Coachmen Leprechaun

Now I know why gearbox builders charge so much!

It's been a solid few days worth of work and I'm not quite finished yet, but I'm almost there.

The lions share of the work was cleaning, removing rust and measuring tolerances.

I stripped the transmission down a couple of weeks back and pressure washed the empty transmission case. Taking care to shoot compressed air through every orifice to make sure I had no detergent/water anywhere. Then to be double sure, I left it in the hot press for a few days.

Mmmm, thats a lot better...


I then got to stripping down the sub-assemblies. Lots of sludge and surface rust to be removed. This planetary assembly looks worse than it was. The "rust" wiped away quite easily on most of it. I guess some of it is the red transmission fluid mixed with rust/sludge.


I was very lucky that the rust wasn't bad on critical surfaces. One or two areas had very minor pitting, but nothing that some fine 3M pads wouldn't solve. Lower Planetary & output shaft cleaned up nice and rebuilt.


So, reassembly... how hard can it be??



Well to be honest, it wasn't too bad. With the help of the workshop manual, and a dude on YouTube (Oldsmob455) who did a fantastic step-by-step video on rebuilding the TH400, I was well covered. I must've watched these videos ten times before reaching for a spanner!



The book was very useful too, with a lot of "tips of the trade".


This transmission is packed with lip-seals, O-rings & valves, so I had to be super clean and very patient putting everything back together... HOPEFULLY I've done everything right and by-the-book!

_{(You can't beat the oul' CMP milk crates for this kind of work can you eh!!)}


Carol's Dad was away this weekend so I didn't have access to his hydraulic press in his garage. So I fabbed up a quick press at home out of bits I had available. A few scraps of 2"X2" box section and an oul 2 ton car jack... I'm quite proud of this one... So proud I even gave it a shot of paint!



Only a small bit of pressure required to compress the springs and remove the C clip on this clutch pack.


It's main purpose was to press some bushings. I'm not sure I'd use it for very big stuff, but it got me out of a bind this weekend, so it's done it's job well.



All that's left to do now is finish up the valve body and fit the oil pan and then I'll be ready to bolt the transmission to the engine!!

At this stage my sights are far lower.

I'd make do with getting over to "Dicks Field" in Ardmore for a couple of days!!!

No other van. It'll have to be the Coachmen of course!


Thanks to you all for sticking with me on my little resto journey!

Time to get these two re-acquainted.

It’s been too long...

For ease of access, I figured I'd better block the smog ports on the exhaust manifolds before I put the engine into the camper. There isn't much room at the sides of engine once it goes back in.

I had planned to weld them shut, but someone suggested using ball bearings, grub screws and a little bit of gun-gum, so that's what I did. Keeping it reversible is a good idea just in case I need to do something with emissions later.


Finally, the engine is down off the stand and attached to the transmission! I used my lidl electric winch to get it down off the rotisserie stand that it's been bolted to for the last year or two. The winch is rated for 250kg so i had to do some careful staging to get these boys together. The engine is 260kgs and the transmission is 140kg. I'm glad to report everything went together fine, no drama.


The next test is to see if my tractor hoist can lift the combined weight of 400kgs.. I think it will be OK. The tractor weighs 600kg with an additional 100kg of counterweight on the front, so it should be fine...

I'm hoping to fit the engine & Trans on Tuesday evening...

Agreed, it's probably close even with the counterweight on the front. I might look at putting a couple of outriggers on the foot of the hoist for good measure.

I did a red-neck load test when i first lifted the engine with the hoist. I put my full weight down on the boom. Even with my weight and the weight of the engine combined, the front of the tractor didn't come up, and I'm a good bit over 100kg...

I won't be lifting the engine/trans with the tractor hydraulics. The 8 ton hydraulic jack will do the heavy work.

I could add more weight to the the front if necessary. A 1" bar slides through the counterweight and I can slip on a few cast iron dumb-bells, so I could probably add another 50-60kg to the front if needed. Or I could just get an overweight friend to sit on the bonnet while we're pushing the engine into place!

That's a bloody brilliant idea!

Get in ya good thing....

No problem!

