Sunday, June 12, 2011

Another new experience

Well, it got so bad I had to fix it........ the fan belt is squealing, a lot.  It's been going on for a couple of months now.  I've stopped at half a dozen dealers trying to pick up a belt, but no one stocks it.  I finally ordered one out of Toledo and picked it up when I got in town.  My plan was to con my friend Al and brother-in-law Kerby into helping me install it.  Kerby had other ideas, "Oh just spray some WD40 on it.  That works every time."  It didn't help when Al opened up the back of his coach to show his engine, he has a side mount radiator with a Cat engine, and the fan belt and all the filters were right there at your finger tips.  But not MINE!  You can barely see the engine through a little crack in the battery compartment. 

So, I relented to peer pressure and sprayed WD40 on the belt, and yes it did work!  Until a few miles down the road from Kerby's then it started up again.  I think that was his plan all along.  That was two weeks ago and it's been getting worse each day.  Sandy decided she wanted to alter our plans and go into Canada for a few days, so I had to get this thing fixed!  

I drug out the blue prints for the coach, Winnebago is great for blue prints, you can download the whole set, and I noticed an access hatch right above the fan area.  So that night I unscrewed everything and checked it out.  Piece of cake!  The next morning, after I dreamt how to do it, I started into my new experience as a Diesel Mechanic.  It wasn't too bad!  I had to borrow a half inch ratchet from a fellow camper to crank the belt tensioner back, but other than that it was OK.  It took us an hour, with Sandy on top of the engine and me below (I could say something here......).  After a shower, off to Canada we go!


2 comments:

  1. VERY impressed your changed the belt by yourself. Nicely done! We might have to "rent" you for a while w/ our coach :)
    Nina

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  2. The moral of the story is to always have a spare fan belt with you. Coach-Net won't help you with parts, but they may install it for you if you are in the middle of nowhere. As you see above, it took a special order to get my belt........

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