Getting her home... gawd.. the drama..
Posted 11-17-2021 at 10:55 AM by Shinytoaster
325 1984... where do I start...
Well... we had a few beers one July evening back last year... started looking at Airstream travel trailers and saw this crazy wonderful 325 for sale on eBay... before we knew it... we were the proud owners of an RV... oops.
We drove down to Orlando to take a look.. too besotted to walk away, paid the cash and after some road checks started driving. To say it needs a ton of work is a (no so) mild understatement. She has the standard 454 with T400 3 Spd transmission. We got 10 miles.... before it over heated and came to a halt. Cooled off... and got another 10 miles (wash, rinse, repeat 2 more times).
After a fun packed afternoon, we managed to get her to Speegles near Deland in FL. They were fabulous - Justin helped us out big time. Long story short, he looked after her for 9 months while he had the cooling system sorted out and fix a bunch of other mechanical stuff.
Drove down last Friday to pick her up, she started up, he'd test driven her a ways, all seemed golden....paid the bills and headed out. Got another 10 miles.
This time, she conked out after some traffic lights, as I was building speed up. After much hair pulling and anxiety tried to start her... and away she went again... go figure. The wife jumped back in the back up car and I eased out again. 15 minutes later, the same thing happened, seemed like fuel starvation but had put in a new fuel pump and cleared the lines. This kept happening (another 4 times), until I tried keeping the revs up as I slowed by manually down-changing... kept the revs up and she kept running.... she seemed ok.... for another 10 miles
Well I heard another odd noise (there where a lot), then noticed the volts had dropped to 0. some time later she started back firing and farting like all hell had broken loose... at least the look on folks in passing cars was an entertainment. That 454 sure makes an impressive bang. Of course, by this time... we were on the Interstate... joy. And that was that... became undriveable and died.
After a $600 quote to tow her the last 11 miles home, thought about the issue some more and looked under the hood. A bust alternator belt... all nicely wrapped around the crank fan. The original seller said the alternator might not be charging (belt was very very loose) - tightened that (at the time). After some more Q&A went and got anther battery... and BOOM (in a good way), away she went.... 11 miles of pillow driving pleasure
So a question for this electrically inclined - do you think the whole issue was a faulty alternator (or coil), possible voltage regulator.. some overload (other) that broke the belt and cause (all) of the stoppages? As the revs dropped it messed with the electrical system all the way to the coil and spake plugs etc. I guess it could still be fuel, but keeping the revs up it was fine, only when I slowed down.
Thoughts would be greatly appreciated -
I'll have a million other Q's - I'll post in the mechanics corner. At least the (supposedly) dead 7kW generator is now running... sweetly I might add. Now I just have to figure out why there's no house, shore or generator power.. and all the breakers (I can find) are okay. Maybe a hidden converter?... fun fun fun... at least we did sign up for it
Thanks -
Pete
Well... we had a few beers one July evening back last year... started looking at Airstream travel trailers and saw this crazy wonderful 325 for sale on eBay... before we knew it... we were the proud owners of an RV... oops.
We drove down to Orlando to take a look.. too besotted to walk away, paid the cash and after some road checks started driving. To say it needs a ton of work is a (no so) mild understatement. She has the standard 454 with T400 3 Spd transmission. We got 10 miles.... before it over heated and came to a halt. Cooled off... and got another 10 miles (wash, rinse, repeat 2 more times).
After a fun packed afternoon, we managed to get her to Speegles near Deland in FL. They were fabulous - Justin helped us out big time. Long story short, he looked after her for 9 months while he had the cooling system sorted out and fix a bunch of other mechanical stuff.
Drove down last Friday to pick her up, she started up, he'd test driven her a ways, all seemed golden....paid the bills and headed out. Got another 10 miles.
This time, she conked out after some traffic lights, as I was building speed up. After much hair pulling and anxiety tried to start her... and away she went again... go figure. The wife jumped back in the back up car and I eased out again. 15 minutes later, the same thing happened, seemed like fuel starvation but had put in a new fuel pump and cleared the lines. This kept happening (another 4 times), until I tried keeping the revs up as I slowed by manually down-changing... kept the revs up and she kept running.... she seemed ok.... for another 10 miles
Well I heard another odd noise (there where a lot), then noticed the volts had dropped to 0. some time later she started back firing and farting like all hell had broken loose... at least the look on folks in passing cars was an entertainment. That 454 sure makes an impressive bang. Of course, by this time... we were on the Interstate... joy. And that was that... became undriveable and died.
After a $600 quote to tow her the last 11 miles home, thought about the issue some more and looked under the hood. A bust alternator belt... all nicely wrapped around the crank fan. The original seller said the alternator might not be charging (belt was very very loose) - tightened that (at the time). After some more Q&A went and got anther battery... and BOOM (in a good way), away she went.... 11 miles of pillow driving pleasure
So a question for this electrically inclined - do you think the whole issue was a faulty alternator (or coil), possible voltage regulator.. some overload (other) that broke the belt and cause (all) of the stoppages? As the revs dropped it messed with the electrical system all the way to the coil and spake plugs etc. I guess it could still be fuel, but keeping the revs up it was fine, only when I slowed down.
Thoughts would be greatly appreciated -
I'll have a million other Q's - I'll post in the mechanics corner. At least the (supposedly) dead 7kW generator is now running... sweetly I might add. Now I just have to figure out why there's no house, shore or generator power.. and all the breakers (I can find) are okay. Maybe a hidden converter?... fun fun fun... at least we did sign up for it
Thanks -
Pete
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