1984 310 Refurbish to former Glory

[kmpro]

Today' s update.
Furnace installed and tested. 4000 BTUs makes a heckava difference. 34000 BTU furnace is same size as 30000 but will toast your buns in the Silver Queen. Removed old Refrigerator and installed new 2820 Dometic which is two inches shorter than the RM 1303 as originally equipped. Not the end of the world. What a great deal! We have heat and can store food.
Tomorrow we check out the water system and drains, plus tighten belts on the engine and check engine systems. Next week, I am going to the exhaust shop to get all the leaks plugged. Then maybe we get to do something on appearance issues.

Mike

[kmpro]

Mystery solved! Water leak into drawer comes from poorly winterized shower control. So far, we've struck water in two places. Leak from shower last nite, and apparently I did not tighten the toilet fresh water connection enough either. The wet/dry vac is getting a work out needless to say. With city water on every thing that can leak has wet the carpet. I hate the feel of water squishing between my toes in various places. Water leaks are a bummer!

Anybody know of a good source for CO/LPG leak detectors? Trying to practice safety first. Looking for a combination unit if available.

Lots of work taking vent screens down and cleaning them. The 25 years of no TLC os not easy to catch up in a couple of weeks.

Mike

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by kmpro

Mystery solved! Water leak into drawer comes from poorly winterized shower control. So far, we've struck water in two places. Leak from shower last nite, and apparently I did not tighten the toilet fresh water connection enough either. The wet/dry vac is getting a work out needless to say. With city water on every thing that can leak has wet the carpet. I hate the feel of water squishing between my toes in various places. Water leaks are a bummer!

Anybody know of a good source for CO/LPG leak detectors? Trying to practice safety first. Looking for a combination unit if available.

Lots of work taking vent screens down and cleaning them. The 25 years of no TLC os not easy to catch up in a couple of weeks.

Mike

Great! At least you know the source. Do you have weather stripping on the lids?

I used some high density black 1/2" x 1/2" foam rubber when I sealed mine a few years ago. The passenger side stays nice and dry all the time. However when I opened the drivers side yesterday I found everything inside covered with condensation. I'm not sure just how it got in there yet. I'm also not sure if the drivers side has the drain/vent holes in it like the passenger side does. guess I've got some work to do .

Brad

[kmpro]

Turns out the leak was not the shower after all. More repairs done by FO Mr. Fixit. Water line cross threaded on Ice Maker was the culprit. Pulled up the carpet to dry it and cut out water soaked carpet pad. Will replace the pad with new to dry it all out. Snowing like a big dog here tonite, so I won't be doing any outside work tomorrow. Plenty to work on inside anyway. Ordered the CO/LPG Leak Detector from Inland RV.
Brad, I ordered the screens and vent gaskets from Inland to seal up the roof plus seals and weatherstrips to seal the Driver and Passenger windows. Man, have I got a lot work to do on the Silver Queen or what?

Mike

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by kmpro

Turns out the leak was not the shower after all. More repairs done by FO Mr. Fixit. Water line cross threaded on Ice Maker was the culprit.

Have you tried using your ice maker yet? Have any problems getting the cross threading fixed?

When we first got ours I tried ours and nothing happened. As yet I still haven't had time to look into what the problem is. We really do want to get it working....someday .

[quoteBrad, I ordered the screens and vent gaskets from Inland to seal up the roof plus seals and weatherstrips to seal the Driver and Passenger windows. Man, have I got a lot work to do on the Silver Queen or what? [/QUOTE]

I've got all the components also. Again its one of those, when I have time time deals. I planned on doing them this winter but to many other things happening to have that happen. Maybe this spring .

Keep us posted on your window progress and take LOTS of pictures for us!