Before I started making an outrigger I decided to lift the engine & trans to see what happened. It lifted up with no fuss so I drove on without having to modify the hoist. I added a few extra KG's to the front counterweight alright just for good measure.

I went as far as removing the jockey-wheel from my trailer but I didn't need it in the end!

I needed a bit of help from the family to maneuver the lump into place, but it plopped in with no drama.

Very proud of my tough little baby tractor...

Next project this coming Easter weekend is clearing out all the cupboards in the camper, taking the overhead lockers down, and replacing the ceiling front to back. Mrs C is looking forward to cracking on with the new cushions and curtains so I've got to get the messy work out of the way first before we make our improvements on the back half.

Oh, and I have the bleedin' C licence theory test on Saturday. Its all go this weekend!

Wish me luck!!

Sher what else would I be doing on a wet Easter Sunday... Handy way to check for leaks anyway, perfect day for it.
I guess you could say I'm fully committed to replacing this ceiling now!

I was expecting to find rot, but to my surprise things were in good shape up there. I only had three leaks. Two I already knew about and one new discovery by the side of the fridge.
One of the known leaks was caused by the railing up on top. Vertical support posts screwed down to the roof.

So, this is what it looked like originally. The plywood looked ok (ish) but was de-laminated and very soft to the touch:


It was easy to pull down the rotten wood with a cro-bar: In the areas I've circled, you can see the remains of the rusted screws that originally held two of the vertical support posts in place. These screws would have been screwed down into the 3/8" plywood.


The surrounding frames were not rotten thank god.

The railing is decorative, or at a stretch it might be useful to stop branches from damaging the roof hardware up on top. Either way its a feature I'd like to keep. I'll need to find a better way to seal these pads to the roof though.

I still need to find out how the water is getting in over the fridge. It isn't a major leak. The only thing I found was about 4 square inches of damp insulation.

Patching:

I finally got to use this combination tool that I bought in Lidl years ago. I haven't used it until now. It was perfect for flush cutting the ceiling away from the walls and carefully cutting out the rotten plywood in the roof.

The scrap piece of aluminium you see below is slipped in between the plywood and thin aluminium roof skin to stop me from cutting through the skin. Cutting through that would be......... bad.



Trimmed back to good solid plywood.


New repair glued 'n screwed into place.


Today, I spent some more time checking the side walls. Paranoia. Thinking if water got into the ceiling, surely it made its ways into the walls too. I poked through all of the cabinets to the bottom of the walls, but I couldnt see any signs of wet insulation or rotten timber, so HOPEFULLY I'm off the hook on the side walls. I already know I have some minor issues on the rear wall which I dried out last year. Thankgully most of the frame is ok. Only a couple of bits need replacing before I re-sheet the wall with 3mm ply.


Time for a beer now... :drink:

Oh, and I passed the Theory test on Saturday so theres no need for any "lug slapping" Martin!

Yes! Thats an option for sure. I'll have to mull it over and see which is the best way to sort it.

For now I'll just use some sikaflex and stainless screws on the pads. I think a bigger fix is probably needed overall though.

Fibreglass would be a solid solution.

No harm in updating the insulation in the ceiling I s'pose...

(40mm Kingspan on the right)

When removing the seat cushions, I noticed the backing fabric on the cushions had the coachmen logo on them. (a Dalmatian dog standing in front of the planet earth). Very 70's....
I didn't notice this detail before. I must try to do something with the fabric. (save it at least):

Regarding the new insulation, theres only 40mm of clearance between the outer roof and the inner ceiling at the thinnest point (by the walls), so all I can get in there is 40mm of foam board. I might be able to put some of the old fibreglass mat in the middle where the space opens up to 70mm just to recycle what I have. The roof has an arched curve to it so there's a bigger gap in the middle of the roof. You can see it in this pic:


We've decided to change the wallpaper in the galley area now that we have the overhead lockers down. Carol got a load of new fabrics to make curtains, pelmets & seat cushions and the old wallpaper doesn't match it, so the wallpaper will be changed soon. We picked up some "shag-pile" carpet for the cab area too. So things are starting to progress with the fun part of the restoration now!

