'74 Argosy 20' Motorhome restoration/rebuild

[bpg_austin]

Beautiful picture Brad. Man, I miss snow.. Sorry about the Kubota! Snow/cold is gorgeous to view, but not so much fun to work in!

[mayco]

I was wondering how you were getting along, it looked like Kentucky got hit pretty hard.

[bkahler]

We only get snow a few times a year and normally it's only a few inches at a time. Last year and this year though have seen huge snow storms. Fortunately the snow will likely be gone by the end of the week as we're supposed to get rain and warmer temperatures starting today.

My fault on the Kubota. I had the filter and just never took time to replace it. I'll try and be more consistent on it's maintenance from now on!

Brad

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by mayco

I was wondering how you were getting along, it looked like Kentucky got hit pretty hard.

It started snowing Friday morning and kept it up through Saturday morning. The Kubota front bucket makes just a wide enough path that my little Ranger 4x4 has a path to drive through. I think the biggest worry is going to be flooding due the warm temperatures and rain expected starting today.

[Hittenstiehl]

Bkahler you sure do live in a beautiful spot. That's a very nice tree lined driveway.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Hittenstiehl

Bkahler you sure do live in a beautiful spot. That's a very nice tree lined driveway.

Thanks! Other than all the mowing during the spring, summer and fall it's great

[mayco]

Brad, I have a question for you if youre willing. Ive been thinking about the chassis battery during the cold winter months where there are long periods between engine runs. I keep the 310 plugged into shore power just about 100% of the time while stored next to the house. I have an upgraded 3 stage converter that I installed a couple years ago. I check the fluid in my batteries a few times throughout the year. I have cured all parasitic drains on the chassis battery, at least for now. My question is, do you foresee any problem with running a jumper cable from my coach batteries to the chassis battery during these stretches of low use and cold temps in order to keep the chassis battery at full charge along with the coach batteries through the 3 stage converter? I think I would only need to connect the positive posts since they share the same ground. The chassis battery is not draining all the way or anything but over time it will drop to 12.4 during the winter.

Would you mind sharing your thoughts on this?

Thanks as always,

Mike

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by mayco

Brad, I have a question for you if youre willing......

Would you mind sharing your thoughts on this?

Thanks as always,

Mike

Mike, I know I am not Brad (), but if you promised not to show this picture to anyone, I will share it with you... (Its clipped to 1 post for demonstration purposes only, normally its tugged away elsewhere doing non use)
No comment, no encouragement, no justification, nada

[mayco]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I get you. Clever and easier to get to. Thank you. I give you my absolute word of honor that this picture shall not be shared beyond this point! In fact, Peter who????? (but really good idea)

Salutations

[bkahler]

The only comment I have on tieing all the batteries together for long durations on the coach charger is I believe the coach charger is expecting the batteries to be all the same type, size, etc. A weak battery could cause the charger to over charge the other batteries.

A weak battery would pull the buss voltage down causing the charger to raise the charge voltage which I believe could cause over charging.

I'm not a battery expert but I think this what would happen.

I used to use a solar charger that plugged into the cigarette lighter and it kept the engine battery topped off. When my Argosy is done I am going to set up a trickle chager that I will plug in when I'm on shore power to keep the engine battery charged.

[mayco]

Thank you for the advice Brad, that makes sense. I have a trickle charger on board and use it to occasionally top off the chassis battery. I guess I was wanting to be lazy and have a "set it and forget it" type situation. I understand what youre saying though.

Mike

[martin300662]

Just to share an alternate approach; we can charge to house batteries from the Magnum (via generator or shore power), or from the Zamp, or from a battery tender. So have lots of options to keep the house batteries charged. If not using for a period of time we use the tender. But having the battery tender connection really makes sense if you get a dual/multi-channel tender because then you can have one channel on the house batteries and one to the chassis battery, on separate trickle charges.

[bkahler]

I spent 5 hours under the Argosy this morning removing the old holding tank support frames and various other odds and ends. Also started to remove the transmission mount and realized again just how difficult Airstream made these things to work on.

I'm not a fan of using a cutting torch underneath a vehicle but in my case the fuel tanks have been removed so I'm not quite as concerned. Still no fun using a torch and a grinder while laying on your back

I've got maybe another hour of cleanup yet with a grinder and then I can actually get to the real task which is to remove and relocate the transmission mount.

