IT'S ALIVE!!!

Well, it's not really alive, but the new Detroit Diesel water pump will bring my baby back to life tomorrow. As we rejoin the saga of the pump stuck in Mesquite, TX........it finally found it's way to the Tyler sorting center, and on to a truck headed for our neighborhood on Friday. Mark, the UPS guy, arrived at our door step around Noon with not only the long awaited pump, but the new door panels for our "new" Dometic fridge. I don't know if I can stand this excitement!

The door panels were an easy install (thank you CampingWorld for sending the correct ones this time.....undamaged), and have transformed the fridge into a modern looking appliance. There is a lot of wood paneling in our coach.....and don't get me wrong....I like the wood paneling, but there is a lot of it so being able to break up the paneling with black plexiglas is nice. The old fridge had faux wood panels that could not be transferred due to the freezer in the new Dometic being a little larger.

Doesn't she look purdy?

After ooohing and awwwing for a couple minutes I excused my self to tackle the removal of the old pump, and installation of the just arrived new pump. I first had to remove the fuel filter that is attached to the pump via a bracket so I could get at the 3 5/8" bolts that afix the pump to the engine, and that was amazingly easy. The harder part was separating it from the 5 hoses that were attached to it for 30 years. I got four of them off in about 45 minutes but the final one.....about 4 inches long....just a connector, would not budge, so I finally decided to cut it off and get a replacement at Napa Auto Parts, which in Bullard is about 3 minutes away. Once the pump was out I had to remove two pipe fittings to transfer them to the new pump.....now that was really the hard part. I carry a small pipe wrench with me....probably about 12 inches long....what I needed was one about 24 inches long to get enough leverage. I rummaged around in the trailer and came up with a 6" long piece of pipe that fit handily over the end of the pipe wrench and was finally able to break the fittings loose without destroying them. Once the fittings were transferred I began the installation of the new pump. Surprisingly it went in pretty easily, and I was able to reattach 4 of the 5 hoses before the sun set. I planned to reattach the 5th hose Saturday morning, use the torque wrench on the 3 bolts, and then reattach the fuel filter....then on to the big job of pouring 22 gallons of coolant back in the engine.

That fuel filter must be removed to get at everything else....

The pump is removed

The pump itself......this is a gear driven pump.

I jumped in the shower and then drove with Elaine up to Tyler to meet her brother and sister-in-law at BJ's Brewery.....we had a great dinner, and some really great stout beer. Tomorrow the finish of the water pump installation!

The waiting game....

The culprit hiding behind those hoses!

Elaine's sister is a flight attendant for U.S. Air, and she was scheduled to leave Bullard to drive into DFW for a four day trip at around 11am. Our two shipments (water pump and Dometic fridge door panels) were scheduled for delivery by the end of the day YESTERDAY! We could see on the UPS site that both packages had made it to Mequite, TX at 4am yesterday morning, and there they sat all day without moving an inch. At any rate, since we wanted to be sure someone was here to receive the deliveries in case signatures were required we left early to drive into Longview to pickup the 12 gallons of Power Cool coolant to put back in the engine after I R&R (remove and replace) the water pump. The drive in was very windy.....I heard later that Colorado got hit by vey high winds, and perhaps we were just getting a little of that. We made it back around 11:30am and spent the rest of the day playing the waiting game with UPS.

The coolant and distilled water awaiting their fate.

While we waited Elaine continued her daunting task of scanning a few generations of family photos into digital format. Initially, before we left California, she was working on our family photos going back to 1971 when we were married. Over time old photos from Elaine's childhood in Florida began to surface, and now that we are in Texas she is deep into scanning pictures from both her mother's side of her family, and her father's side of the family.