My head is full of ideas, especially with the galley. I'd love to rebuild the overhead lockers. Make them bigger and drop the fume extractor down a bit so I could put a combo microwave/grill up over it! but I need to calm down! Stick with the plan, change the ceiling, put the old cabinets back, and wait until a later date to update the cabinets!!
It's an illness I tell you...

That's interesting! Thanks for the info, I didn't know that.

I am the leak chaser!

This ceiling job is taking way longer than I expected! I found another couple of very small leaks and it took a good while to find where the water was getting in.
I think I've got all of the leaks for now.
I have an oil filled heater and a dehumidifier running in the camper now. I'll leave the dehumidifier run for the next few days to dry things out.

I am a bit surprised that the water damage wasn't worse. It's mainly confined to the ceiling. I can't see any signs of water damage to the side walls or the floor of the cab-over.

We had pin-hole corrosion in the aluminium roof skin on the driver side of the cab-over. Probably due to a thick metal plate that was up there for a magnetic CB aerial. This corrosion was the biggest area of concern in the roof. Rain had seeped in and soaked the insulation, causing the ceiling to soften and droop significantly. When I pulled down the ceiling I saw the plywood had rotted too. I had photos but I can't find them.
I pulled out all of the wet plywood and fixed this leak last year and everything dried out fine. Most of the frames were OK, I only had to replace two pieces of 40x40mm frame on either side of the front roof vent:


New plywood patch in the cab-over:


No blisters or soft spots in the walls: Hopefully there is no dampness lurking behind. I may drill a few small inspection holes just to have a look inside the walls. I'm loathed to do this as it looks so good up here.




I spent most of today gluing & screwing the rest of these 40x40mm blocks all around the perimeter of the roof. These are needed to firmly attach the new 6mm marine-ply ceiling:


While I'm at it I've decided to rewire some of the 12v and the 230v electrics. With good access to walls and ceilings at the moment, it's the right time to pull some new wires through and upgrade the electrical system. I want to fit a new mains distribution panel with RCD & MCB's. The present system is not as safe as it should be.

I'm anxious to get this interior stuff finished and get back to working on the engine and fire it up!

Thanks for reminding me about that. Yes, now's the time to think about these things. Camera, rear speakers, solar panel, solar controller, back up sensors. Trying to think of all that before I cover up the walls & Ceilings!
I'll probably put in a few extra spare wires just for future needs. I had a thought last night about recessing some bright red led's into the ceiling over the coffee table in the passenger seating area and kitchen counter area for low level ambient lighting, if driving at night. Not sure if it's worth the effort or not, I don't know how much driving I'd be doing at night.

That's a good idea. Unfortunately the front window is inaccessible at the moment. It's bang up against the front of my shed (about 3 inches from the gutter) and all of the screws are on the outside. But I think you're right, popping it out and resealing it is worth doing as soon as I can get at it. I'll put it on the to-do list.

The sheet of 3mm walnut veneer arrived today. Not exactly the same woodgrain (not surprising) but it's close enough for me. It's going into a fairly inconspicuous area on the back corner of the camper so no biggie.

Needs the right colour stain now.

I gave the sheet a swipe with a damp cloth for the photo and did a bit of colour filtering on the laptop just to have a play... Not bad.

I got most of the 12v wiring done this weekend. I had several rolls of 1.5mm² & 2.5mm² wire that I picked up cheap in a liquidation sale a few years ago and they finally found their purpose!

I've made it so that all of the wires will terminate behind the false wall in the wardrobe. It's an handy place in the camper to act as a distribution point. It's a vented space, so it'll be ideal for the solar controller. I'll also mount a fuse panel there for all the additional 12v stuff I'm fitting. There's a lot of space there so it will probably be a good place to put a WIFi router and all the other techy stuff that we don't want to be looking at from day to day.
The silver coils of wire you see behind the coloured wires are good quality speaker wires that will run directly between the rear speakers and the dashboard radio. I didn't want to have any joins in these wires so they'll run directly from radio to speaker.


