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Refrig cap having some issues [message #356504]

Tue, 07 July 2020 18:06

GatsbysCruise

Messages: 261
Registered: January 2017
Location: Waukegan, Illinois

Karma: 3

Senior Member

The PO made changes to the GMC and the Refer CAP was one of them. He put a new cap on but it funnel water inside the REFER cabinet when it rains. I have been looking at various ways to correct this, most of the ideas are quiet involved.

I was watching a vid where someone changed their Refer cooling unit from AC/DC/Propane to a CD compressor unit. What I noticed was they do not have the Refer cap on the roof, it is in the side wall.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of cooling vent, is it effecient enough? It didn't look that bad and I am of the thought that the less holes in the roof the better, especially on as big as the Refer Vent, huge hole up there.

Any Ideas would be helpful, otherwise, I am looking at quite a bit of time trying to rebuild the current system for the Refer vent cap.

Thanks you all.

slc

GatsbysCruise. \ 74GMC260 Former Glacier Model style. \ Waukegan, Illinois \ Keep those MiniDiscs Spinning \ MY GREYHOUND IS FASTER THAN YOUR HONOR ROLL STUDENT \ WindowsXP-Win7-Win8.1-UBUNTU STUDIO - UBUNTU VOYAGER - Berzin Auto Center

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Re: [GMCnet] Refrig cap having some issues [message #356515 is a reply to message #356504]

Tue, 07 July 2020 20:43

jimk

Messages: 6734
Registered: July 2006
Location: Belmont, CA

Karma: 9

Senior Member

Send me your picture of the CAP so I can advise you on how to overcome the
issue.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 4:07 PM slc via Gmclist
wrote:

> The PO made changes to the GMC and the Refer CAP was one of them. He put
> a new cap on but it funnel water inside the REFER cabinet when it rains. I
> have been looking at various ways to correct this, most of the ideas are
> quiet involved.
>
> I was watching a vid where someone changed their Refer cooling unit from
> AC/DC/Propane to a CD compressor unit. What I noticed was they do not have
> the Refer cap on the roof, it is in the side wall.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with this type of cooling vent, is it
> effecient enough? It didn't look that bad and I am of the thought that the
> less
> holes in the roof the better, especially on as big as the Refer Vent, huge
> hole up there.
>
> Any Ideas would be helpful, otherwise, I am looking at quite a bit of time
> trying to rebuild the current system for the Refer vent cap.
>
> Thanks you all.
>
> slc
> --
> GatsbysCruise. \
> 74GMC260 Former Glacier Model style. \
> Waukegan, Illinois \ Keep those MiniDiscs Spinning \ MY GREYHOUND IS
> FASTER THAN YOUR HONOR ROLL STUDENT \ WindowsXP-Win7-Win8.1-UBUNTU STUDIO -
> UBUNTU VOYAGER - Berzin Auto Center
>
> _______________________________________________
> GMCnet mailing list
> Unsubscribe or Change List Options:
> http://list.gmcnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gmclist_list.gmcnet.org
>

--
Jim Kanomata
Applied/GMC, Newark,CA
jimk@appliedairfilters.com
http://www.gmcrvparts.com
1-800-752-7502
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Jim Kanomata
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jimk@appliedairfilters.com
www.appliedgmc.com
1-800-752-7502

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Re: Refrig cap having some issues [message #356539 is a reply to message #356504]

Wed, 08 July 2020 13:53

6cuda6

Messages: 975
Registered: June 2019

Karma: -6

Senior Member

yes a picture here would be very helpful as most of the kits come with a raised screened section to keep water off the roof from running in and the cap usually extends down far enough to deflect rain water away.

Rich Mondor, Brockville, ON 77 Hughes 2600

[Updated on: Wed, 08 July 2020 13:53]

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Re: Refrig cap having some issues [message #356596 is a reply to message #356539]

Thu, 09 July 2020 17:10

GatsbysCruise

Messages: 261
Registered: January 2017
Location: Waukegan, Illinois

Karma: 3

Senior Member

Well, the PO only bought the GMC to make it pretty and sell it fast. I fell for it and though she looked good on the inside, only her "bones" were good. But not to get on the PO soap box,

He bought what seems to be an over sized vent cap and it jambs up against the plumbing vent. This has created a dam that creates a place for water to collect.
The only reason I noticed is because as i was working on the GMC, I stuck my head inside the refrigerator compartment and noticed the deck top layer of wood had delaminated and was coming off. This is happening to the wall plywood also. My thought is it is from water getting in from the top, but it is an area where humidity comes in quite easily with the air flow and that could have a bearing on it.

But I went up top to look at the refer cap and saw how the water gets damed and forms a puddle. If there was space between the cap and the plumbing vent, the water would flow down the side, but because they are jambed into each other and the attempts to prevent leaks was to layer up the sealant, a little reservoir is formed and if it gets high enough, it seems to get inside the cap.

I am contemplating making the cap and vent cap like a single unit, using foam then sealing it so the water would be forced to flow toward the rear then over the side.

I only mentioned the vent in the side wall because I was an A class that had used it. Also my cap is jambed under the roof railing and I am not looking forward to having to remove that because the roof railing has to be disassembled to remove the refer cap.

But the cap I have seems to be oversized anyway, it does not seem to fit well under that railing and being jambed into the plumbing vent looks like it may distort the plastic when it gets hot out.