Brad

[kmpro]

The last couple of days reminds me of a Keystone Kops movie. The water leak in the bath turned out to be tha Qest shutoff valve on the toilet rather than my connection. So I pulled the toilet to dry carpet etc. Bad move. Mildew under carpet. Valve apparently leaked before and FO did not dry up the mess. So, I pulled up the carpet in the bath, hall, and kitchen to check for mold and mildew. I should have left well enough alone. Same condition in hall and in front of sink area. 50/50 Clorox to kill the mold, then encapsulate it with more chemicals. My wife decided to change from carpet to plank flooring in bath, hall and in kitchen. Just what I need. Oh well, just a few added hours to the refurb.

Changed the module in the Hot water heater and now we have hot water! Progress seems pretty slow. Tested water system again and this time no leaks! Woohoo! Replaced fresh water pump with new ShurFlo and we now have a self-contained 310 again. Life is getting better.

Mike

[kmpro]

Two steps forward, three back! Carpet in bath, hall, and kitchen too much mildew for me. So today I went to Lowe's for plank flooring in those areas. Laying flooring in a bath is plenty tough due to the small space. My stainless steel and titanium knees don't like this being down on knees. Plank floor is easy to clean and keep, so my wife says it's worth the effort. Funny. this seems to be more my effort than hers.

More water leaks from Qest fittings. What a bummer! Gad I hate water leaks. New module in the water heater worked one time then went South. You'd think for $ 159 it would heat water more than once. I'm not sure solid state technology is such a bargain. Then I remember trying to light the water heater in our 1963 Overlander in a high wind, and maybe DSI is worth it.

Tomorrow the driver's seat goes to the Trim Shop to replace buttons that have lost covers. Shower drain is on the agenda for tomorrow too. Broken trap puts grey water on the ground, and I'm sure the neighbor in a park would object. In addition to all the above I have to finish the installation of the floor. Keeping Busy.

Mike

[GlenCoombe]

For anyone doing a floating floor for the first time I would suggest starting forward and working back. This will let you get used to fitting all the pieces together and trimming where required. Save the hard part until you've accomplished the learning curve and your finished product will be much better.
Having just done this I would also suggest a coping saw or at worst a hack saw to do the close trim work.as some of the cuts will never see a shoe mold to hide your sins.
As to clean up I can say that a broom beats a vacuum any day. It's worth the hard work.

[kmpro]

HELP-HELP-HELP
The water heater in the Silver Queen is driving me nuts! New Module in w/h and great hot water... one time. Replaced the module in the DSI unit and it won't lite but blows the fuse in the module. Tried two different modules with the same result. I suspect that the high limit is out, but that is strictly a guess on my part.

If you know what my problem is let me know.
Thanks
Mike

[kmpro]

On another part of the forum I got a reference to Just Answer. Todd at Just Answer helped me pinpoint the problem and perform repairs. He sent me an answer to my question and we e-mailed back and forth 3 more times and he replied very quickly. Three cheers for Just Answer. Good news is we now have hot water in the Silver Queen.

Mike

[jking]

Keep on keeping on ... that's the best advice I can offer. It has taken us 17 years to get our Silver Twinkie up to where we are just about fully satisfied with her. Of course, every trip ends with a new page of things that need doing, but that's the way it is. These things are in fact antiques. If you run across a specific problem that you'd like some advice on, please email me. Been there and done that. Meanwhile, good luck.
Jamie
kj4jk@arrl.net
1984 AS 310 diesel Limited

[kmpro]

Thanks Jamie for the words of encouragement. There is so much to do on the Silver Queen it is scary. I have made some headway the last couple of days though. I am doing most of the work myself, mainly because the techs here in Lubbock do not impress me with their level of expertise. Problem is, the bulk of my tools are in our place in Denver and I am doing most of the work here with with what tools I usually have on board in our m/h. Takes a lot more time without air tools and large selection of hand tools. But, we're making it. Inch by inch it's a cinch. Yard by yard its too hard.