So, while we "waited" she continued on that task, and I turned my attention to getting ready to receive my water pump. I had to finish draining the rest of the coolant from the engine block, radiator and other systems within the coach. That amounted to another 10 gallons, in addition to the 12 gallons we had already lost on the ground, or drained to stop the pump from dumping anymore on the ground....that, my friends, is a lot of coolant! Additionally, Elaine's brother, Read, who also lives in Bullard, noticed that grease was leaking from one of the trailer's four hubs. He pointed out that usually that means the hub has overheated for some reason....worn bearings, lack of grease, or electric brakes rubbing when said brakes are not engaged. He recommended I pull off the tire, and brake drum to find out which of those scenarios applied. I carry 2 20 ton bottle jacks, so I pulled out one and jacked up the rear of the trailer to get at the tire and brake drum. In less than an hour I had everything off and discovered that one of the brake shoes was out of adjustment and had been rubbing against the drum causing the excess heat, so I will need to replace those brake shoes, have them properly adjusted, and then repack the bearings with grease. Doesn't look too complicated, and Read gave me a referral to a local trailer supply place where his business gets their trailers serviced.

Around 4:30pm I rechecked the UPS website to find that our two shipments had not moved an inch all day, and were still sitting in Mesquite, TX. We decided there was no way we were getting our items then, so we went out to a local Mexican place called Chuy's for dinner. We got home around 7pm and I got set up to SKYPE with various family members. The night before Elaine and I had SKYPED with our daughter Meredith, and our "adopted" daughter Amanda, who lives at the home with Meredith and Tim. Later I got Sharon, our youngest daughter, on SKYPE and we talked for a while. SKYPE is soooo cool. It's the next best thing to giving your kids a hug. Last night it was time to visit with my oldest son, Chris, and his family. We talked and laughed for 30 minutes or so...it was great to see our grandson, Christopher....he is such a ham....lol! After that I called my sister Jill, who lives near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and we talked for 30-40 minutes before my voice began to take on a raspy quality. I'm going to try and connect with my brother Philip tonight. SKYPE is such a wonder tool for staying connected with family and friends, and I am so grateful for this amazing technology! Mom, if you are out there, you need to install a video cam so we can talk "face to face"!

Just after we retired for the evening UPS updated their website to show that our two items had been transferred to the local Tyler shorting facility, and as of 4am this morning they are OUT ON THE TRUCK FOR DELIVERY! So, another day of waiting is upon us. If the weather, which has gone from a summer like 85 degrees yesterday to blustery and cold today (may not hit 60 today), and UPS cooperate we'll take another bike ride today.

Boy, do we take up a lot of room!

Life is good! Thanks for stopping by!

Back to regularly scheduled programming.....

"I'll take an iced cappuccino please...."

We have a trailer full of bikes and yet so far on this trip we have ridden our bikes two times while we were in Indio, CA once, and then in Mesa, AZ. So, today we got out the tandem and took a ride out Farm to Market 344 toward Teaselville where our niece, Maryon, owns a coffee shop called Deep South Coffee House. We stopped off there to get a couple of Cappuccino's and then rode on to Elaine's brother's place of business called Accu-Log, Inc. The air temperature got up to 81 today with a little East Texas humidity mixed in for good measure. The first 6 miles we fought a mild headwind, but after Teaselville it calmed down. FM344 was recently repaved, and it was a pleasure to pound out 20 miles on that road. We got back home around 1:30pm, and had lunch on the patio. Just another nice day!

Tomorrow is delivery day for our new replacement Detroit Diesel water pump. Tomorrow morning we will drive over to Longview to Stewart and Stephenson, a distributor for Power Cool Coolant, to by 12 gallons of new coolant to mix with 12 gallons of distilled water to replace the old coolant. Power Cool is designed specifically for 2 stroke diesel engines which is what our Series 92 6V92 Detroit Diesel is. We'll spend the weekend here and then head for Austin, TX to visit more family and friends. After that we are off to Corpus Christi to start our tour of the Gulf Coast all the way over to the Florida Panhandle.

Also, tomorrow we are supposed to receive the correct decorative door panels for our Dometic Classic refrigerator. I hope I will be able to give CampingWorld a compliment this time tomorrow evening.

