Into the belly of the beast - Day 1

 8:30 am - Tuesday - February 1st - Newell House, AZ - 49° F, 40% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east by northeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2012 our solar installation on the Newell continued.....↴

We were up a tad earlier than normal Monday to be ready to move our Newell Classic inside Newell House for the first time since Newell House was built.  We have seen many other Newells inside Newell House, and even worked on my brother-in-law's 1984 Newell inside Newell House back in April of 2020....

1984 Newell Classic - April 2020

.....within minutes of turning off our Newell the work began.  First thing to do is to put her up on jack stands......here you see me placing the large jack stands.....

.....once the Newell was properly 'blocked' allowing me to release the air from the air system, and keep her from crashing down on my person when underneath the beast the real work began.  It took a while for me to determine how many tools I would need, which necessitated numerous visits to Tom's socket treasure trove.  In the end I needed three sockets.....3/4", 1 & 1/16" and 1 & 1/8", as well as the corresponding open/closed end wrenches, and a crescent wrench, or two.  There are three nuts affixing each airbag to the frame of the suspension, and each nut is a different size....go figure!?   By the time I had everything I needed I had crawled into and out from the belly of the beast a dozen times, and was ready for a nap, nevertheless, I crawled under the Newell to begin the removal of 8 air bags including 24 nuts, and 8 airlines running to those 8 bags......eventually I was able to shove the first airbag out to daylight for the first time in 40 years......

They really are the same size!

.....I began with the four front airbags as they would be the easiest....time 10 am....by 12 pm I had successfully removed the front airbags......

The first four

.....working under a 40 year old vehicle of any kind is pretty messy, so I wore a jump suit my friend Richard Entriken had gifted me 5, or 6 years ago.....

....and by the end of the day it was quite filthy.....

....after removing the first four airbags I took a break to have lunch, and take a short nap, but was back at it around 1 pm crawling under the rear of the coach to tackle the last four airbags.  As I suspected, these four were much more difficult to get at than the ones in the front where I was able to sit up to remove the 12 nuts on those bags, but the rear axle of the coach offered no such luxury.  I had to lay on my side, or back to remove those final 12 nuts, but by 3:40 pm I had removed the last airbag, and let out a slight whoop of joy as I crawled out from the belly of the beast to the well lit Newell House interior.  So, five hours and 40 minutes to remove the 8 airbags.  I only had two really difficult nuts to remove out of the 24, thankfully.  In spite of wearing the jump suit my head, neck, hair, and neck got quite filthy.....

.....the hair on the back of my head got quite crusty with old grease, and oil, which required a quite lengthy hot shower in Tom's mancave bathroom, which has two shower heads.  TLE had to come in to help make sure I got all the grease out of my hair, my neck, ears, and face.....what a mess!

At this point we are right on schedule.....I figured it would take a day to get the airbags off, and it did.  I figure it will take a day to remove the old shocks, and install the new ones, and then a third day to install the new airbags if all goes well, and the river don't rise.....

.....it should take a little less time to install the new airbags as I won't be dealing with nuts and bolts with 40 years of grime on them.  The new nuts should just spin onto the new threaded posts, and then it will just be a matter of torqueing them.

How am I feeling after one day in the belly of the beast?  Very sore....I feel like I played a game of full contact football yesterday......every muscle in my body is sore, but onward we press....two more days and life should be back to normal....lol.....I hope!  Special thanks to TLE who spent the entire day retrieving the nuts I removed, and the 8 filthy airbags, as well as getting me snacks, and drinks....her moral support is invaluable.  Also, thanks to Tom for his advice, and concern for my safety.

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