I think I've covered just about all of the bases for 12v supply around the camper for now. Including wires to each cabinet and each roof vent. I'm not sure if they'll ever be needed in the vents, but i may fit one of those 12v "fan-tastic" vent's at some point in the future, so now's the time to run the wires.


I slid a piece of steel tubing into each drilled hole to prevent a rogue nail or screw from poking through a wire. I noticed the manufacturer did this on the holes that they drilled in the rafters, so I figured I'd follow suit. You might also notice I've numbered and put a measurement on each rafter to show where the wires are hiding. I took lots of photos... I'm doing my best to avoid torching this camper!


I also ran a video cable and a half dozen spare wires to the back of the camper, above the back window...


...and another bunch of spare wires including an RJ45 cable which will be hidden inside the overhead locker by the main door. The RJ cable could be used for a remote display if I get a suitable type of solar controller. Not sure if the rest of the wires will be needed, but again, handy to have them there just in case.


While poking through the lockers I found a stash of spare parts my dad had bought years ago. Mostly "breakdown parts". Fan belts, pipes, sparkplugs & leads, thermostat, distributor cap & rotor etc etc... But the best thing I found was an unused pair of radiator coolant pipes (upper and lower) which I hadn't gotten around to buying yet. They're slightly different shape to the old ones, but they'll work fine.


There were a few new thermostats in there too. Makes me wonder if there were overheating problems in the past.


I picked up a handy enclosure at my local electrical wholesalers. I was going to use the standard double roof gland (left) but I spotted this other 7 way waterproof IP66 enclosure (on the right) which I figured would be more useful for adding other electrical roof top items in future.

I picked up some 3 core marine grade 2.5mm² cable for the solar panel but I don't think I'll use it. After doing some research on solar wiring, I'll probably use >5mm² grade solar wire and MC4 connectors to minimise the loss from the solar panels.

I managed to break the plastic base on my favourite workshop chair on Sunday morning.
I was lucky that I had a few small heavy duty casters lying around, so I made up a new one. This new 40mm steel base is guaranteed never to break



I still need to run coax cable for TV and new mains cables for the sockets & lights.
No Carpentry this weekend...

I bought myself a wee birthday present last week. While I was "perusing" the tool section in my favourite hardware shop in Cappoquin (Flynns), I came across a moisture meter for €30. I generally don't have much faith in moisture meters (especially the Aldi/Lidl ones) but I decided to give this one a go. I like the quality of the "Faithfull" woodworking tools.

I wanted to check if the damp spots in my roof had dried out after fixing the leaks.

On average the readings on known dry panels was around 10-15%. I believe under 20% is acceptable. Having said that, I don't know how accurate this device is... All I wanted to do was compare the known dry walls (control) against the areas that I knew were wet...

The meter is one of the spiky prong ones, but the areas I was checking were going to be outta sight anyway...


Each area outlined in red is where the roof ladder and luggage racks are screwed down from above. Note the rusty stains. We had a couple of leaks here.


Still a problem here up over the main door:


At least the rear offside corner was ready to fit the 18mm Marine-ply pads. These weren't completely necessary as the original plywood roof was still good, but I figured it'd be better to have some extra reinforcement for the roof ladder and luggage rack up top.


Viewing the same area from outside:
I couldn't secure the ladder and rack with new stainless steel screws until I had the marine-ply pads in place. For the last couple of weeks I've only had some Clear Gorilla Tape covering the holes up on the roof! It was doing a fine job too. That tape is really good stuff, no toolbox should be without a roll of it.



A couple of the screws I removed were very rusty and where these screws were fitted was exactly where the water was dripping in... Despite them being covered over with blobs of silicone and looking very well sealed!

There was some minor corrosion on the aluminium roof skin where the worst of the rusty screws were attached...

Time to shlap on some sikaflex and get the roof hardware screwed down snug.

I also mounted the rear-view camera this weekend. I wanted to test the wiring before putting up the new ceiling inside. I was impressed with the camera. I didn't expect the "night-vision" to be as effective as it is! (I haven't used a backup camera before.) I may paint the camera to blend in a bit with the background. The black stands out a bit too much for me.




