Newell Renewal - Day 1

7:14 am - Real Saturday - April 18th - Wittmann, AZ - 56° F, 43% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the northeast......high clouds today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this day in 2018 we were in Winslow, AZ 'Standin' on the Corner'.......

.....we were on our one month journey to Southwest Harbor, ME to spend the summer.....seems so long ago today.

About mid morning on fifth Saturday we moved the 1999 Newell out of Newell House......

....and moved Glenn and Laureen's 1984 Newell Classic into its former site to begin working on its many issues.....

.....there are surveillance cameras everywhere inside.....

.....first up was the task of removing the 36 year old Leece-Eville gear driven alternator in order to deliver it to Turbo and Electric of Phoenix for rebuild.  This was a task to which I was not looking forward.  The space in their engine bay is smaller than mine by a foot as their coach is only 35' feet long, and getting to the 3 bolts which affix the alternator to the engine block is difficult.  All that being said, it was not as difficult as I suspected it would be.....who knew?  It took about an hour to remove the three bolts, and then lift the 20 pound alternator from its perch......

.....whilst it was I who is shown in the victory pictures, Glenn took his turns at turning the wrench.....we both wore a lot of grease at the end......

.....it was literally a whirlwind of activity all day long.  While Tom and Glenn drove over to Turbo and Electric of Phoenix I worked with Laureen on determining the cause of their Dometic Classic fridge demise.  As it turns out the control board must have been affected by the electric surge caused by the failing alternator.  We found a blown fuse, and when we replaced it the fuse immediately blew again, so it is obvious the board has been compromised.......

.....I was able to source a replacement board through Dinosaur Electronics.  The replacement board is their Micro P-711 which can be had on eBay for $99 shipped.  Since Tom and Glenn were driving all the way to Phoenix Tom decided it was time to replace the flat tire on his Case loader, so Glenn and I helped him remove the 900 lb. rim, and tire for transport in Tom's trailer......

.....after dropping off the tire to be repaired, they headed to the alternator place where it was determined pretty quickly that the Leece-Neville must be rebuilt, so they left it and headed home.  It took us about 30 minutes to reinstall the large loader tire, but we got 'er done.....

.....Laureen spent the better part of Friday removing the many bolts and screws which hold the dashboard in place.  Why you might ask?  Well, it will be easier to access all the wiring from above, than from the cramped confines below.  We need to find the faulty wiring which no longer provides 12 volt DC power to the headlights and turn signals.......

.....she's hoping to finish that task sometime Saturday.  Once the dashboard is out of the way we should be able to find the problem and fix it.  Tom took time to inspect their 8 air bags, and determined that many of them are leaking, so we will remove one today, I believe, and verify the correct part number then order 8 new airbags to install.....

.....as I mentioned earlier, Tom has a lot of surveillance around the Newell compound....our coach last night.

TLE made her famous Cillantro Salmon for dinner.....Glenn and Laureen joined us for dinner, and then around 8:15 pm for some Jacuzzi time.  A perfect way to end a very productive day.  We have a long ways to go on the 1984 Newell Classic, but we made a lot of progress, and Glenn and Laureen are feeling much better than they did when they arrived Thursday evening.

Thanks for stopping by!

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