[kmpro]

Today brought a bit more headway on the Silver Queen. I got the Drivers seat back from the trim shop with new padding and new buttons in the seat and leanback. Reinstalled seat. Water system sanitized completely. Then flushed. Chassis Lubricated complete, oil & filter changed to Rotella 15W40. Brakes bled and fluid replaced. Extend=A-Stay installed on propane tank and hooked up to 100 lb propane tank. Grey water and Black water tanks flushed and sanitized.
FO screwed up the Everpure filter so I will have to replace it with a new unit. Almost through with the plank floor. Replaced the 13" TV with a new HD TV CD DVD 22". I think the OEM antenna will have to go as the booster on original is shot. I may have to go with satellite so I can have the western channel. Ha!!

[jking]

Did you know, kmpro, that the OEM Winegard folding antenna receives digital VHF and UHF channel signals just as well as an expensive new antenna designed specifically for the new stuff? Go technology!
BTW we bought ours when it was just 4 years old and has slightly over 3k miles. Now 27 years and roughly 200k. One of the secrets is to recognize that the wheels are round for a reason.
Jamie

[kmpro]

Roger that Jamie. Once we get the systems operational, we are down the road.

[kmpro]

Had a good visit yesterday with Pdallas. He was good enough to come to Lubbock from College Station (to visit his daughter at Texas Tech) and he came by to show his 310 to us and first hand see how the refurb of the Silver Queen was going. Got some good ideas from him. Looking forward to using some of the sources for parts he shared with us. Shared lots of road stories and really appreciated seeing how nice his 310 looked. We've got a long ways to go on the Silver Queen.

[kmpro]

Well gang the Silver Queen is getting a new privacy curtain courtesy of my wife. She is making insulated curtain IPO the original which is shot. She is also going to make new drapes for the bedroom to get rid of the "casket look" jobs in there. I am going to make lambrequins to cover the ends of the Roman shades in the living area. Another project to add to the list. We thinking about installing Day/Nite to replace the Roman Shades in the living area. Has anyone done this?? Give me some feedback please.

I have been working on waterproofing the Silver Queen the last couple of days. I have used almost a full tube of Parr-Bond sealing windows and any thing that looked like it could leak water into the wrong places on the Silver Queen. After 25 years, there are many potential leaks that need to be sealed before they actually become leaks. Some sealing was done previously with Vulkem by the FO and so far those were OK.
Since the water leak in the Ice Maker was repaired, I sealed the curbside storage locker and repainted it white inside and put a liner on the bottom, so that compartment is remounted and ready to use.

The exhaust system is coming up for fix pretty soon. Good news is that the manifold is not leaking, but rather the donut at the exhaust pipe on the right side. Saves the time of replacing the manifolds with headers until I can get back to my air tools. The muffler shop will replace the donut, the missing muffler and tailpipe hangers as well as putting on a new tailpipe on the right side.

In checking under the doghouse, I found lots of wiring not in protective looms. Someone had thrown the looms away. Probably at the last sparkplug change, the throwaway artist threw away the splash shield from the left side too. So, looks like I'll be installing wire looms and fabricating splash shields. And the beat goes on.

[bkahler]

Mike,

Sounds like you're making good progress. I take it you're not doing headers for a while yet.

I followed your suggestion and used a jack to slightly raise the counter when I installed my new furnace. Although even with the jack I still had to take the furnace out of the housing and then slightly collapse the housing to get it to fit in. Once the housing was installed I straigthened it and then slid the furnace back in. Of course the holes in the coach skin didn't quite line up with the furnace. After much looking to see what was going on I found that the exhaust port was slightly offset from the intake port. Just enough to make it a bear to get things to line up. Got it done but sure did use a few choice words in the process!

So after 3+ years of ownership we finally have a working furnace. Glad thats over with!

Brad

[kmpro]

We are trying to see if anyone has replaced the Roman shades in the living with Day/Nite Pleated shades? Give me some feedback/ideas.
Thanks
Mike

[guy99]

We have put day/night shades on all our flat windows (4 living-room, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom, 3 bedroom). Much nicer than the combination of curtains and blinds which our 1984 310 had when we got it.