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| [GMCnet] On the road again! [message #96007] |
Mon, 16 August 2010 07:22  |
pete lyons
Messages: 81
Registered: June 2010
Karma:
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This is one of those "Thank you" emails for everyone who answered my latest
round of questions.
Last Friday, after a week long marathon of living under the coach, Optimus
Prime was back on the road!!!
Three weeks ago the master cylinder failed on the way home. Once I had it up
on jacks, I thought it was time to get some much needed improvements out of
the way.
New master cylinder went on, and power flushed and bled the brake system.
Everything looked good at the time.
2 years ago Ken Burton gave me some really nice chrome steel 16.5" wheels.
At the time, I didn't have the $200 to swap the tires so I put it off. I
figured now would be a good time since the coach was up in the air.
Because of the knowledge available on this forum, I avoided being ripped
off. I took my tires to a recommended place to have the rims swapped. The
guy let the air out of the tire and said "these tires are bad". I knew they
had just turned 6 years old, but I couldn't find 6 new ones in stock and
didn't want to put $900 dollars more into a discontinued tire. I knew they
would make my last few trips of the season, and I'll budget for 16's and new
tires next year.
When I went back to the tire place, Ken Burton's OLD tires were laying there
marked "save/sell". I asked them to show me the bad spots on my other 5
tires and there was nothing marked. I told the guy I knew they were 6 years
old, and he said, "no, these tires are at least 16 years old". I flipped my
tires over, and they were also marked "save/sell"!
Thanks to all the folks here who educated me on Tire dates!!!
I moved on to installing the headers I purchased 6 years ago. My budget
didn't allow to pay anyone a minimum of a $1,000-$2,500 to do this. Based on
everything I read here, and the pictures on the photo site, I decided to do
it myself. Going totally into unknown territory, I started out by breaking
to manifold bolts. I had never done a heli coil before, but again the site
inspired me to do it.
The headers successfully installed, and a new dipstick tube installed
fabricated on the fly by 3/8" brake line, I dropped the old and original
exhaust. It was much worse that I thought. I was basically freeblowing
exhaust out from the manifolds back. I'd bet that one of my mufflers was an
original. The other not completely rusted was split all the way down one
side. The rest of the exhaust was completely rusted out all the way down the
seam. Let's just say it came out real easy and folded nicely! I worked with
a fantastic local exhaust company who would mandrel bend anything I wanted
while I waited. I tipped them because they were swamped and it was a 100
degrees outside, and the prices fell dramatically! Total cost of parts,
including flowmaster 70 was only $570. I used two of the "flex joints past
the headers to take any stress of the exhaust/headers. Works beautifully!!!
It's like driving a brand new coach, and the quietness of the new exhaust
has amazed all the family members!!! The only complaint is my 15 year old
son was looking for something a little louder, and is STILL trying to
convince me to put a cherry bomb glass pack on the back instead of the
flowmaster!
The money I saved by doing the exhaust myself allowed me to retire the front
A/C unit for a larger 15k unit. It was on this site that I read about using
the extension ladder to slide the old one down and the new one up. Talk
about making for an easy job!!! New A/C was on in less than an hour! I have
to rave about the the Coleman Mach 15k unit. It was only $650 with a heat
strip, and this baby is amazing!!! For the first time we used it while we
were driving down the road. It was close to a 100 that day as well (we're
kind of in a heat wave here) and we could actually feel the cold air blowing
on us while driving! A new experience for us!! One of these days I'll redo
the dash air, but for now this is great! Sitting in the very back of the
coach you feel as if a fan is blowing on you! You hear the fan noise, but
you can't here the compressor at all! Dead quiet on the outside as well. Our
favorite campground only has 30 amp service, so this one unit is perfect!!!!
Friday evening we're loaded up and ready to go after 3 weeks of not camping,
lots of hours underneath the coach and everyone is excited. The trip started
out with more excitement than I could ever ask for as we proceeded down the
hill from our house. It's quite a steep hill going down. We always creep
over the top in low anyway, and I'm really glad we did this time because the
new master cylinder failed and we lost the brakes again! Fortunately I just
enough standing on the pedal that we could make the turn at the bottom of
the hill!!!
But hey, we have a GMC, so we went back up the hill, pulled the iPhone
Autozone application up, found a new master cylinder, called my fellow GMC
owner Joe and at 10pm put the new MC on, bled the brakes again, and we're
ready to go again!!!!
Now I just need to install some marine bilge blowers to help move the hot
air out of the engine compartment when we arrive at our destinations.
So again, thank you for your time, patience and wisdom. Ken, thanks for
donating the wheels. She rides and drives better than I could imagine on
round wheels! Next year they will be passed on to my friend Joe and his GMC
when I upgrade to Eagles.
See you in DuQoin!
--
Pete Lyons
New Albany, IN
76 Eleganza II "Optimus Prime"
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