We've been stuck here at home for various reasons, but the time has not been wasted. We keep chipping away at fixes and refinements for Pumpkin.
We made our trip to St. Louis to get the anti-skid and cruise control problem fixed. Thankfully, it was determined to be the right rear wheel speed sensor which was still under warranty - by about three weeks! Anyway, that's done.
I didn't get to Cummins to get the generator fixed before going to St. Louis. So, while at Dusty's I decided to slide under there to see what I could see and I found the problem. There's a tiny little spring that closes the choke when the engine is not running. Once the engine starts, engine vacuum opens the choke and away it goes...supposedly. However, in my case, the spring had become dislodged and would not close the choke. It was nearly impossible to do without pulling the carburetor, but I managed to get the spring re-seated. The generator would start and run now. But, I wasn't very confident in the fix. The spring still seemed loose and I was concerned it might come loose again at the most inconvenient time. I decided to look into it further after I get back home.
So, back home and down underneath I went again. After a close examination, I thought I might be able to to wind the spring one turn tighter which should fix the looseness and reduce the likelihood of it coming loose again. The problem was I needed to remove the carburetor to do it and I couldn't do that without dropping the generator from its perch under the RV just behind the rear axle. I considered doing that, but after close examination decided I wasn't up to the task without putting Pumpkin on a lift.
I was not giving up though. I crawled back under and re-examined the carburetor mounting and decided to try to unmount it enough to get to the spring. And, I was able to do so. However, I couldn't disconnect the throttle linkage. I fiddled and messed with it for some time trying to rewind the spring one more turn and, voilà, I got it! It was now snug and closed the choke firmly, as it should. But, all was not good.
In the process of repairing the spring, the carburetor was more or less hanging by the throttle linkage. I guess the stress dislodged something because after put it all back together, the generator would not rev up to normal RPM operating speed, and as a result, would not turn on the AC. Damn!
I messed with it some more, but just could not see the linkage nor access it to do anything about it. I was going to have to let Cummins fix it after all.
I made an appointment with the local Cummins generator shop. I told them what had been done and what I thought was the problem. They said their shop rate was $140/hr. Wow! Oh, well, how long can it take to drop the generator out, fix the linkage, and put it back in? As it turned out, I cost me about $850! And, what made it even worse was the problem was precisely what I had told them it was and all they did was reconnect the throttle linkage. Damn, again!
The only consolation is, the generator works now.
So, now here we are, still tweaking things, getting ready for our next big trip. Joyce has been trying to "Joycify" the kitchen. She had me remove the microwave which opened up a big space for storage. Then she bought a large shower shampoo/soap hanging rack and had me customize it to serve as a dish drying rack. I made a 3-fan fan set from three computer cabinet muffin fans that run off 12 volts. They are mounted on a Plexiglas panel cut to the same size as the rear window screens. I strap it to the screen and plug it into the 12v cigarette lighter socket that's on the end of the counter. With the window open, the fans quietly blow air across our bunks. It's a lot quieter than the roof vent fan and we don't have to close the window when raining.
Now, if nothing else bends or breaks (including one or both of us) then we plan on hitting the road beginning Labor Day. I'll address that when it happens, however, as I don't want to jinx it by discussing it before the fact.
