Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » Fall GMCMI Rally in Chippewa falls (just a few photos)
| Re: Fall GMCMI Rally in Chippewa falls [message #367031 is a reply to message #367022] |
Sun, 03 October 2021 19:36   |
dsmithy
Messages: 210
Registered: July 2012
Location: Lincoln Nebraska
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I posted this on the other forum, but many that are here aren't there. Good news coming from a GMCMI convention ought to be welcomed.
I apologize for this long post, but this seems to be a good place to convince skeptics that GMCMI conventions offer great and sometime unexpected delights. This was the second GMCMI convention we've attended. The first we arrived late because of cooling problems with the coach (solved by help from an attendee). This time we were there for the whole thing and had a fine time. The reason you go though is to learn things.
First example:
In the GMC 101 Session a guy held up his fusible link and said "this looks great, doesn't it?' He then bent it and said "but there's nothing inside, the wire burnt up on the way to this convention." He then proceeded to tell us where the fusible link starts and ends. (It starts at "battery positive" and ends at the horn relay) That fusible link feeds most everything on the dash and other important stuff. I have owned my coach for 25 yeas and have heard fusible link stories for 24 but I've never had a problem with it so I never really learned where it was. 20 minutes later I'm looking in my right (passenger) access panel at my fusible link and knowing for the first time in 25 years what it was. Jeff Serum said to go out and buy a 12V 30A breaker to replace the wire and fire will not be an option. Sweet.
Second example:
In the same GMC 101 question and answer session Larry Weidner says "You really should have someone else drive your coach from time to time. Some problems are very slow onset and you don't recognize them but someone who has driven their own coach may recognize it right off the bat." So I asked him to drive mine.
More information came from that test drive that I could possibly have imagined. 6 wheel disk brakes that I installed, Check. He liked the way the coach stopped. Steering and front end, Check. He said it tracks and steers very well with little or no slop. Floored it in 3rd gear up a hill... Uh-Oh... No transmission kickdown, no change in power, lots of pre-ignition (Ping), and no secondary opening of the Quadrajet. So, the timing is screwed up (I did that just before the convention.[SH!T]. There is a vacuum issue or faulty kickdown switch on the accelerator. My Quadrajet installation has to be inspected and monitored at speed and problems corrected. Larry said my coach runs really well if it is driven easily and the secondaries are not invoked, but that the ignition advance could damage things and each of these things should be corrected ASAP.
The power thing I had wondered about, the transmission thing I didn't care about because I don't drive the coach that hard (fast but not hard). But the timing thing, that was a revelation. At light throttle the coach is fabulous, scoots up hills, tries to get me to 75mph when I don't want to, gets (for a GMC) good mileage so I had little motivation to change things. But Larry has more experience with coaches, has better hearing than (old fart) me, is a terrific mechanic and knew the damage potential if things were left untouched.
I could end here and say I learned a lot, but wait there's more.
Chatting with Wally Anderson (40 miles from me, but we'd never met) he offered to help diagnose and solve the problems. Win, Win and Win. Good things confirmed by a knowledgeable driver, bad things diagnosed and a splendid mechanic found to help fix them.
THATS why you go to GMCMI conventions.
Campfires, banquets, breakfasts, coach tours-- you may or may not like the social stuff, but the diet of information and good-will trumps any reluctance to dance in front of strangers. Oh, and I got a new drivers-side windshield installed by someone who's done GMC's for over a decade. They are really good.
So, sorry no pictures. Just a random story from someone who's really glad he went.
Doug
Douglas & Virginia Smith,
dsmithy18 at gmail,
Lincoln Nebraska,
’73 “Sequoia” since ‘95: "Wanabizo";
Quadrabag/6 wheel disks/3:70 final/Paterson QuadraJet/Thorley’s/Alloy wheels/Sundry other
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