About 8 years ago when we belonged to a riding group I helped my sister-in-law get a bike, and got her set up to ride with us, which she did pretty regularly until she moved to East Texas. Since then her KHS bike has been sitting in her garage gathering dust. Well today she ask if I would tune it up for her so she could start riding again. Of course I agreed, because I love working on my bikes, or anyone's bikes. Surprisingly her bike was in pretty good shape....it just needed to be washed off, and cleaned up. Took about 45 minutes and it looked brand new again, and rode great. Always glad to bring a bike back to life.

That's another day in the books.....thanks for stopping by!

Troubleshooting

We had a brief rain shower last night, so it was still soggy this morning when we got up, but today we had a bright sun shine day with warmer temps. The forecast for the next few days is for temps in the mid 70's. We will definitely be taking a long bike ride tomorrow to enjoy the weather.

Even though we are currently "plugged in" I still take time a few times a day to check the Blue Sky monitor to see how many amps we're getting from the solar panels. When I checked first thing this morning there were no amps coming from the panels, and, of course, no amps going to the batteries.....hmmmmm! I spent the rest of the day in contact with the installer trouble shooting the problem while Elaine went all over town with her sister. After verifying that volts were indeed being generated and sent to the Blue Sky charge controller the technician had me take the front panel off the charge controller. I had no sooner removed the 4th screw than I saw what the problem was.....there are 4 wires fastened to the circuit board each with a screw.....the head of one screw had sheered off resulting in a disconnected wire. It was an easy fix and after reattaching the loose wire, and buttoning up everything I had disconnected during our troubleshooting foray I turned back on the system everything was working as it should again!

We had a great dinner with Elaine's sister and a fun evening watching some of our favorite shows.....Tuesday night is NCIS, and NCIS L.A. night, and as usual both were great!

That's it for today.....pretty uneventful, but uneventful is not a bad thing!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Detroit Diesel Water Pump

Monday, February 20, 2012, 2pm -

Courtesy parking at my sister-in-law's home

With the help of a fellow Newell owner I was able to locate and purchase (on Ebay) a replacement water pump, and if all goes according to plan UPS will deliver it to me on Thursday. My brother-in-law came over today and wired me into a 45amp service so we have a good power supply and can run our electric heaters tonight.....much quieter than the gas furnaces we have been using for the last 2 weeks, with the lone exception being Friday night in Benson, AZ where we had 50amp service.

The weather here is cold and blustery, and prior to today it had rained almost 3.5 inches over a couple of days. The ground is saturated, and I was a little concerned as we pulled into our parking spot yesterday afternoon that the ground might be too soft, however, where we are parked has a gravel base, and is solid! We are getting settled in for a week stay.....really depends on how difficult the removal and replacement of the water pump is. I'll start tackling the removal part tomorrow. If it is too difficult for me, my expertise, and tools I will call a mobile mechanic to come out and install it.

Today marks 3 weeks of being on the road.....we have traveled 1638 miles since we departed my mechanic's place of business on January 30th. I was struck by the vastness of our country as we traveled from Mesa, AZ through New Mexico and into West Texas before turning east on I-20. The vistas are staggering, and breath taking, and ever changing. It is in these areas where I my mind begins to feel uncluttered and free. I am beginning to feel free at last, free at last!

Thanks for stopping by!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

We woke up Saturday morning around 6am, and were on the road by 8:30am. We decided we needed to be in Bullard, TX by Sunday evening, which meant 2 long driving days.....something I don't do, and specifically don't like to do, but there is a first time for everything. We stopped at a Super Walmart in Deming, NM to do food shopping....our fridge was bare, and it was time to stock up!

Our goal for the day was rather optimistic....Midland, TX.....565 miles away from our starting point....the longest day I had done in the Newell was a little over 400 a couple of times, but this was new territory. I wish we had started earlier, because with the change into Central Time we lost another hour, which meant that even though we did not stop too much we didn't arrive in Midland until 10pm Texas time.....we headed for the local Cracker Barrel restaurant and caught a very late dinner there (they are open until 11pm on Saturday nights), and were in bed by 11:30pm......and awake again at 4:30am, and on the road by 5:30am.....we had 453 miles today, and I didn't want to finish in the dark AGAIN! The great thing about Cracker Barrel Restaurants that we like is you can park overnight in their parking lots, which we did this night, and were not disturbed.

