Hello, new to the group & tackling big project

[Air Tube]

I've been surfing this site for about a month. My son-in-law discovered a 1988 345 from an estate & we just purchased yesterday.

It has 31,000 miles & the interior is in good shape except curtains. The home was parked in the previous owners driveway for the past 15 years, winterized (we think) & was well maintained prior to the extended sleep.

So, yesterday we started the process to bring the tube back to life. Took the front wheels off, plugs out, WD40 in, new battery & spun the engine after a few hours of soak from the WD40. Tried to drain & siphon the old gas (varnish) out with no luck. As the gauge indicated 1/2 a tank, we thought we could siphon with a hose (drain wouldn't budge) but couldn't get it into the tank (obstruction?). Decided to take the line loose at the electric pump & let it do the work & no movement (pump doesn't work) so we connected a small gas tank & hose to the mechanical pump. Guess what, it didn't work either so we removed both pumps to replace next week. However, we did poor fuel into the carb & the engine fired right up, sounded great & got about 60 psi oil pressure in a second!

Brake master fluid turned to a white powder, we removed all we could & filled with new fluid, opened the bleeders & pumped. No movement of fluid, but the brakes had some resistance. So we will rebuild master & probably the wheel cylinders when we replace the pumps next Friday.

We are doing the work of course right where it is parked & it is our intention to drive it home! One of the main concerns we have is the tag axle/leveling system as front coil bags are done. So, we will not get pressure to the rear bags/horizontal air shocks that look fine. Air compressor did run & sounds normal.

I'm sure all this info should be in another category, so I'll do some follow up posts in the correct forum. But if anyone has advise, please give us some comments... we are mechanically capable, but totally new to this.

Thanks!

[PaulnGina]

Welcome, and good luck with the rehab. That's a nice motorhome to have found.

[Aviator]

Welcome to the group. There is also a very active Airstream camping group here in GA. Our events are posted at: Southeastern Camping Unit (012) | Moving WBCCI Forward!