Double doh!

 7:05 am - Tuesday - November 23rd - Fontana, CA - 57° F, 32% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 75° F, but we will not be here to verify that....we roll our wheels in two hours! On this date in 2017 TLE prepared hors d'oeuvres in advance of our Thanksgiving dinner at the Grand Canyon......what a beautiful woman!.......↴

Monday began benignly enough.  Since we would be rolling our wheels out to Ocotillo Wells on Tuesday morning I would spend the better portion of Monday putting things away, and organizing the trailer for artificial turf, and VW insertion.  Around 10 am I decided it would be a good idea to fire up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92TA to air up the coach, and make sure everything was copacetic.  She fired right up, ran smoothly for 5 seconds, and then died.  Oh well, that happens sometimes when we've been sitting for a while, so I turned her over again only to hear her fire, and then die.  I repeated this scenario for several minutes, but it only got worse.  In all the years we have owned the Newell this has never happened.....time to put on my thinking cap, and figure out what has changed.

Within seconds I remembered I had changed he filters about 10 days ago, and figured that had to have something to do with my problem.  I went outside to the back of the coach and opened the driver side engine bay door to find diesel had been leaking from the secondary filter.  I immediately, and correctly surmised the filter was not on tight enough causing it to leak, and also suck in air.....air in diesel fuel lines is not a good thing.  I checked the primary filter and it was NOT leaking, so I just unscrewed the primary filter to find it about 1/2 empty, so I topped it off with diesel, and screwed it back on....this time turning it a full turn further before I could not turn it anymore.  Thinking I had solved the problem I went back into the Newell and turned her over again.  Again she fired right up, but died 5 second later.....doh!

Okay, I think I have a bigger problem so I unscrew the secondary filter again, and top it off with diesel, then unscrewed the primary filter only to find it also 1/2 empty, and topped it off.  By this time I decided to utilize the rear start switch which would enable me to visually check each filter as I cranked her over.  The same thing happened again....double doh!  There is obviously still air in the airlines.  Now I'm thinking I'm going to have to re-prime the fuel lines between the diesel tank and the primary filter, and then the line between the primary and secondary filters, which I proceeded to do.  By the time I had finished with that, and then actually changed out the two filters for another fresh set TLE arrived home from shopping.  I explained to her what was going on, and as usual she remained calm, and encouraged me.  I took a break for about 10 minutes as it was nearing Noon time now, and getting warm.  Finally, I decided it was time to see if priming those two fuel lines worked.  As I turned on the key inside the Newell she began to sputter for several seconds, and then suddenly she roared to life.....as she continued to run I uttered a loud "THANK YOU JESUS!" which filled the air around me, and startled TLE.  Once again all those YouTube videos I've been watching the last few months helped me diagnose, and solve a fuel problem with a diesel engine.

After a brief interlude to put away all the tools I had used to fix the problem, I returned to the task of organizing the trailer, and by 3 pm pronounced the trailer ready for insertion.  The only things remaining to be stowed are shore power cord, the awnings, the gray water hose, the fresh water hose, and the rope lights.  I waited until the sun was down past the apartments to the west of us before rolling up the two hoses, and then took a long, hot victory shower.  All that remains is to disconnect the shore power, and roll up the artificial turf, and we'll be ready to roll.

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