Today, Sunday, we made good time and reached Bullard, TX around 3:30pm. The early start paid off, and we arrived with lots of daylight sill left in the sky! The drive from Mesa, AZ to Bullard, TX was completely without incident......UNTIL we parked the coach in my sister-in-law's driveway.....as I exited the coach after parking I smelled coolant....not a smell you want to greet you....I opened the driver side engine compartment door and saw coolant gushing out the back of the water pump for the engine! Apparently, just we we were parking an internal seal in the pump failed completely.....I quickly grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and opened the pet cock valve on the bottom of the radiator and drained the coolant below the level of the pump so it would no longer drain out there. I think I lost 5, or 6 gallons, but save another 4 by draining the radiator as fast as I could. Tomorrow I will locate a replacement pump. We are so thankful this happened here, and not somewhere in the vast West Texas landscape 100's of miles from anywhere. If you've got to break down it's good to do it in your own driveway, or in the driveway of a relative! If we had taken more than the 2 days to get here who knows where we would be stranded, and how much it would have cost to get back on the road. Here I can do this myself. I have located a pump, and will replace it in the next couple of days.

Sunrise just west of Abilene

Parked at the Cracker Barrel in Abilene for breakfast

What the trailer looks like packed with the T-Bird

It is a TIGHT fit!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Leaving Encanto.....

The street where we were parked for 11 days is called Encanto Street in Mesa, AZ. We were planning on leaving Wednesday after we received a shipment from CampingWorld, but as it turns out CampingWorld did not ship our item until Wednesday! It was ordered on the phone Monday morning, and we paid for 2 day shipping! It finally was supposed to be delivered this afternoon, but I called and got them to hold it off the truck so we could pick it up in Tempe on our way out of town on I-10. We left our friend's home around 10am, but got just two blocks when I noticed the air pressure was spiking over 150 psi....it's supposed to bleed off pressure when it hits 120 psi....so we limped back to Tom and Darlene's home while pumping the brakes to lower the air pressure. I called Tom at work and he suggested I call his Detroit Diesel mechanic, Leo. I did, and Leo immediately diagnosed the problem as a bad pressure regulator on the mechanical air compressor mounted on the "back" of the engine, which actually faces forward. I stopped by his shop after picking up our CampingWorld item, which, it turns out was the WRONG ITEM!!!! UGHHH!! At any rate Leo sold me the replacement valve, showed me where to find it on the 6V92 and we headed back to Encanto Street.....Tom arrived home from work just about the time we got there....2pm. Within an hour I was able to remove and replace the faulty pressure regulator while Tom supervised, and offered encouragement in his street clothes. We were finally able to depart Encanto Street at 3pm, and finally reached Benzon, AZ around 6:3opm. On top of that our drive here was totally uneventful....the way it should be, right?

A pleasant turn of events.....my cruise control does work again after replacing the on/off switch, and the "momentary" switch that is used to set the speed, and resume speed! I love cruise control and I am so happy our fix worked! I hadn't had time to road test it before we left, so when I turned it on and was able to set the speed and feel it take over I let out a little whoop, and gave Elaine a high 5!! Along with that fix the new Mak air valves work wonderfully, the new fridge continues to work flawlessly, and the brake/turn signals work great!!! I even had running lights all the way around tonite! And, and, and the LED lights are fantastic!

Tomorrow hope to get across New Mexico and deep into Texas, and by Sunday afternoon hope to be in Bullard, TX (south of Tyler) to visit with family, and then on to Austin by the 27th to see more family, and to visit with some more Newell friends.

That's it for now.....man am I tired! Time to hit the sack...tomorrow will be a long day! Thanks for stopping by!