'74 Argosy 20' Motorhome restoration/rebuild

[martin300662]

Great progress but I'm not sure you will be ready for the motorhome get together Brad!

[bkahler]

Well I could always load it on my 18' flatbed trailer and haul it up to the get together

The way it sits right now it probably only weighs about 3,500 lbs., an aluminum shell and chassis can't weight all that much.

[martin300662]

That would work Brad!!!!

[bkahler]

Not sure I want to go through this again!


I have a turbo diesel now which would help but I just don't think I could justify the trip

[mayco]

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do Brad, haul it on up!!

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by mayco

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do Brad, haul it on up!!

At first it sounded tempting but then I realized just how much beer and wine was going to be flowing and realized that I need to keep the Argosy as far away as I can from all of you

[mayco]

Ill be pounding back some iced tea, we'll share with ya

[bkahler]

Make it ice water and you're on

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by martin300662

No Brad other than the shop reporting 'there was nothing to bolt it to (which could mean either the arm or the hole). I'am not going to order new ones until I pick Bella up and look for myself.

As expected Bella doesn't have a V crank arm on the passenger side



But the cross member appears to have already been drilled to take the thread top of the damper (the circled, 1/2" whole appears new), although that area of the cross member resembles Swiss cheese due to the number of holes!



And the guy in the repair shop is confident he can get access to the top nut from below (there are a couple of openings to the box section). So I left Bella at the shop and he will try and get a V type crank arm on Monday.

[bkahler]

Martin, I have a new in the box passenger side GM bell crank with the arm for the steering damper.

Send me a PM or email if you're interested.

Brad

[martin300662]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Will all of that being said this picture shows where the hole needs to be drilled for the shaft of the stabilizer. Pretty straight forward and easy to do.
Attachment 255256

Hi Brad, I have been studying this photo and it looks like your position is slightly different from the location of the hole I have (mine looks to be about an inch lower).

I remember one of the other guys (maybe Mike?) posted measurements of the location, but I can't find them anymore - do you remember them?

- Martin

[mayco]

Here is the post about the measurements

Ok,
1. From center of mounting hole on bell crank to attachment on front cross member 19 5/8"
2. From frame rail to center of stabilizer is 6 1/8". As you can see in the pic, the frame rail attaches to the cross member with a curved plate so impossible to get measurement from the frame rail to the mounting hole. So I came back a few inches to clear the curved joint plate and took measurement to center of stabilizer.
3. Measurement from outside end of cross member to center of mounting hole for stabilizer 13"
4. Measurement from bottom of cross member to center of mounting hole for stabilizer is 1 3/4"

All measurements to mounting holes were taken to center of hole

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by martin300662

Hi Brad, I have been studying this photo and it looks like your position is slightly different from the location of the hole I have (mine looks to be about an inch lower).

I remember one of the other guys (maybe Mike?) posted measurements of the location, but I can't find them anymore - do you remember them?

- Martin

Martin, no guarantees that where I marked the hold is correct. I used the eyeball method of making sure the cylinder was parallel and level and then marked the front frame member.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by mayco

Here is the post about the measurements

Ok,
1. From center of mounting hole on bell crank to attachment on front cross member 19 5/8"
2. From frame rail to center of stabilizer is 6 1/8". As you can see in the pic, the frame rail attaches to the cross member with a curved plate so impossible to get measurement from the frame rail to the mounting hole. So I came back a few inches to clear the curved joint plate and took measurement to center of stabilizer.
3. Measurement from outside end of cross member to center of mounting hole for stabilizer 13"
4. Measurement from bottom of cross member to center of mounting hole for stabilizer is 1 3/4"

All measurements to mounting holes were taken to center of hole

Thanks Mike! That takes all the guess work out of it

[martin300662]

Thanks Mike!

[bkahler]

This morning I decided it was time to look over the headlight buckets to make sure my LED conversion parts will fit.



Unfortunately all the bits are to rusty to dismantle I might try dunking the whole thing in my electrolysis tank but that will have to wait until the tank unfreezes. We have a cold spell here and if I don't have something cooking in the tank it freezes.

On the assumption that I will likely have to replace the buckets I started googling to see what I could find. The only thing I could find that seemed to be a match was the headlight buckets from a 1957 Chevy truck! I won't know for sure until I can get the head light bucket dismantled but they sure do seem to match.



Another thing I found disappointing is the "trim" ring is made of ABS plastic. That was disappointing to me as well. I'll have to see if I can find a nice chrome trim ring to fit. Who knows, maybe one from my Triumph TR4 will work



Brad

[Gregsch]

Brad ,

I got the replacement headlight buckets for my Classic MoHo from ClassicParts.com. Look at their part #48-375, it might work for your Argosy.

Also, I stumbled on this pic of my steering stabilizer with the bumper removed. Thought it might be helpful.

[Gregsch]

Found a few more pics that might help. Do you think this is a super steer? Do you think it was an aftermarket part installed by a previous owner?

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Gregsch

Brad ,

I got the replacement headlight buckets for my Classic MoHo from ClassicParts.com. Look at their part #48-375, it might work for your Argosy.

Thanks for the link. I'll see if they have something like what's on my Argosy.

Also, I stumbled on this pic of my steering stabilizer with the bumper removed. Thought it might be helpful.

That access opening looks to be the same as on my old 84 310. Of course I couldn't see the one on my 310 since the valance was in the way but by feel that seems about right

[bkahler]

Haven't spent much time working on the Argosy lately. Friday morning we were hit with a nice snow storm and by Saturday morning there was around 14-16" of snow on the ground.

I'm not much into scooping snow so I used my little Kubota tractor to back drag the driveway to clear a path. Worked pretty good until the Kubota decided to stop running! Took me several hours to replace the filter, bleed the injectors and get it running again.

This morning I finally ventured out in my 4x4 Ford ranger and made it to the top of the driveway From the road to my garage is about 1200'.


At least I can make it to work in the morning.