One bed ready and the new gasket is here

Today the weather was bad for flying RC planes, lots of rain and wind.  So after coffee at the club house I worked on the bed platform.  Finally finished one bed and the gasket arrived for the oil pan.  I would of never thought that Ford would be the only place that makes the one piece gasket but everyone say's that it is the only way to fix an oil pan leak.
Here are some pictures for today.

One down one to go.

Wilbur meet Smokey

Not much work on the Bagos today.  I did take them both out for a drink at the gas station and a photo op.
My wife and I spent some time in Wilbur getting things together for this weekend.  The memories are pretty strong of all the good times we have had with the old one.  And we wonder if we will like the larger MH.

A couple of nice looking Winnebago's if I do say so myself.

I did pick up a mattress and wood for under the mattress from a friend.  Guess I should get out there and take some more pictures inside.

The new mattress standing in front of the couch.  It's covered in blue.

So I did spend $100.00 on each one today.  That was enough of a workout.

A picture from a Superchief with twin beds.  Not mine and mine will have less room between the beds because I will use regular twin size beds not the smaller RV version of mattress.

It's warm inside now

The UPS man brought me a package today.  A new Dinosaur control board for the furnace and a new water pump.  I like to get new stuff and put the furnace together, checked for leaks and instant fire.............only in the burner.  So that was good to get done.

The new Dinosaur board on the right.

The new board installed.

The new parts for today.

Do you know what this gauge is and what it does????

Then it's time you learned.  You can use it to check for leaks in the LP system.  It's called a manometer and it is behind the fridge.  The short lesson is to have the gas on with no pilot lights on and check the gauge, turn the dial to move the red hand on the gauge to match the black hand, turn off the gas valve by the LP tank, wait 5 minutes and recheck the gauge.  If the red and black hands still match you have no leaks.  Class over.

I kind of like the electronic lighter in the furnace (shown above) but I also like the manual lighter on my 1973 furnace.

This is the propane tank and my outdoor pull out cooking station.

So tomorrow maybe running water.......................

I did order the new oil pan gasket today.  That was quite the ordeal finding the one piece gasket.  No one locally knew anything about it but Ford Racing makes one.  Mine should arrive next week and then the big question........WILL SMOKEY STILL BE SMOKEY AFTER THIS??????
Tune in later on that question.

The oil leak

Today the weather was nicer than the pouring rain we have been having, OH I'm not complaining after seeing what hurricane Sandy is doing on the East coast.  So I even put a little roof sealant on a couple of spots where I had a little drip.
But the big news on the oil leak is I think I have found a one piece gasket for the engine oil pan.  I took a few drives today and think the gasket is what is causing my leak and since I am doing this job I want the best gasket I can get.  Everyone has the 4 piece gasket set but there seems to be one I am looking for.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mr-Gasket-Oil-Pan-Gasket-1-Piece-Rubber-Steel-Core-Ford-221-255-260-289-302-EA-/370637409934

This one fits 1968 to 1997 models, and for the older ones with the larger bolts at the front at back you need to drill out the holes.  I guess there are metal groments in all the holes.

This guy used studs instead of bolts for his oil pan.  Makes lining them up easy.

Make the front 2 and rear 2 holes larger for the bigger bolts.

I did spend some time working on my right front leveler that had a bungie cord holding it up.  Seems like the welds broke so I put some grade 5 bolts in.  It took me awhile to drill the 1/2" holes but it's done.

You can see the new bolts.

The furnace lives

Today (Saturday) started at the WW meeting.  My wife and I do weight watchers and Saturday morning we weight in and attend a meeting, unless  we are off running around like the coming weekend.  I am down 36.4 pounds.  Enough of that.
I took the furnace to the shop where they hooked it up and found that the control board is dead.  No spark or at least very little spark.  A new board was plugged in and presto, plenty of spark.  They hook up the gas and I have heat.  All it needs is a Dinosaur board.  But being cheap and I know you would not want me to spend $139.00 on a part I can buy for $90.00 I order one from a company called RV Parts Outlet. They are about 35 miles away and have internet and store sales but this time the dinosaur board and a new water pump are on special so I will pay some shipping to have the UPS man bring me stuff.
Then I started the bed platforms.  At first I was looking for a queen bed MH but then thought twin beds might be good too, so when I bought Smokey I decided to give the twins a try.

We even went shopping for new mattress's and the twin size is half the size of the king so that means we will have a king bed in Smokey.  The original beds were only 33" wide but a real twin will be 39" wide.  And you know that 6" does make a difference.

More later this afternoon.
Well there seems to be a roof leak.  We have had plenty of rain today and on my new bed platform I saw a few drops of water.  I guess this should not be a surprise since the rain has been steady for most of the day.  Well I started the engine and used the levelers to level out the MH.   I will keep and eye on it and see how it goes.

I did order a roll of LED lights today.  The plan is to install leds in some of the ceiling lights that have fluorescent lights going out.  Check out these articles on what others have done.

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/inexpensive-fluorescent-to-led-upgrade-139025.html

Furnace repair day

The carpet and chairs were still damp this morning from the cleaning yesterday and I wanted to get the furnace working to help dry things out but not today.  I thought that the electrodes were bad so I bought them at the local RV repair place, and of course I get to talk with the guys who work on them, so I get some free repair advice.
But the new probes, as they like to call them still did not spark.  Give me the good old '73 model and get out the match.  They light almost every time.
So the plan right now is I removed the furnace and will take it to the shop tomorrow where the shop will hook it up and tell me whats wrong.  They did that with my '73's furnace and even told me how to adjust it.  This was a free service and if I need a new control board I will probably buy it at http://www.rvpartsoutlet.com/ since they are cheaper.

Here is my heater repair.

The gasket material is cut out for the electrode.

The big cleaning day

Some of you who are following this Blog about fixing up Smokey, know that the inside was kind of............OK it was very dirty.  So today after a morning of flying RC planes with the "Old Guy's" and lunch with some other friends, Sophie and I picked up a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and started on the inside.

It might not look cleaner but it really is.

I can't wait until the morning and see how clean it looks when it is dry.

Our house is now home to cushions from the couch and dinette drying.
And I hope to buy the new electrode for the furnace and see if it will work.
I sure hope so.  The list of things that are not working is getting shorter.