My rough calculations point to moving the mount rearward about 2-7/8". There are only two problems with doing so. The first is removing the four bolts that bolt the top part of the mount to the frame rail. You can't push the bolts up out of the way because the floor is to close to the frame rail so there is no place for the bolt to go.

The second is once I get the old bolts out I need to drill four new holes in the top of the frame rail once I move the mount rearward to it's new position. I've got an idea or two on how to do that but no matter what I do it's going to be a pain in the back side

The other aggravating issue is once I get the bolts removed from the mount you can't actually remove the mount from the chassis. The way GM constructed the chassis the mount can't be physically removed. You can slide it forward and back with no problem you just can't remove it from the chassis. When I dismantled the 345 I was able to remove the mount because I cut the chassis into pieces. I don't really want to take that approach with my Argosy!

Oh well, I didn't have anything else planned for today

Brad

[bkahler]

Here's two of the problem bolts. You can just see the bolt heads in the first picture. The bolts are about 1" long and there is no room to push them up and out of the way. What makes it even harder is right above the bolt heads is a 1"x2" tube that is part of the floor structure.


I can think of three possible options to get the bolts out. One is to use a sawzall with a really long metal cutting blade to try and slice the heads of the bolts off.

The second is to use a torch and cut the heads off. I would have to slide a piece of sheet metal between the bolt head and the aluminum skin to keep from melting the aluminum.

The last option is to literally cut the transmission mount into three or more pieces. That is the worst option by far and I'll have to think long and hard before I do that. The good news is I have a complete intact mount from the 345 that I can use should I have to cut the original into pieces

My preference is the sawzall but if that doesn't work then I'm pretty sure torching the bolt heads off will.

Here's another shot of the transmission mount.

[PeterH-350LE]

There must be a reason why you can't unbolt and unrivet the lower portion of trans mount and then drop it down enough to get it away from the bolt and just leave the bolts hanging?
If that doesn't work, I have another suggestion for you:
Great a fence post and snap those bolts with a wrench on top?
Grade 8?

[bkahler]

Peter, that's certainly a fourth option. The main issue I have with rivets especially frame rivets is they are a real bear to remove. A little while ago I was practicing on the 345 mount that I have by trying to remove those rivets. A combination of drilling through the rivets, cutting the heads off and a huge amount of beating with a hammer and punch got three rivets out. Less hammering would have been necessary if I had drilled larger holes.

I'll give it a try later tomorrow or Monday evening. Tomorrow morning I am going to start installing new windows at my friends house that I've working on the last few months.

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Peter, that's certainly a fourth option. The main issue I have with rivets especially frame rivets is they are a real bear to remove. A little while ago I was practicing on the 345 mount that I have by trying to remove those rivets. A combination of drilling through the rivets, cutting the heads off and a huge amount of beating with a hammer and punch got three rivets out. Less hammering would have been necessary if I had drilled larger holes.

I'll give it a try later tomorrow or Monday evening. Tomorrow morning I am going to start installing new windows at my friends house that I've working on the last few months.

My experience has been that they are not like grade 8 bolts, due to the fact that a rivet has to expand to set.
I would rather drill a Frame rivet out than messing with those grade 8 bolts. Look at the positive side of this route. You will be able to disassemble the Trans frame much easier if needed in the future, once you replace the rivets with bolts.

[bkahler]

It's amazing how well rivets hold things together. Their expansion is what makes them so difficult to remove. I don't know that I've ever had to try and drill through grade eight bolts. Not something I would look forward to either

Drilling out the rivets and lowering the top piece down is probably the best approach. To be honest I can see no other way that the transmission could be removed from the chassis if the engine is still in place. If you can't slide the cross member back you can't get the transmission out.

If Martin does have to pull his transmission to fix the shifting issue then he might have to try this method as well.

[bkahler]

Spent about an hour this evening on the transmission mount and was able to remove three rivets. That leaves three more to go. If the transmission was still installed this job would be a lot harder especially for the two rivets on the front side.

As it is once the rivets are removed the top part of the mount will likely still not be able to be freed from the chassis. But at least I'll be able to relocate it for the 4L80e installation.

I still haven't decided the best approach to drilling new holes on the frame rails. I figure that task will likely have to wait until the transmission is re-installed. Until the transmission is in place I can't locate the holes anyway

[wxbuoy]

Wish we lived there, i could take the moho to the end of the driveway once a month and call it a camping trip!


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