I also took the opportunity to treat the exposed timber with some clear wood preservative. I had a 5 litre tin of the stuff from a previous project so I figured it'd be no harm to treat the wood with this anti rot, anti fungus,anti insect product. For Peace of mind if nothing else...

Getting out of my comfort zone!

Picking colours and textures. I've left the responsibility for the interior finishes to my wife Carol. She's good at that kind of stuff. She already picked out the upholstery fabric, bought at a very reasonable price in a Fabric Outlet in Douglas, Cork. I think it was around a fiver per meter which is miles less than we were quoted elsewhere. Looking at the sample board below, the spotted fabric will be used on the seat cushions. The plain fabric for curtains and the mustard fabric for a few loose cushions to "tie it all together" (or so I'm told).
We're going to go with the grey laminate flooring you see in the photos below.

Carol is a curtain maker by trade so I have some very high expectations!!!

My sister has a carpet shop and we got a great deal on some grey deep pile carpet for the cab area. The leftovers will be turned into mats for the living area.

I picked the wall sockets which was enough "interior design input" for me. I tried to find antique bronze wall sockets, but the ones I wanted cost a bloody fortune so I compromised (AKA cheaped out) and went for brushed stainless sockets which will match the fixtures, window frames and other appliances. I want all of the sockets to have integrated USB's. We do have two teens after all!


Carol is going to pick out some bright silver/grey wallpaper for the kitchen over the next few days and we'll crack on with that job as soon as possible. I finished the re-wiring last night and started fitting the insulation up in the roof space. I'm hoping to get the plywood ceiling cut & fitted over the next couple of weeks.

I have an electrician friend coming over next weekend to connect up the distribution board. I could do it myself but for ease of mind I'd prefer if the RCD & MCB's were wired & tested by a tradesman.

I forgot that we had some American friends visiting this weekend so I didn't get much done to the Camper.

I only had a couple of hours free on Saturday morning so I decided to remove the access panel at the back of the fridge and have a look. The pipes were rusty but I couldn't see any tell-tale signs of ammonia leaks so hopefully the cooling unit is still ok. I gave the pipes a quick rub of a wire-brush and put some rust converter on the parts I could get to.

I think the fridge will need to be removed and inspected properly. I'm a bit nervous of gas appliances and the risk of fire with motor-home fridges (especially on older ones), so I will get it checked out by someone that knows what they're doing.

It's a Dometic RM660 3 way fridge (110v, 12v & lpg) so I don't want to think about the costs of having to replace it.

The controller seems to work ok and the lower business end of the fridge looks to be in good shape. The fridge worked on gas when I tested it a few years ago. The igniter and burn tube looked fine when I had a look on Saturday so fingers crossed it'll be ok.

I also discovered a small section of frame with rotten timber (lower right hand side of the opening in the photo). The wood was dry so that leak must've been fixed a long time ago. I'll need to replace that horizontal piece and inspect the lower parts of the wall inside to see if water crept further down into the wall. I'm assuming it has. I gave the inner plywood wall a tap with my hand and it sounded and felt firm so with a bit of luck, the water damage isn't too bad. Removing the fridge will give me access to that area from the inside.



Looking up at the back of the fridge towards the top vent/exhaust. The evaporator fins at the top of the fridge are very rusty.


I also had a change of plan with the ceiling insulation. For two reasons: The first, it was a pain to cut the solid Kingspan foam to fit between the rafters. The rafters weren't all parallel so there was a lot of adjusting & trimming required, especially where I had fitted reinforcement blocks for the roof rack and ladder. Tedious work.
Also, the wires routed through the ceiling rafters created their own problems. I put up maybe a half dozen sections of foam and was just getting on with the misery of custom fitting, when my son popped in to the camper and casually asked me if the insulation would be 'squeaky' when we're driving down the road.
My blood went cold when I tried...


I hate squeaks...

It didn't take me long to change tack!

So, I've decided to fit 50mm rockwool flexi insulation instead.
The rockwool is semi-rigid, but squishy enough to work around the tricky areas and it's very easy to cut with a scissors or a bread knife.

Ho Hum....

I'll fit the kingspan stuff underneath the camper.