I got started early this morning at eight and the first thing i did was start it up. It has not run for about a week and I expected to have a difficult time. Luckily it was warm out at about 40F and it didn't take many attempts to get it to idle. I backed it up to the garage and got the goodies out.
The light I bought didn't have a ground wire so I had to take them apart and solder a ground lead. that only took about twenty minutes. The weather was beautiful and the sun was peeking out, it was a perfect day to do this. After about an hour or so I had five of the seven red markers done.
After I finished the red marker lights I moved onto the generator, I was really curious to see if it worked. I opened the hatch to see the Kohler 4000 watt gen-set.
It was pretty clean for an old generator. I checked the oil and shut the main breaker to the left off. I pushed the start button and. . . nothing. Well I figured that there must be a switch or something that I was missing. I opened the hood and looked for anything. Then it occurred to me that it may have its own battery. So I walked back to the generator hatch and looked around. There was a battery sized hatch directly to the left of the genny. I opened it and there it was a Die Hard deep cycle battery which was stone cold dead. I fetched my car, borrowed a set of jumper cables and hooked up the battery. Ok, now I have some time to kill.
I had purchased some cleaning supplies and I decided I would go to town on the interior which used to be a playground for small gray furry creatures. There were dropping everywhere. good thing was the prior owner had laid down a type of foam grippy stuff on most of the shelving and all I had to do was roll it up, throw it out and attack with Lysol. The kitchen cleaned up real nice.
The stove does not look like it was ever used and the cabinets and sink are in ok shape. I may replace all of this later but for now it will serve fine.
Here is another shot of the interior.
This is the living area, I have some things stored from the move and a stack of cushions that need to be cleaned cluttering up the room but it is spacious.
Well now I want to test the systems so I get my power extension and RV plug to 110 adapter. I start by turning all the circuits off. and I unplug the refer and mystery plug next to it.
Here is a shot of the main circuits.
Everything is labeled and easy to figure out so now I switch the selector to off. The selector allows me to switch between the generator and line power. I plug in the extension, take a deep breath an flip the selector to line. Nothing happened, but in this case it's a good thing. I switch the main on and nothing, again good. I take a stroll around the RV with my power tester (my Dewalt battery charger) and check all the outlets. No power.
Next I throw the breaker labeled General and go back inside. This time I noticed that the light above the sink is on. Yes, we have power. The outlets however are still dead. I test all the lights and they all work.
Next breaker to go is the one labeled appliances. I flip it and everything is good. I test all the outlets and find they are now all on, even the one for the fridge. One note about the fridge, I was told by the owner that it did not work so that is why I unplugged it.
There is one last breaker, the one for the roof air conditioner. I flip it and go inside. I turned the switch on the ac to low fan and it came on, then to high fan and it sped up. Now for the litmus test, I turn it to low ac and it seemed to work, then to high ac and again it was faster. I will not be able to tell if the ac is working until it gets warmer out, but I'm optimistic.
Ok, now I'm ready to try and start the generator. I go over to it and push the start button and this time it started to spin slowly. Then it sped up a bit but it did not seem to be firing yet. I let it rest for a minute and I checked to be sure both of the fuel shut offs where open. I pushed the button again and this time it spun faster but still no action. let it rest again and tried for a third time, this time it started to cough and dance on the isolation mounts so I held the button. It started to fire and I made a mental note that it needs a muffler. It seemed to be running on its own now all be it rough so I let go of the starter and it kept running. The smell of old gas was permeating the air and as I write this I can still smell it on my clothes. It was shaking and bucking and I pushed the stop button to do some tinkering but when it stopped gas started to pour out the air cleaner. Well there's my problem it was getting too much gas!. I will now look for a carb rebuild kit and it should be good to go.
I should have mentioned that I had deployed the awning to see it's condition and to keep the rain and snow off of me while working. Our weather newscasters are not very accurate so the awning served well as shade.
At this point I think it was close to sixty degrees out.
One last project I had planned was to remove the drivers chair and move it back two inches. I accept that I am a large person but these vans were made for little people.I unbolted the mount from the floor and removed the seat. The floor is solid and the bolts looked new.
I carried the seat into the shop where I removed it from the mount.
I drilled a set of hole two inches back.
And I welded an angle iron to the rear to accommodate the other two holes. I ran to the local hardware super store and bought a can of white Rustoleum. I cleaned and painted the base an reassembled everything.
The seat is now in a perfect spot.
That's enough for today. I will return tomorrow afternoon and play with the van's carburetor.
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