And now I had the code display.

But no error codes were showing.

As we were talking and checking some other stuff, he had me crank the engine up, and for some reason I decided to try the code thing again.

And this time I had an error code, a 2-5-1-1.

So between the number of presses needed and the fact that the engine has to be running to read codes, are just two more weird things about my transmission.

The tech told me that the code meant that the rig was getting no output speed info from the Output Speed Sensor. And I was VERY glad to hear this, because a bad sensor was something I could possibly replace or fix myself.

The tech was kind of surprised I wanted to crawl under the rig and work on this myself.  He doesn’t know me very well, does he.

He suggested I check the sensor physically to see if it was still connected and didn’t look damaged from road debris, etc. So under the rig I went with my work pads.

And this is what I found.

It looked OK, but I wanted to pull it apart and clean it, in case it was just bad connection. So I sprayed the area with Awesome and wiped it down, and then unsnapped the connector.

The wires looked good, so I sprayed both the socket and the plug with Strike Hold, let it sit for a few minutes, and then put it back together.

Now I was really confident I had fixed the problem. I mean Strike Hold will fix anything and everything, right? So I rolled out from under the rig, eager to give it a try.

Since I was working on the road side of the coach I set my step ladder along the side of the road to deter any close shaves. They might not have a problem running over me, but they probably don’t want to scratch their paint.

And yeah, I’ve got some cones somewhere, but they just run over those too. I mean, look at all the dead cones you see, the life crushed out of them, their faded orange carcasses littering the  highway.

But back inside and moving out, I still had the problem. So Plan B. We’ll limp along the shoulder until we get to the next exit, for downtown Weed, and then park in a large lot that I had seen, and then I’d regroup. And that’s what we did.

And along the way I noticed something new. I had no speed information on either my dashboard speedometer or my Silverleaf. And I had no odometer readings either.

So getting parked I was back on the phone with Spartan. I called them because they know both systems. Allison knows the transmissions, Cummins knows the engines, but Spartan knows both, or at least how they interface. And I wanted to know if the dashboard speedometer got its data from that the transmission sensor.

And yes it did.

Now I was on the phone to the nearest Allison shop, which was down in Redding 65 miles south. And yes, they did have the part in stock for $85 plus tax. So after unhitching, and parking the rig in the far corner, we were off for Redding..

I figured that replacing this sensor was my last shot at avoiding a 65 mile tow and a very large repair bill. If it’s like most of these sensors, you just unplug the wire, remove the bolt, pull out the sensor, stick the new one in, then bolt, then wire. Easy Pesy.

The trip down to Redding only took a little over an hour because it’s just that . . .down. Just about the entire way. And a lot of fun curves that make Jan hiss.

Getting to the Allison parts counter, I had the same oddball problem again. The sensor that the computer said I needed, did not look like mine. That one had the plug sticking straight out, but mine is at a 90° angle.

But they finally found the right one, and $91 later we were on the way back to Weed. Getting there about 4pm I called the Bend TT to let them know we wouldn’t be coming in today and I’d let them know about tomorrow.

The above-mentioned Hi-Lo Diner, which was only about a block away, also has a motel and RV park attached, I figured I’d putt-putt down the hill and we’d spend the night there and I’d replace the sensor there. So after getting a site, off I went with Jan following in the truck.

And before I got out of the large lot, I noticed something. I had speed info on both the dash and the Silverleaf. Could it be?

And yes, out on the street, the rig upshifted smoothly  to second, with no lights or other problems. I made the 1/2 mile journey to the park with no problems, evening hitting a large pothole that I held my breath, thinking the problem might return. But it was all good.

So did Strike Hold just take its time to fix the problem? Did gremlins figure that they’d had their fun at my expense? Did fate just want me to waste $91?

So what to do? My good friend Nick Russell thought I should go ahead and replace the sensor anyway, but I guess I’m going to just roll the dice and go for it. He’s says he’ll definitely say he told me so.

I guess it’s about time he got to do it to me.

fgsf