First, Dad's injured finger is slowly healing. Some stiches have been removed. He can't bend his finger like he used to yet, but he says he hasn't tried to much either. I will spare you the picture of the cut without the bandage, it is a pretty impressive cut, you can take my word on this!
Nevertheless, Dad slowly resumed working on the Blue Whale. He went back to where he left before the injury: the rear axle inspection. Last week, Dad discovered a problem with the rear brakes, wich seemed the be binding on on side since he was unable to spin the wheel assembly by hand. The wheels would only turn under engine power.
So Dad decided to get the wheels off on that side. Since he also wanted to inspect the wheel bearings and the differential, he simply pulled the drive shaft off the axle. This rear axle is a Dana 70, with a 4.56 ratio, as found in most Travco motorhomes and some Dodge light trucks.
Once he took the shaft out, Dad loosen the big nut that retains the wheels on the spindle. But to his surprise, as soon as the nut got a bit loose, the wheels got free! Binding brakes my ... . Believe it or not, the brakes were not binding at all, this wheel assembly was almost jammed simply because someone had overthightened the bearings!
These bearings are standard cone roller bearings. Usually, when the wheels are installed on the spindle, the big nut that holds it in place is very slightly tightened, just enough to get rid of any play. Too tight will cause the bearing to overheat and eventually fail, and if not tight enough there will be some play in the bearings, wich can also cause the bearing to fail eventually. So the correct tightening of this nut is critical, you cannot tighten it right unless you know what you are doing. And obviously, the last person who worked on this didn't knew much about cone roller bearings and grossly over tightened them.
Dad looked carefully at the bearings to make sure they were not damaged. At first sight they look quite good. The motorhome has probably been driven a few miles only since the bearings were messed with. Dad himself had only driven the coach 3 times since he bought it, 3 shorts drives of much less than an hour. An overtightened bearing doesn't fail because of the mechanichal stress, but because the high pressure inside the bearing pushes the grease out, so the bearing overheats and fails because it lacks lubrication. Luckily, the bearings on this axle are not lubricated with grease, but by the differential oil. Oil is much thinner than grease and even though the bearings were too tight the oil probably lubricated them enough to spare them. Lubricated with grease, these bearings would have probably failed.
Upon inspection, it is clear that these bearings, at some point, ran quite hot. Dad will let his good friend Gerry have the final word on the bearings. Gerry is a very knowledgeable mechanic, and if he says they are still good, we'll take his word on this.
All this bearing story supports Dad's way of restoring his old Travco: since he doesn't know anything about the history of the vehicle, the knowledge of those who maintained it during the last 32 years, better not take anything for granted and check abolutely everything, always make sure things are working good and are in good working order. And if not, fix them. Everything was perfect on the front axle (brakes, bearings, suspension, sterring, etc), and it would have been easy to skip the rear end, thinking it's the same.
Brake fluid leak
Also last week, a brake line started to leak badly on the motorhome. In fact, the line for the right front wheel blew open. This line is attached to the rear transmission support brace, and that's where rust caused the line to leak. Dad used Vise-Grips to prevent fluid from leaking out slowly and air to enter the system during the time he was working on the rear wheel bearings.
Dad began to carefully inspect all brakes lines. Generally speaking, most of the lines are in pretty good shape, with very little rust. However, on certain specific spots, there is significant corrosion, especially under the metal clips that hold the lines to the frame. Some parts of the lines have been replaced already by previous owners. Inspection of these lines is not an easy task, because of the way they are installed within the frame. Dad will probably have to use sandblast where he can't reach the lines with his steel brush. Dad has already replaced many brake lines before on various vehicles, he has the right tools to cut, bend and fit these lines.
The brake shoes themselves are in good condition. Dad noticed a slight rust on the brake cylinders. This could eventually cause some problems: pistons may seize, fluid may leak, etc. He's thinking about taking everything off and fix that right away while he's there. Or he may forget this for now, and wait for the problems to appear (if they ever appear). My advise is to forget about it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, fixing this won't be more work later than it is now, and he may never have to fix it anyway. But that's just my opinion...
Because of his injury, Dad was forced to work on some 'light duty' projects:
Propane tank
Dad cleaned the propane tank and repainted it (some masking tape still showing on the photo). We have no idea if this tank is still good or if it will have to be recertified. The valve seems quite recent, but we couldn't find any date stamped anywhere. A visit to a LP gas specialist will clear that up easily in due time.
Locking handles
Dad installed new locking handles on the right front storage compartment. Same thing on the propane accces panel (wich was held in place with wood screws) and the genset compartment (wich was held close with a clever high-tech device called a "bungee cord").
Front seats
One of the minivan seats that Dad bought needed some repairs. It had a few broken springs and the inside foam was crushed on one side. Dad fixed that, and the seat is now ready to get cleaned and installed.
Carpet
The engine cover (dog house) has been covered with the new carpet. That wasn't easy to do, since the thing has round edges and curves, but the result is good looking. I'll snap a few pictures once the rest of the carpet is installed, as for now the inside of the motorhome looks like a war zone.
Fridge
The new fridge was bought last week, but the new vent grille was out of stock. Hopefully my next posting will be about the fridge install, sometime around next Friday. See ya!
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