Now that I have an idea of what is going on, I can find a way to seal it off permanantly. 3m 5200 seems to do a nice permanent job.

slc

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Re: Refrig cap having some issues [message #356616 is a reply to message #356504]

Fri, 10 July 2020 07:38

jhbridges

Messages: 8412
Registered: May 2011
Location: Braselton ga

Karma: -74

Senior Member

Second question reviewing a potential purchase, "How long have you owned the coach?"

--johnny

Foolish Carriage, 76 26' Eleganza(?) with beaucoup mods and add - ons. Braselton, Ga. I forgive them all, save those who hurt the dogs. They must answer to me in hell

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Re: Refrig cap having some issues [message #356661 is a reply to message #356616]

Sat, 11 July 2020 11:43

GatsbysCruise

Messages: 261
Registered: January 2017
Location: Waukegan, Illinois

Karma: 3

Senior Member

I have had Gatsbys Cruiser over 10 maybe 15 years.

BUYING a coach is really a flip of the coin. Only you can decided if you see a good deal. By all means if you can take someone with you who knows the GMC coach. Someone that knows what to look for.

If you are a new purchaser the first thing I can say is take the advice of the GMC owners here on the forum concerning the GMC coach.

IF you see any negatives about the coach that the owner/seller DOES NOT MENTION, become very weiry of the coach and ask a lot of questions, look at everything.

If the OWNER talks like he does not know much about the coach, he may be a "FLIPPER" which is what my PO was. I was too new to GMCs at the time to know better.

If the coach seems too good to be true, it probably is, look extra close at everything and try not to decide to buy on the spot, take a day or two to decide and absolutely look at other coaches. It helps bring the perspective between coach offerings. The bad ones will stick out in your mind.

In my purchase, the PO "CLAIMED" to have used it on trips, had all these cute stories of trips with family, he really piled it on.
What I thought odd and should have taken as red flags, was there were certain things that didn't work and he didn't know anything about them, and some where simple things.
He had redone the interior with light Oak veneer and some attractive wall paneling. new couch and had taken out the seating in the rear for his version of a bed. He REMOVED ALL OVERHEAD STORAGE and lighting and put in crumby aircraft type spot lighting. I changed out to florescent strip lights and recently have changed out to LED lights which are attractive and use very little power. a great addition.

The exterior was a not so great blue metallic that had been repainted by previous POs at least twice. The original color was Glacier Sky Blue. Now down the road the POs blue paint is beginning to peel and causing some interesting problems with the exterior paint and finding ways to fix it.

and in my case, ALL THE INTERIOR WORK THIS OWNER (PO) DID HAS HAD TO BE REDONE AS I FIND THE PROBLEMS.

One of his upgrades was attractive OAK over the Wire Ways over the windows. He used wood screws THROUGH THE WIRE WAYS. I was lucky he didn't hit any of the wiring but those sharp screw edges were rubbing the wires. That was redone.

The rear bed was on a platform he built with NO ACCESS to the water pump, water tank or anything else under it. I finally redid this, and I had to disassemble all his work to get it square so I could resize the bed frame and hinge it so it would lift. I was able to add storage under the bed with removable trays which was a big plus.

The coach had no heat, and he didnt know anything about why it had no heat. turned out to be a bad mechanical cable to the dash controls, I replaced that cable.
The coach had no AC, again "HE HAD NO IDEA".

I was numb to the red flags that were popping up, I have had repairs done to cars and thought it would be no big concern but his interior upgrade was nothing but problematic.
During his up grade he disconnected the 12vdc wiring system. When he put it back together, he loosely connected the negative to the ground stud. This is located behind the kitchen cabinet and is very difficult to get to when the coach interior is installed. My lights would flicker or go out and I never knew why till I found the bad ground. I ended up having to make a new DC cable connection to the ground chasis.

The PO had all these nice stories about travel in the GMC and all the great times.

He told me it was just tuned up for the next trip. WEll about that tune up........... After I bit the bullet and the papers were signed, as I was driving home she began to run badly, missing. we made it to a GMC dealer where they said it was never tuned up because the rotor shaft was so badly worn it could not be set for timing. The rotor shaft was replaced and it ran good all the way home.

AS a new buyer I suggest looking at the coaches on the web, MORE THAN ONE and go see them in person and don't just buy the first one you see. Look at others and if you still like the first one, go back and buy it.

You want to compare between the coaches and sorry to say, if they just finished upgrading the interior, be very weiry as this may be a flip project like mine seems to have been.

The other side of the PURCHASE is have an idea where you can have the GMC worked on.
The local GMC dealers do not want to work on your coach. They no longer have the technology or the equipment to do the work, you have to rely on dedicated GMC shops and if you can find a local mechanic that is willing to take it on, even better.

When I had one of the GMC shops drop the tanks to change out the old leaking fuel lines, after they put it back together I had engine power problems. Just to note here, the GMC ran fine with the leaking gas lines. They only leaked when filling the tanks up. The GMC ran fine down the road and I had driven it for at least 1000 miles in that condition. After the fuel lines were replaced, I Couldn't get over 35 mph..

Instead of looking at a possible pinched fuel line, they changed out the carb, the rotor and other things. They got it to run better, sort of, but they never admitted to causing the problem and the GMC sat for many years while we were trying to find the problem causing the engine power loss.

With the great help of the GMC forum users, ( I will always be it your debt for all the help offered ) and a lot of money, we finally found the source of the problem, and it goes right back to the fuel lines, before the fuel tank solenoid. Lesson here, find a good shop to work on your coach. But sometimes you won't have a choice if on the road like I was. The shop that did the work is a popular shop to the GMC community.

Good luck in your search but make a good decision and go for the better of what you find. Heed the red flags, and research the shops the best you can.

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